Table of Contents

1. The Primacy of Input
2. Vocabulary over Grammar
3. Learning in Chunks
4. Better Tutors on the Internet
5. Meaningful Communication
6. Motivation and Enjoyment
7. Efficiency

English is the dominant language of the Internet. The Internet will in turn become the dominant place to learn English. The way languages are learned is changing, and these changes are accelerating.

The Internet is constantly evolving. It has created a dynamic environment for the communication and the management of information. The Internet has brought with it new forms of social interaction without boundaries. Technologies like MP3, iPod, Skype and PDAs, as well as blogs and podcasts, are making an immense variety of communication, information, literature, news and other language content available anywhere and anytime. A cascade of developments is causing interactive communities to spring up based on common interests, without regard to geography. This is going to stand traditional language learning on its head. English dominates on the Internet in areas ranging from entertainment to science. If you want to learn English, this represents an unprecedented opportunity.

You can access English language content on any subject and learn from it. You can connect with English speaking people who share your interests. You can do this via e-mail, through blogs, podcasts and forums. You can link up with friends or even language tutors using free Internet telephony. The World Wide Web is the ultimate dynamic classroom and learning community.

Over the next few years the Internet will take over from the classroom as the place of choice to learn English: Here are some of the reasons.

The Primacy of Input

If you want to learn English or any other language, you need input, meaningful, interesting and at your level. Today language learning experts emphasize input over output, listening and reading over grammar study. Before you can use the language, you must get used to the language. You don’t need to be in a hurry to speak English, and you don’t need to speak it all the time to improve.

“Real language acquisition develops slowly, and speaking skills emerge significantly later than listening skills, even when conditions are perfect. The best methods are therefore those that supply ‘comprehensible input’ in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are ‘ready’, recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production.” Stephen Krashen.

When you learned your own language as a child, you didn’t begin by speaking. You began by listening. New language learners can benefit from a “silent period”. During the “silent period” you can absorb the language. You need not force yourself to speak it until you are confident. Even if you are an intermediate learner, extensive reading and listening will increase your familiarity with the language, enrich your vocabulary, and develop confidence. This is more beneficial than studying grammar.

While listening and reading often and regularly are vital, the content must be meaningful. Learning content should be interesting and comprehensible to you. This means that you, not the teacher, should choose what to learn from. The Internet allows unlimited choice of fascinating authentic content. The traditional textbook cannot compete.

Motivated learners used to spend their time in book stores looking for graded content that would help them in their language studies. Yet, inevitably a lot of this material could only be found in uninteresting textbooks and readers. But today authentic content on a variety of subjects is only a click away. This is especially the case for the person who wants to learn English.

This range of material is made accessible to learners, since new systems can grade it for difficulty in a way that is customized to your specific vocabulary. You can learn English by listening to and reading on subjects that interest you and you won’t find it too difficult.

Vocabulary over Grammar

In order to achieve fluency in English you need to be comfortable using at least 10,000 words. On the Internet, you can choose appropriate content to listen to and read. The content can be graded to your level. But what about learning and remembering all those new words. We know how quickly we forget words when we look them up in a dictionary. And there are so many words to learn. Fortunately, the Internet makes it a lot easier to learn vocabulary.

On the Internet you can use online dictionaries to look up words instantly (i.e., Babylon). There are learning software programs which create customized word lists for you as you learn words. This software can help you accumulate example sentences for these words from the familiar contexts you are listening to and reading. You can set vocabulary goals and follow your progress towards these goals.

The Internet helps you to efficiently accumulate vocabulary based on lively and interesting language content, customized to your needs. This combination of vocabulary learning efficiency and limitless content is only part of why the Internet will become the place of choice to learn English.

Learning in Chunks

Vocabulary does not only mean words. It also means phrases, or chunks of words. Phrases are groups of words that come together in a way that is natural to the native speaker but not always to the learner. Michael Lewis has been one of the pioneers in pointing out that you learn language in chunks, or lexical phrases. The Internet and the computer make this easier.

On the computer, you can grab language chunks as you are listening and reading and collect them in an easy to use database. Phrases and chunks of the language can be linked to larger contexts, which are already familiar to you. You don’t need to rely on dictionary definitions and rote memory. You can review these chunks of language in short fragment form, in sentence form and as part of a larger context that you can listen to and read many times.

In this way you gradually develop an instinctive sense for how words are used. This is the natural way to learn correct usage. It is more effective than trying to remember and apply grammar rules.

