Hi, I'm Dat, a senior Linguistics major at National University of Singapore (NUS). I used to work in collaboration with Dr.张丽萍 (Cheong Lee Peng) to produce audio podcasts for Chinese 1 students (this is a language course offered by Center for Language Studies at NUS). All NUS students have free access to this resource:

http://courseware.nus.edu.sg/clu/Eclassroom/podcast/chinese1/LAC1201.htm

Hope you guys enjoy it !

《六人行》是一部美国拍摄的情景喜剧，展示纽约三男三女六位好友的日常生活。Ross 和 Monica 是生活在纽约的犹太兄妹。Ross 是一位古板的古生物学学者，Monica 是一切事物都要分类整理好的一位厨师长。Chandler 是 Ross 的大学室友和最好朋友，他有很强的幽默感，不过有时缺乏自信。Joey 是意大利一位好心，喜爱食物和女人的演员。Phoebe 的幼时没有她朋友那么幸福。她虽然在街头长大，但是最后成为了一个心地善良的人，一只蚂蚁也不敢杀，如今是一位按摩师。Rachel 本来是被宠坏了的富家女孩，后来为了要独立地生活得去当咖啡店侍女，她最后在时尚界工作。他们六个人是好朋友，每天都互相分享自己生活的点点滴滴。在这部喜剧的结尾，Ross 跟 Rachel，Chandler 跟 Monica 分别结婚，从此过上了幸福的生活。

这部喜剧最大的特点就是它的幽默感。我敢肯定你看每集的时候一定会捧腹大笑。他们演出时把自身和剧中的角色融为一体，以致很多人经常混淆他们的真实身份。世界各地有数百万的观众看这部喜剧，它在世界上拥有第四多的观众数。《六人行》典型地描绘了多数美国人的生活。它虽然有点儿夸大美国人的日常生活，但是确实是一个电视史的杰作。

《六人行》虽然只是一种情景喜剧，但是许多心理学家研究发现它对世界各地的文化产生了深远的影响。比如说，很多人都模仿 Rachel 的发型。

Joey 的口头禅“How you doin’?”成为西方流行的俚语，经常被人们用来问候朋友。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43wkqM27z2E

“Central-Perk”是这部喜剧的主要场景。这个咖啡店的装饰在全世界得到了广泛的模仿。世界各地有不少咖啡馆有着和它相同的布局。

总的来说,《六人行》是关于爱情，男女关系，职业，一段在你生命中一切皆有可能的时光。它也是关于人与人之间的友谊，因为当你一个人在城市生活时，你的朋友就是你的亲人。

Sarah Jones as a one-woman global village Video on TED.com

越南，对我很亲切的两个字，是我的故乡。她是中国南边的一个小国家。虽然越南比中国小，但是有不少知名的地方。“大叻”，越南南方的一个高原城市，是个非常有名的旅游景点。四年前，我跟我们班同学去参观了大叻。现在我想简单地给你们介绍一下 “大叻”。

“大叻”常常被认为是一个小巴黎，可能是因为它有高原寒冷的夜晚，清晨的雾和包围这个城市的落叶松林。大叻地处海拔 1500 米,所以那儿的天气全年都很清凉，平均气温是 18 到 21 度。人们喜欢夏天到大叻旅游因为他们可以暂时忘记越南夏天的炎热。大叻最有名的地方是 Prenn 瀑布，爱情谷和 Lang Biang 山。

Prenn 离大叻的中心 10 公里远。它是一个自然瀑布，下边有一座桥，游客可以沿桥观光或者在湖上划船，享受四周美丽的风景。

(Prenn 瀑布)

（我班同学在湖上划船）

离市中心不远的东边就是“爱情谷”，是大叻地区最浪漫的景点，所以情人们喜欢到这里漫步和谈话。以前法国人把它称之为 “Vallée d'Amour ”，然后它的名字被改成 “和平谷”，最后又变回“爱情谷”，它本来的名字。从高处看下去，它看起来好像一幅生动的图片。

（爱情谷）

到大叻旅游非到 Lang Biang 山不可。这座山被认为是大叻的屋顶，它离海平面 2000 多米，是大叻的一大著名旅游景点。这座山的名字源于一个悲伤的爱情故事。清晨的时候雾很浓，所以山上什么都看不到。只有太阳出来之后，人才可以看到周围的景色。

（我的班级合影）

（Lang Biang山顶 - K’lang 和 Hơbiang 的雕像）

（清晨的浓雾）

（太阳出来的时候）

（一些随机的照片）

越南的夏天是最热的时候，所以也是大叻旅客最多的时候。我很长时间没有重游大叻这个美丽的高原成市。大叻对我很特别，因为我觉得那次旅行开阔了我的眼界。那次旅行不但让我感受了大叻的清凉, 而且让我见识到一些有趣的原住民文化。

Below are sketches of the main characters for our story book:

"The Petal's Love"

Little ELVIN

Mummy ORDELIA

ELVIN & LOUIS

Granny ROSALIA

Mr. WINDY

Mr. BIRDIE

This is snapshots of our storybook, I hope you enjoy it! :)

Once upon a time in a faraway land,

Nature’s Blossom the fairies’ den.

Where fairies of all sizes come together

To make the world a little better.

In a tiny cottage that is most charming,

Lived little Elvin who loved singing,

Mummy Ordelia likes to make chocolate,

Granny Rosalia likes to keep quiet.

