Unbalanced Vision

The U. of Maryland hopes to outreach families and teachers who might know or have contact to English/Chinese Mandarin bilingual children who stutter, and invite them to participate in our study.
The study focuses on Chinese/English bilingual children who stutter. So far, very few studies have done so, and we clearly need more knowledge to back us up while providing intervention for Chinese or Chinese/English speaking children who stutter. Your help would mean a great deal to us, and we appreciate any assistance in reaching these families and children. For participants, we will provide parent consultation and welcome any discussion of childhood stuttering, and a small token present will be provided to the child. Families do not need to visit the university. We will mail consent forms, instructions, and materials of the study, available both in English and in Chinese.
I have attached both English and Chinese versions of the recruitment announcement. Please feel free to share this information with all the Chinese families and friends. Also, please contact me if you have any questions. Thank you.

Download file

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PS. Out of boredom, I clicked on all the options I didn't choose the first time, and it turned out that Rachel-the-opposite also has a B+ personality--what sort of rubbish personality test is this!? Another possible explanation is that we live in a world of clones where everybody reacts the same way. If your result is different, give me a shout.

It was nice to see you at my birthday drinks last night. I remember having lots of glasses of Cosmopolitans, plus a cup of instant soup made at the bar. I also remember talking about people who feed cats, introducing you all to each other and saying that you are each very talented, wearing L or Z's scooter helmet, putting on J's earrings, calling dried pork a 'dried penis', offering fries to various people, hugging people and then throwing up. I don't think I will touch alcohol for some time.

Election
Hustle and Flow
The Death of Mr Lazarescu
Of Love and Eggs
Wrong Side Up

These are the movies HY and I saw at this year's LFF--he picked the first two, I chose the other three. I would have wanted to watch more, but time forbids such celluloid indulgence, and the organisers tend to write attractive blurbs, when in reality the piece turns out to be a complete disaster you'd think you threw £10 down the drain. After seeing Election and Hustle and Flow, which were both very entertaining and moved in an acceptable tempo, I felt kind of worried about my picks. However, the last three movies though not having the storyline, cultural background and humor that one would expect in a Hollywood film, they were indeed interesting pieces. Mr Lazarescu's long and strenous journey to get a decent operation made death appear like an injection of relief, though sadly, death never really took place at the end of the film. The eccentric Czech airport worker in Wrong Side Up displayed a subtle and quiet sense of humor that made me laugh. As for Of Love and Eggs, it was moving to see a small Indonesian community waiting the arrival of the dome to be added on their mosque, a spiritual feeling I can only experience from a distance. HY asked me which one would I consider the best. I thought Election, Hustle and Flow and Wrong Side Up were on top of my list, yet H was a feel-good, mainstream American movie with no surprises, and the ending of W was a bit of a drag; this leaves unsurprisingly with E. Especially when the sexy Ren Da Hua says calmly to his son, 'Let's go home', and then the familiar tune of Canto pop unfolds, I suddenly realised that no matter how many different cultures we are exposed to, at the end of the day, a Chinese would like to sit on the couch, sip a glass of pearl milk tea, have a bowl of congee and watch good-looking HK triads kill the hell out of each other. And what a great feeling that is.

Thank you, earthlings, for leaving messages and uploading your mug shots--it makes me want to visit you all! By the way, Frappr! does indicate where you are on the map, it's just that my Opera web browser does not display such things.

Please leave a message + a photo.
(PS. I know this site is a bit gay; I thought it was one of those on-line message boards when a small mark is left on the map to indicate where in the world you are located.)