As you build up your confidence in English through regular input and word and phrase learning, you will no doubt want to talk to native speakers. Once again the Internet is the ideal environment, offering more opportunities than the classroom.

Better Tutors on the Internet

The Internet connects people who are looking for each other. A quick search on a few professional web sites will locate native English speaker writers, editors, or professionals from all over the world, who are interested in acting as language tutors and coaches. If you want to learn English, you can interact with this outstanding pool of qualified people with a wide range of experience and knowledge.

You do not need teachers with specialized linguistics degrees if you want to learn English on the Internet. The new learning paradigm does not require teachers who are trained in the details of grammar and language teaching. Instead the important qualifications for a tutor on the Internet are; an interest in people, an ability to use one’s native language well, and rich experience to share with learners in English.

On the Internet you can choose the tutor whose accent and interests match your own.

Meaningful Communication

Technologies like Skype make conversations via computer easy to organize and the communication is free of charge. You can get your friends together for a chat or make an appointment with a tutor.

It is like having lessons on demand. You can schedule one-on-one or four-on-one discussions via Skype with the tutor of your choice. You can invite your friends to join, or make new friends from different countries and cultures. Tutors need only provide advice and encouragement as well as feedback, at your convenience. There is no need for grammar instruction or quizzes, since you are learning the language naturally through your input activities.

In the relaxing atmosphere of Internet online discussion, learners and tutors become friends and form a community of people helping and encouraging each other. These are not stressful lessons. They are pleasant opportunities to communicate. You can record these conversations or produce your own oral essays and file them or share them. In this way you can keep track of your progress as you learn English on the Internet.

To really improve your accuracy of expression it is important to write. The correction of written texts can be efficiently organized on the Internet and integrated with your input and speaking activities. Systems can keep a permanent record of both your original texts and the corrected texts. These records can include details on the nature of your mistakes and the tutor’s notes. Tutors can make audio recordings of your corrected writing for you to listen to, in order to reinforce the learning of the corrected phrases. The writing can range from casual writing for a blog to serious academic essays.

Motivation and Enjoyment

Learning on the Internet is effective because it is fun. The Internet avoids the tension and boredom of the classroom and increases your motivation. You choose the content, vocabulary is easy to learn, progress is constantly measured, and you become part of a community.

There are already blogging communities with learners and tutors sharing their experiences. People come together from all over the world to help each other. Bloggers may post in their own language, or in English. English becomes the medium of communication among people of different cultural backgrounds. Blogging isn’t an assignment, but a genuine, enjoyable, and meaningful activity. A contagious enthusiasm will keep you learning. It is not like studying. It’s more like making new friends and discovering new cultures through language.

Efficiency

The Internet introduces a higher level of efficiency in language learning. Efficiency is essential because it creates intensity. It takes a high degree of intensity to transform yourself into a fluent speaker of another language.

There is also another reason why efficiency is important. You have a right to a decent return on your investment of time and money in language learning. If you want to learn English, efficiency is important, yet it is often ignored in traditional language teaching.

“I spent over 14 months studying English in a school. It was a waste of money for Canadian government and a waste of time for me.” Humberto Soto, a recent immigrant to Canada.

Traditional classroom methods are not as efficient as the Internet. It is difficult to cater to learners of different levels and interests. Stress and boredom are often the results. Many people are discouraged by their school experience, and end up convinced that they cannot learn to be fluent in a new language. They lose interest and give up.

For people who want to learn English, the Internet opens up a new world of efficient and satisfying language learning. The Internet makes possible a quality and variety of input that far exceeds the resources of a traditional classroom. Learning methodologies and communication opportunities are available to you on the Internet that the classroom cannot match. Goals can be set and achievements measured. The result is a highly integrated and enjoyable learning environment.

This new method of learning appeals to all ages. While youngsters and students are the most avid users of the Internet, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation 70% of Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 use the Internet! Similar trends are being seen in Europe and Asia.

Note: A printable version (PDF) and a podcast (MP3) are available on our website.

circumstances will also change, so the most reliable way of finding a better offer is by applying for a range of new quotes.

Car insurance quotes are rarely the final rate. Insurance for your car can be less costly be researching the available discounts that are available based on your lifestyle and driving history. Car insurance quotes are only as good as the information upon which they were calculated. It’s important that the information you use to obtain your quote is the same information the car insurance company will use when writing your policy.