Elvin loves Mummy Ordelia the most,

Because every morning she would make him French toast.

For him she would cook, she would boil and bake

Even make him his favourite kind of cake.

Louis was next in the line.

The dearest friend Elvin could find.

Flying together from one place to another,

They would play and sometimes race each other.

Elvin and Louis go to LilyBell Music School,

Where they gather with the birds by the pool.

Creating music with their magical wands,

They played from evening all the way till dawn.

But Elvin loves Granny Rosalia the least.

She always looks sad, and never looks pleased.

Sitting on her mushroom everyday

Elvin wouldn’t dare to ask Granny to play.

One day, Elvin found out with glee,

That the magical music festival would be.

Hosted in nature’s blossom soon

And he had been chosen to sing a tune.

Elvin had not used his wand before

To make music for fairies whom he didn’t know.

He was so excited to be performing,

So he told everyone whom he met that morning.

Looking around his room the next day,

Elvin saw a flower petal, there it lay.

And in that week every morning to come,

There was a petal just like the very first one.

Elvin was thankful and Elvin was pleased,

So he went to Mr Birdie’s home in the trees.

“Thank you very much Mr Birdie” said he.

But Mr Birdie told Elvin “the gifts aren’t from me”.

“Then it must be Mr Windy” thought Elvin.

So he went to his home in the hills to find him.

“Thank you very much Mr Windy” said he.

But Mr Windy told Elvin “the gifts aren’t from me”.

“Then it must be my friend Louis” thought Elvin.

So he went to Lilybell Music School to find him.

“Thank you very much Louis” said he.

But Louis told Elvin “the gifts aren’t from me”.

While Elvin performed his favorite song,

He saw Granny dragging a petal along.

How could it have been Granny all this time?

How could Granny have been so kind?

So Elvin found Granny after the show,

And asked her what he wanted to know.

Granny just looked at Elvin and smiled.

Then said “did you like the flower my child?”

“I want you to know that I’m proud of you”

“And the flower represents my love so true”

“The flower was too heavy to carry alone, son”

“That is why I gave you petals one by one”

Elvin cried and hugged Granny tight,

And then he promised the stars that night.

That from then on he would love Granny Rosalia,

As much as he loved Louis and Mommy Ordelia.

Today we learnt about Typography, the arranging of typeface (i.e. letter forms, symbols, numbers) on a page to maximize readability, impact and artistic impression.

There are 5 classes of typeface introduced in class, but the most 2 frequently used are serif and san-serif. We also learnt their usage in design, in which serif is more suitable for print (i.e. books), and san-serif is better for low-resolution applications like computer screen, television, mobile phone screen, PDA, etc.

Typeface was then discussed in more details in terms of its components (i.e. font, size, line length, kerning, etc.)

Layout and grids are also a significant component in any design. Any design pieces without careful grid or layout planning will result in an arbitrary and messy look, thus making it hard for the reader / viewer to follow.

Dr.Julian ended the lecture with some announcements for the final project (Children's Story Book) and individual portfolio.

For this assignment, I am required to design a postcard that conveys the theme "Music Festival". The aim of this assignment is to experiment with colors, which is why I cannot use photographs.

I have a keen interest in "Classical Music", so I decided to create a postcard with an elegant look. Through out the design process, I have come up with a variety of prototypes. Below is my first draft:

My idea is to have a giant violin or cello as the main element that invokes a feeling of a Classical Concert since this kind of instrument is closely associated with classical music. The white dots represent the stars and the black background is the sky at night, the rainbow with musical notes coming out of the cello resembles the melody. The reason for using rainbow is because the concert is meant to be melodically colorful and enjoyable. Moreover, I want the cello to have glowing effect, so that blurred its outline, but it turned out rather blurry instead of glowing, this idea therefore did not work out as intended.

I used Scriptina as the font for the title and the floral curves at the bottom, both of which give the postcard an elegant feel. Also, it seems that the floral curves are supporting the cello... :)

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Feedback from class:

- The stars look like snow.

- The title font looks too thin.

- They also commented on the problem of making the cello look glowing because it does not.

- Many have mentioned that the rainbow looks somewhat unconnected with the musical theme, and made it look less elegant (I'm glad that they realized the postcard's theme is elegant since this is my intention), but some liked my idea of using rainbow and argued with the same rationale I showed above.

Below is my second draft, with a change in the rainbow's direction. In addition, I added information regarding the time and venue for the event, together with the songs that were going to be performed. My idea is to put the song names in the rainbow and it makes sense since the rainbow represents music. Also, I increased the stroke of the title so that it is more visible.

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Feedback from tutor:

- Event venue and time, song names and musical notes can be reduced to make the work look less heavy.

- Event venue and time can be included on the back of the postcard.

- Since the postcard is in portrait, I can also rotate the back into portrait as it will be easier to view.'

- I can rework on stars and make them have more edges since the sky idea is nice.

This has guided me to come up with the third draft below:

Initially, this was my final prototype for the postcard since the red color in the rainbow looks nice, but after printing several times the work still did not have the same color as shown on screen, so I had to abandon it and choose another one from my color schemes, below is my FINAL PROTOTYPE for submission, the color scheme for this is TETRAD:

Below are my 9 color schemes that I experimented, these are among the best I have: