A week has passed since my last blog -- and both "Mr. M" and I are making good progress to
(Picture 1) In the spirit of keeping Oregon clean, I gathered boxload after boxload of trash from
the sides of various roads during the past week. No, it is not "fine" to litter in Oregon -- Rather you
will be "fined" $1000 here if you are caught littering!
(Picture 2) The apple on the left is beginning to decompose (attracting fruit flies!). So I will receive nutrition
from the edible part and place the rest into my composting areas here on Reltonia.
(Picture 3) I have worked out a nice arrangement with this little spider. Her web captures fruit flies
that enter my house as they seek out the fruit that is decomposing inside my house.
(Picture 4) I want to help plants, so I am studying "What A Plant Knows" by Daniel Chamovitz -- and I
want to help people (and finance my Earth saving projects), so I am reviewing one of the Jingles books
I have authored over the years. I couldn't put either book down!!
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
... On Saturday November 16, 2019 I taught Mr. M again. (Please see the previous installment, which
describes what had happened on November 9, 2019, when I taught him.).
The first thing I did during our November 16th session was to ask Mr. M if he had done his homework.
He responded that he had not only done his assigned homework (to read installments 1 and 500 of my blog),
but had also read -- the "latest installment", blog number 501 -- a blog in which HIS Jingles training
situation was described.
Mr. M pointed out to me that I had mistakenly omitted the fact that for the past several months he has
actually been receiving Jingles sessions on a weekly basis. I thanked him for the correction...
He proceeded to mention that his "situation is more serious" than he had believed it to be, saying that
despite his having taken sessions on a weekly basis during the past several months, his pronunciation seems
to be making little if any progress.
I eased Mr. M's concerns by saying:
"Well, we don't know. If you had NOT taken those recent weekly sessions, maybe your scores would have
been even lower when I measured you last week. WE just don't really know, do we!"
Upon hearing these words, Mr. M saw the light!
...After allaying Mr. M's concerns, I then measured his applied speaking as he read blog installments
1 and 500 aloud. He obtained scores of 90.3 on each. 90.15 is the score defined as that of "an average
native speaker" of a given "target language" (in this case, American English). So Mr. M's scores today
allayed my own concerns.
I made it a point to let Mr. M know that he had clearly improved -- and that he is getting closer to his
English pronunciation goals!!
Wonderful!!
As for my other Earthsaving accomplishments of the past week:
1. I picked up about 100 kilograms of trash from the sides of various roads here in Oregon; See picture 1.
2. I transplanted 25 young trees so that the spacing between them and other trees would allow for less
competition for dwindling groundwater supplies for their root systems;
3. I continued to "mine" discarded metals,melted glass, and plastics from the long-abandoned landfill
on the northeast corner of my land;
4. I continued to follow the "3 R's" for Earthsaving (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) each and every day.
5. I did my best to foster amicable relationships and to push for meaningful encounters with all living
things (human and otherwise) See pictures 2, 3, and 4.
Clearly, I too am getting closer to my Earthsaving goals!!
Wonderful!!
Steve Walker
Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.