Free online car insurance quote saves you from all the hassles of roving from one shop to another in search of quotes. Free insurance quotes are now just a click away. Whatever state you are in, you will be given auto insurance quotations immediately from various insurance companies that offer the best available rates for your needs.

Online quotes will differentiate our pricing at reasonable low rates from all other online insurance companies. Online car insurance quotes are a great place to start comparing insurance companies. You can get free car insurance quotes from most companies these days because car insurance companies want to let you know how cheaply you can have their services.

Prices can vary wildly from one insurer to another. Thank goodness for free car insurance quotes! Price comparison sites dealing in car insurance quotes are the ideal platforms for picking up the best vehicle insurance quotes.

Auto insurance is something that everyone in America is required to have. Unfortunately, it can be expensive, and no one likes having to pay a lot of money for a policy. Auto insurance is required by law to drive your vehicle. Finding cheap automobile insurance isn’t easy.

Auto insurance can offer you a high interest rate provided you want to go for some additional assignments like adding your teen or other family members to the existing auto insurance. In this regard free auto insurance quotes can to offer you a wide range of selection for auto insurance agencies. Your vehicle is barely insecure when it has not been insured; nobody knows what happens next in today’s flying world. Autos coverage online basically concerns what you’re ready to pay out of your budget versus the aspects you need the insurance firm to assume responsibility for. Make sure that you have the prerequisite devices for your safety by using your seatbelt and making sure that your airbags work.

Auto insurance pricing is determined on a number of factors, including the driver’s record, place of residence, and the vehicle driven. It’s not hard to understand that people who drive recklessly are charged higher premiums than a person with a clean record, but it’s almost considered unfair that people who live in dangerous areas are charged higher premiums even when their record is spotless. Hence, it is important that one understands the details of the procedures in car insurance.

Discounts can come from a variety of sources, anything from your profession to your membership in a professional organizations can give you a discount. If you combine your homeowners/renters insurance with your car insurance, by insuring them with the same company, you may qualify on a discount on one or both policies.

Generally, a female between the ages of 18 and 25 is not going to have to pay as much for her insurance as a male of the same age with the exact same variables. The insurance companies have discovered that female drivers do not have as many accidents, speeding tickets, or any other sort of moving violation as a male in the exact same age range generally the cheapest car insurance quotes are found online because providers save money by doing business on the internet with reduced overheads. They also offer their best deals to new customers and offer sizable discounts.

Internet is the best place to shop for car insurance as it will give you variety of quotes from a single website and hundreds of prices if you work a bit harder to visit more websites. Here you want a car insurance policy keeping two important factors in mind. Internet is used as the primary sales channel and that is why, a person can easily get the updated car insurance quotes all the time.

Compare cheap auto insurance quotes, cheap auto insurance rates and cheap auto insurance coverage information and get affordable auto insurance online. Are you wondering if there’s really any point to comparing auto insurance quotes? What’s wrong with the price you are paying now from your current carrier?

Ask for quotes on towing, comprehensive collision, rental cover, personal injury protection, full-glass, and medical. In addition, check into coverage options for uninsured motorists. Ask your agent to make sure you’re comparing apples to apples, and especially to address how his or her company could at least match the quotes from the other companies.

Check the company out to make sure, they are financially stable and have no outstanding Better Business Bureau complaints against them. Also, get a good idea of how to file a claim and what the process is, since they will not have a traditional brick and mortar building in your location. Check insurance premiums with 2 companies every year not just the first time you insure. It’s a fact of life that things change and insurers take advantage of loyal customers.

