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Hello, I am an ESL teacher in Suseong-gu, Daegu, Korea. Making technical language easier to read is something I like to do. I really want to make easier articles on linguistics, economics, biology, and geography. I hope to help make articles here better, and to simplify articles from the English Wikipedia. You can see my contributions here
Projects
changeThese are my projects/to-do list. I won't do all of these, but there's a lot that needs to be done. I like to have the choice of what I will work on.
Some of these I might try to find or start the wikiprojects for, but for now, this is just for me, though you're welcome to help. Also, if you have any requests regarding science and technology, ask on my talk page, and I will add them to my list.
Project: Economic development
changePages that need to be started
change- Least developed country
- Emerging markets
- G8+5
- G20 industrial nations
- G20 developing nations
- Flying Geese Paradigm
- Tiger Cub economies
- Visa Waiver Program
- Alternative currency
Pages I made that need to be made better
change- Four Asian Tigers
- BRIC (also need to fold in information about South Africa, and Mexico [1])
- Non-aligned movement
- Economic development
- Newly industrialized country
Other pages that need to be made better
change- Human Development Index *
- OECD *
- Next Eleven *
- Developing country * (as an IP)
- Developed country
An asterisk (*) means I've done some work on this already, but need to do more.
Project: New England
changePages that need to be started
changePages that need to be made better
change- New England
- (All New England States)
Project: Near East/Middle East/Mediterranean
changePages that need to be started
change- Caucasian_Albania
- Arab Spring
- 2011 Syrian Uprising
- 2011 Yemeni Uprising
- 2011 Bahraini Uprising
- 2011 Egyptian Revolution
- Jasmine Revolution
- Iranian Green Movement
Pages that need to be made better
change
Project: South Korea
changePages that need to be started
change- (Almost all of South Korea's provinces)
- Asian dust
Pages that need to be made better
changeProject: Awesome Music
changePages that need to be made
change- Cover song
- Musical standard (Standard (music)
- The Day the Music Died
- Billboard Top 40
- Billboard Top 100
- Western music
- Trot
- Windham Hill Records
- Tom Petty
- Dwight Yoakam
- Jackson Browne
- Allen Toussaint
- Bob Seger
- Lefty Frizzell
- Sonny Terry
- Brownie McGhee
- Cisco Houston
- Fairport Convention
- Richard Thompson
- Steeleye Span
- Jonathan Edwards (musician)
- Carl Perkins
- Dennis Day
- Del Shannon
- Steve Earle
- Erin McKeown
- Gene Autry
- Don WIlliams
- Don Edwards (musician)
- Sons of the San Joaquim
- Ry Cooder
- Kathy Mattea
- Moody Blues
- Steve Winwood
Pages I made(*) or rewrote that still need to be made better
changeOther pages that need to be made better
change- Johnny Cash
- Dire Straits
- Waylon Jennings
- Chuck Berry
- Fats Domino
- Bruce Springsteen
- Joan Baez
- The Byrds
- Neil Diamond
- The Eagles
- The Band
- Billy Bragg
- Buddy Holly
- Johnny Rivers
- Jethro Tull (band) (I'd also make this the main JT article. It's what most people will be looking for.)
- Willie Nelson
- Kris Kristofferson
Pages that are actually pretty good already
changeMel Brooks
changeAKA: The greatest filmmaker ever.
Linguistics
changePages that need to be started
changePages that need to be made better
change- Language isolate (and many language isolates)
- Linguistics
Other
change- Hanlon's Razor
- Clarke's three laws
- (All of Malaysia's provinces)
Difficulty of English words (For Korean children)
changeI have also been making notes of what words my students at different levels do and don't know. Many of these students speak English well, but don't have a lot of fairly simple vocabulary. I will try to collect these. Many of these are basic terms, but I will note alternatives when possible.
Please remember that Korean children will be different from other ESL students. For example: there is a good reason the most basic-level students know "stressed" here.
Advanced students may find these terms difficult
changeSome of these words are obviously difficult, but I use them in vocabulary games to teach new words.
- allow (someone) to = let
- disrespectful = rude
- feed = give food to (many of my students know feed, but claim it's a bad word to use for people)
- gain = get
- hope = want
- lack = don't have
- mend = fix
- permit (someone) to = let
- receive = get
- rend = tear
- accept
- refuse
- show
High Intermediate students may find these terms difficult
changeThese terms are not avoidable, they synonyms are usually harder.
- suppose = think
- ought to = should
- fear
- worry
Low Intermediate students may find these terms difficult
changeThese terms are basic English terms. We can avoid some of them, but might not have to.
- things
- stuff
- above = over
- below = under
- correct = right
High Beginner students may find these terms difficult
changeThese terms cannot and should not be avoided in the simple English Wikipedia (they're mostly problems with grammar) but I include them for reference.
- either
- neither
- it depends
- different from
- the same as
- before
- after
- give
- tell
Grammatical structures to avoid if possible
change- perfect tenses
- passive voice
Terms that most students I teach know
changeverbs
- forget
- get
- learn
- remember
- teach
nouns
- cellphone
- chair
- computer
- desk
- internet
- TV
- air conditioner/aircon (but not "AC"
- sofa (but not "couch")
adjectives
- angry
- hungry
- sad
- tired
- stressed (I think there's a reason Koreans know this one)