Three scenes in Curtis Choy’s documentary film What’s Wrong With Frank Chin? surely will give anyone pause. The first of these occurs when the camera slowly pans over Chin’s boxes of files on data he’s collected about every Chinese-American actor who’s ever played a role in a Hollywood film. In the second, authentic footage of Chin’s 1970s wedding to the writer and illustrator Kathleen Chang shows the couple, as well as the poet Lawson Inada (acting as the preacher, equipped with a “$1 license to marry people”), wearing elaborate, traditional masks that Chin himself made, and shows Chin reading an account of Chinese railroad workers on the Union-Pacific as part of the ceremony. (This is one of Chin’s consistent themes – perhaps the best of all his works is an American Book Award winning collection of stories called The Chinaman Pacific & Frisco RR Co). In the third, Chin rails at his opposition in a meeting on the question of redress for Japanese Americans (Chin was largely responsible for the US government granting the redress, and for the day many Japanese-Americans now celebrate as Remembrance Day). Whether one agrees with Chin or not – and there appear to be many Japanese-Americans who don’t – it’s hard not to be moved by the urgency of his conviction. The guy is absolutely on fire as he makes his arguments. And when he says he went back and researched a speech given by an army colonel in 1943 (this was all before the internet!) we understand that this is a man who is absolutely driven in a way that very few of us are. This is evidently the same kind of passion he shows when he speaks to audiences with his relentless pounding of writers like Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston – what he calls “the fake”. In his novel Donald Duk the protagonist, twelve year old Donald, is an example of a young “fake” – he wants to turn his back on his Chinese heritage and assimilate totally. For Chin, assimilation, or what he believes American society regards as assimilation, is tantamount to a crime. Donald Duk reiterates the themes expressed in the three vivid scenes from the film that we noted above, and it also marks a shift in Chin’s tone from the one of polemics and even hostility that was found in the book of stories and in the plays which first gained him notoriety on the literary and cultural scene. This novel is more playful, more kidding, more of an invitation to the reader to consider the points and ponder as opposed to the early works which bludgeon the reader over the head with his or her own ignorance, prejudice, and stupidity.

It’s Chinatown in San Francisco, the present (1990 or so), and it’s the start of the celebration of Chinese New Year. Donald is approaching his twelfth birthday, an occasion of moment because there are twelve years in the Asian lunar zodiac; he is thus completing his first cycle of life. But Donald has the thought that “Everything Chinese in his life seems to be awful.” He describes himself as American to anyone who asks, refusing to acknowledge the obvious fact that he is of Chinese background. The way he eventually begins to come around is via the dreams he has throughout the novel – he dreams he’s a worker on the railroad. When the Golden Spike ceremony is planned, when it becomes known that not only the governor of California but photographers from all over the world will be present, one railroad boss repugnantly comments:

“I promise you, Mr. Durant, there will not be a heathen in sight at tomorrow’s ceremonies… The Last Spike will be hammered home, the telegram sent, our photograph made to preserve a great moment in our nation’s history, without the Chinese. Admire and respect them as I do.I will show them who built the railroad. White men. White dreams. Whitebrains and white brawn.”

As a result of witnessing these events in his dreams Donald begins to change, to be interested in embracing his heritage and his race. Towards the end of the book he has this conversation with his father:

“The Chinese. The Chinamans who built the railroad. I dream I’m laying track with them when I sleep, and nobody knows what we did. Nobody, just me. And I don’t want to be the only one who knows,and it makes me mad to be the only one who knows, and everything I dream makes me mad at white people and hate them. They lie about us all the time.”

“No, don’t hate all the white people. Just the liars,” Dad says.

In the movie Chin speaks very eloquently of the dreadful way the whites made certain that no Chinese appeared in any of the railroad photographs. And contemporary historians’ accounts certainly back Chin up, particularly H.W. Brands in The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream and Stephen E. Ambrose in Nothing Like It In The World: The Men Who Built The Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869. Ambrose actually studied Chinese-English phrase books from 1867. He notes that the phrases “How are you?” and “Thank you” are not in any of them.

Essentially the novel only has this one theme, overcoming the denial of one’s roots and racial identity in favor of being ‘American’, but as in all of Chin’s writing – this is especially true of the long novel Gunga Din Highway – it’s an undeniable fact that Chin himself is American to the core, so steeped in American culture, folklore and, most particularly, the movies, that one has to wonder if he is not one of the most shining examples of true multiculturalism (he would despise the term) that we have.

So – if the book is somewhat limited thematically, what can readers extract from it to learn and enjoy? In a word, fun! Donald’s journey from being a self-hater who accepts negative white attitudes about Chinese-Americans to a proud Chinese-American has him cross paths with quite a few interesting characters along the way, not the least of which is his family. His father, King Duk, owns one of the best restaurants in Chinatown. His namesake Uncle Donald is a Cantonese opera star who is in for a visit. Mom is supportive and often trying to keep a handle on Donald’s twin sisters, Venus and Penelope, who are cute literary creations, often speaking as if they are commentators instead of participants. (The sense of play and fun Chin has with this is palpable.) Crawdad Man and his son, Crawdad Jr., a Vietnam vet named Victor Lee, a pair of old twins who haunt the streets of Chinatown at night, the Frog Twins, and a dancing teacher who bills himself as the Chinese Fred Astaire round out the cast. Each exists within the structure of the fiction to reinforce the main lesson to Donald in a situation that is usually humorous. I think this is the sign of a really developed intelligence – using humor to make a deadly serious point. And because Chin insists on bewildering the non-Chinese reader at first by including customs and traditions of the culture in the story without explaining them, he involves the reader in experiencing how the white power structure has humiliated and degraded his people since the days of the railroads. This kind of thing is always a fine line – I’m not sure that the non-Chinese, the non-Indian, the non-African American, can always empathize. Sympathize, yes, but empathy is hard, sort of like a male trying to understand what it’s like to be pregnant. Chin gives it a great effort.

In closing I should like to comment briefly on what I perceive to be both intensity and integrity of purpose on Chin’s part. I sometimes read that Chin’s attacks upon some other writers really have their roots in malice, or jealousy. This claim is mistaken. Certainly Chin’s books don’t sell in the numbers that Tan’s or Kingston’s do; however, we need not even argue the point intellectually to rebut it. All we need to know is that a top Hollywood director, Wayne Wang, has approached Chin about filming his play The Year of the Dragon, and Chin rejected the idea on the grounds that he didn’t want Hollywood messing with his story. This rejection of potentially millions of dollars in royalties is not the action of someone who lacks belief in themselves – Chin practices what he preaches. So his integrity is intact. So is his intensity. At the outset I mentioned Chin’s collections of files on Asian American actors. The reason that this came into being is that, incredibly, no Asian-American actor has ever played Charlie Chan in the movies. Chin’s long novel Gunga Din Highway is about this ridiculous, apalling state of affairs and, in it, his research about the actors is put to full use. This research was truly a massive scholarly project, as a reading of the novel amply demonstrates. Nobody would ever label this “fake” – again, Chin’s intensity is also intact. Whatever Chin’s merits or demerits may be, love him or hate him, he’s the rarest kind of author of imaginative literature, someone who truly leaves his impact upon the times.

Price

The main reason for sourcing direct from China will inevitably be price. There is however no certainty that the suppliers marketing directly to end users in Europe and the US will be offering the best prices as these will be adjusted to fit to the market. Often a broker, with better buying power and bigger volumes, will be able to offer prices equivalent or sometimes better than the prices a Chinese supplier will offer. In addition as all trade in Asia is conducted in USD the exchange rate fluctuations can play havoc with costs and an experienced sourcing company will typically hedge against this or at least have some idea of where the exchange rates are heading. There is also the shipping costs and import duty that is often not factored in to the costs of goods bought overseas. Pricing on some goods (such as flash memory products) is incredibly volatile and can literally change during the course of an order.

Lead Time

Lead Time is often the prohibitive factor in choosing whether to outsource supply to China. A large delivery that cannot be air freighted will usually be at sea for 30 to 40 days and will require up to a week to clear customs. No good if you need those branded tins for an event in 2 weeks time! Local suppliers can help in a number of ways. Firstly a local supplier will sometimes have stock of the raw product and the branding can be undertaken in the country of delivery. For example pad or screen printing suppliers are fairly common, though there will be some difference in the cost of this service but as the biggest cost will be the product itself it should not be a significant increase. An experienced sourcing company will also be able to cut down the shipping time if there is no other option. Bulk deals are usually arranged with shippers to negotiate favourable costs and on shipments smaller than a container there are air freight deals that will be affordable. Customs clearance by the agent working for a company specialising in importing from abroad will typically be far quicker and hitch free than attempting to do a one off import.

Communication / Customer Service

Chinese people are very honourable and hard working on the whole. Yes that is a generalisation which is never a good thing but there is a real culture of work, efficiency and willingness in China for example which is less common in Western Europe. However, there is no getting away from the fact that English is not the first language for a company representative from Shenzen (or one of the other major manufacturing areas in China).At best they will have had additional tuition in English but unless your Cantonese (or even better Mandarin) is up to scratch you will find it difficult to communicate and frustrations can build up. Cultural differences can mean something that appears obvious to a European is not picked up. There is also a major time zone issue in that by the time someone in London arrives at work there are only two or three hours of the day left in China. This can be used to your advantage if orders are placed late in the day it is often possible to get proofs and confirmation back first thing in the morning. Of course any further changes will often be delayed by 24 hours. It is not uncommon for the longest phase in a production being the communicating of what you or your client requires.

Credit Terms

Credit is not something that many Chinese firms will offer. Even rock solid corporations will be asked for large deposits and balance before shipment for orders under $10,000 or so. The usual way of paying for anything that is over a few thousand USD is a letter of credit. This is a contract drawn up with a trade finance bank that lays out specifications for the goods and guarantees to pay the sum agreed on arrival of the product in the payee’s port of choice. The contract can be fairly detailed with not only specifics about quantities, tolerances but technical specifications about the product itself. This is in effect the guarantee for both sides that if the goods are to specification the agreed sum will be paid. This document will also include the details of insurance. Shipping goods over from the Far East is not completely risk free – piracy, storms or accidents can result in the sudden loss over-board of your container of branded electronics. Therefore a watertight insurance policy is required by the financial institution guaranteeing the bond.

Goods fit for purpose

The last thing you want is to receive your shipment to find that they are not in some way fit for purpose. For example inferior memory chip in flash drives will render them unusable or print problems on promotional tins will mean they need to be redone. Even more serious are safety issues; for example tin products for sale need to be food safe. This means extensive testing is required to ensure that levels of toxic chemicals and metals are within the permissible limits. Importing goods that do not meet these requirements (and have the appropriate certification) will mean at the very least goods are impounded and in the worst case scenario a large fine for contravening these regulations. When you are working to tight deadlines receiving incorrect goods can be a complete disaster.

Summary

Carefully choosing your Far East supplier and making sure they are experience in the kind of order you are placing will go a long way to ensuring a smooth production for your branded promotional goods. There are many advantages undertake the sourcing of goods in-house if your company has the resources to dedicate to the process. Having said that, working with a good local specialist sourcing company will often not only save you the frustration of dealing with a supplier on the other side of the world but often too will end up saving money in the long run. Choose one that has the credentials and can demonstrate a good knowledge of the products you are sourcing and the manufacturing processes involved.

Eulogised as the Queen of the Arabian Sea, Cochin, Kerala’s commercial capital is an anachronism. The dashing metropolitan city prides itself on a historical heritage stretching back to ancient times and embracing within its far reaching hold, cultures as diverse as Hindu, Chinese, Arab, Jewish, Syrian Christian, Portuguese, Dutch and English.

One of the finest harbours in the world, nature has generously endowed Cochin with clear lagoons, emerald plantations and sprawling beaches whose splendour is perfectly complimented by forts, palaces, temples, museums, old churches, and today, modern sky rises.

Essentially a collection of islands and jutting peninsulas, Cochin is made up of Ernakulam, Willingdon Island, Mattancherry and Fort Kochi. Ernakulam, the business centre comprises the mainland, separated from Fort-Kochi and Mattancherry by the Periyar River, while the man-made island of Willingdon lies between Ernakulam and Mattancherry. An international airport and seaport connects Cochin with the great world outside and an efficient internal network of roads, railways and water works keeps the city machinery moving.

However it is its social and cultural extravagance, rather than the physical, that distinguishes Cochin amongst other unique Indian cities. Graced with a port that enjoyed optimum exposure to foreign influences, Cochin has developed into a rare mishmash of influences: Here is where you’ll find the oldest European church in India St. Francis Church. Here is also where a 16th century synagogue provides spiritual succor to a thriving, if minuscule, community of Jews. Besides, Cochin showcases Hindu Temples, a Portuguese palace (presented to a Hindu Raja and renovated by the Dutch!), forts, streets and shops in a delightful tapestry that often blurs the individual threads.

So much so that the origin of its name remains a mystery. Believed to be a modification of ‘Cochazi’ or ‘small sea’ in Malayalam, it could as well have been the Chinese traders from the court of Kublai Khan who named it ‘Kochi’ after their homeland – Cochin is almost the only place in the world where you can see the quaint Chinese fishing nets outside China.

No mystery surrounds Cochin’s rise to prominence as a port. In 1340 AD, the world famous Kodugallur Port, just north of Cochin, was destroyed by flooding of the Periyar River. Kodugallur’s loss however, was Cochin’s gain, as it soon assumed importance as a substitute port for carrying on the trade in spices such as cardamom, pepper, cloves and cinnamon.

While the Chinese and Arabs enjoyed trade with Cochin as much as 2000 years ago, Christians are said to have originated from the visit of the apostle St. Thomas himself and Jews are believed to have settled here in AD 388.

In 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral, a Portuguese navigator pioneered a settlement in Cochin. Vasco de Gama established the first Portuguese company and in 1503 the Viceroy Alfonso de Albuquerque built a fort. The British, who took over Cochin in 1635, were driven out by the Dutch in 1663. In 1776, Cochin fell in the hands of Hyder Ali, but was lost by his son Tipu Sultan in1791. After passing through British hands again in 1795, the Dutch finally ceded Cochin in 1814.

Such an influx of the Chinese, Arabs, British, Dutch and Portuguese, including great travelers like Fa Hien and Sir Robert Bristow gave rise to a flowering of commerce and culture in Cochin, making it a centre of cross cultural interactions. The prosperous spice trade, of which all Cochin’s racial and religious groups including Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jewish minorities were beneficiaries as they shared in the city’s prosperity, facilitated this.

Off all these inhabitants of Cochin, the Jews are perhaps the most interesting. The oldest of the Jewish communities in India, and distinct from the much larger and more absorbed Bene-Israel Community of Maharashtra, they are known to have been in India since more than a thousand years. While their arrival in India has been speculated to occur around the time of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 BC, others speculate it to coincide with the Assyrian exile in 722 BC or Babylonian exile in 586, or even from the era of King Solomon himself.

Persecuted by the Moors and later the Portuguese, many Indian Jews settled in Cochin under the protection of Cheraman Parumal known to the Portuguese as the “King of the Jews”, where they prospered. Today however only a handful of Jews remain in Cochin, where the Pardesi Synagogue in Jew Street stands testimony to better times enjoyed by the community.

Jew Street remains one of the lasting anachronisms of Cochin. A corner of the city where the earlier Jewish traders had their establishments, the ancient cobbled street lying between rows of old timber wood buildings is almost medieval. Shops selling different varieties of spices still exist here and the combined fragrance of these condiments hangs heavy in the air. At the end of the street is the Jewish Synagogue also known as the Pardesi Synagogue. An ancient structure built in 1664, it uses oil-burning chandeliers from the 19th century to light up the interior while blue and white hand-painted Cantonese tiles make up the flooring. The Torah – The Jewish scriptures- written on sheepskin scrolls are lovingly housed in ornate metal receptacles.

Cochin’s charms remain timeless.

Australia's stylish southern city is the haven for the lovers of fine culinary. Melbourne is the city of the fickle diner, the boiling pot of so many cultures. And it offers some of the best gastronomical treats in the world.

So after a lot of deliberation, experimentation and research, I have created a comprehensive list of the best restaurants in Melbourne. Fine-dining or not, if the place will make your taste buds go crazy, it is on this list!

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

The first of legendary chef Heston Blumenthal's restaurant to open outside of the UK. A bit less 'Alice in Wonderland' than the Fat Duck, but this place will blow the living daylights out of you with its breathtaking location, the amazingly sleek decor and the attention to little details. The menu is a delectable walk through the history of British gastronomy. And as always, Heston does not disappoint one bit, making this one of the best restaurants in Melbourne

Cuisine: European

Address: 130/8 Whiteman St, Southbank VIC 3006, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9292 5779

Vue de Monde

Shannon Bennett's wonders of gastronomy are housed on the 55th floor of the Rialto. Vue de Monde is a powerhouse, another of the best restaurants in Melbourne. Complementing the breathtaking 360 degree view is the dark and sleek interiors of the restaurant.

Great views isn't just what Vue de Monde has to offer, the theatrical meal will be one of those experiences which will leave a great taste in your mouth afterwards.

Address: 55, Rialto Towers, 525 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9691 3888

Cuisine: Australian, Contemporary

Minamishima

"Melbourne's best sushi", as claimed by Time Out's Larissa Dubecki. Another candidate of our list in the best restaurants in Melbourne is Minamishima. Minamishima is the restaurant which serves the omakase of Chef Koichi Minamishima. There is no a-la-carte menu; the omakase means that the chef will take you on a gastronomical trek. And boy, is Koichi Minamishima great at it. The place is very intimate with a long bar, where the chef individually serves the seating on the long bar. If you want to picture Minamishima, think elegant, understated decor, think traditional, think sake, and think delicious.

Address: 4 Lord St, Richmond VIC 3121, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9429 5180

Cuisine: Japanese, Sushi

Attica

There's a very sober and humbling feel to this unassuming building which serves some of the best food in the world. From afar, you cannot say that this is one of the best restaurants Melbourne has to offer, but Attica goes one step further. It ranks as one of the best 50 restaurants in the world. The entire restaurant resounds of warm earthly tones. The intimate space, the Tuesday night Chef's Table and Ben Shewry's attitude are clear testament to the fact that even after all this fame, food comes first at Attica.

Address: 74 Glen Eira Rd, Ripponlea VIC 3185, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9530 0111

Cuisine: Australian, Contemporary.

MoVida

Frank Camorra's MoVida is the restaurant responsible with the city's fascination with modern Spanish tapas. What was, at its beginning, a casual tapas bar has now turned into one of the best restaurants in Melbourne, where booking is required, often months in advance. The gap left by the casual bar is now filled by the sister MoVida Next Door. The menu of tapas and racion is designed to be shared, but don't get carried away so easily. Leave some room for dessert as well, they're just as amazing.

Address: 1 Hosier Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9663 3038

Cuisine: Spanish

Flower Drum

The seductive ambience, the extremely efficient and seemingly choreographed service and Anthony Lui's timeless presentation of the Cantonese have pulled this 40 year old institution with the changing times, two recessions, the digital age and the Flower Drum still remains one of the best restaurants in Melbourne . And, of course, the Peking Duck is one of the best in town and its presentation is matchless. The restaurant has been revitalized, thanks to efforts of Jason Lui, by getting it online and revising the menu.

Address: 17 Market Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9662 3655

Cuisine: Chinese

Pei Modern

Pei Modern is Mark Best's creation – one of the most highly regarded chefs in the country. Pei Modern, housed in a former post office, oscillates between formal and casual. The post office has been redecorated to resemble the '70s west coast America, with a lot of timbers, stones, marble and glass. The menu is built upon market fresh and the seasonal ingredients. Pei Modern is open daily and has a bar area, which they won't let you book; and there is a dining room for lunch and dinner which you probably should.

Address: Sofitel Forecourt, 45 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9654 8545

Cuisine: Modern European

Kappo

Time Out ranked Kappo as one of the best new restaurants in Melbourne. This intimate affair of around 30 seats, clustered around the bar is another omakase restaurant. Headed by chef Kentaro Usami, Kappo is about over the counter food and the interaction between the chef and the customer. The menu focuses on the mountain vegetable cuisine, fish and very little red meat and is broken down into a five, seven or nine course meal. Kappo is all ritual and restraint, precision and humility and not a single scratched table.

Address: Ground Floor, 1 Flinders Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9639 9500

Cuisine: Japanese, Contemporary Australian

Cutler and Co.

Cutler and Co. is the creation of the dynamic duo – chef Andrew McConnell and architect Pascale Gomes-McNabb. They've turned an old metalwork's factory into an elegant and simplistic fine dining restaurant – one of the best in Melbourne – where the decor never ceases to please and the food never ceases to amaze. McConnell's passion for the exceptional and unusual produce is well reflected in the bones of the restaurant. And though the restaurant is fine dining, it is highly accessible; You'll encounter an entire spectrum of people dining alongside.

Address: 55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9419 4888

Cuisine: Modern Australian

Tipo 00

Andreas Papadakis, last seen in the kitchens of Vue de Monde, has come up with "another pasta bar in Melbourne". But is Tipo 00 "just another pasta bar"? It certainly topped Time Out's list of the Best New Restaurant in Melbourne. Wading through the crowd of naysayers this joint has become a prime example of how pasta is done right. But it is more than just a pasta bar. The menu has some divine collection of mains as well. This little spot on Little Bourke Street will drag you back again and again.

Address: 361 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9942 3946

That's it for now – but remembers that this list is in no particular order. We're happy to hear about your experiences at the restaurants on this list, as well as your suggestions about which of your favorite joints you need to see on it! So make sure to comment and rate these places so that we can keep updating the status of the best restaurants in Melbourne !

Which is the best language to learn? Which is the easiest?

Two different questions, often uttered in the same breath. But that’s okay, because there will be only one answer. Whichever language you wholeheartedly choose to study will be both the best and the easiest. However, here’s some help choosing.

The choices.

Here is the Modern Language Association’s 2002 list of the most commonly studied languages at university level in the United States. I have not included ancient languages like Latin, Biblical Hebrew, or Sanskrit, special purposes languages like American Sign Language, or U.S. heritage languages, like Hawaiian or Navajo since the choice of those languages follows a different dynamic:

1. Spanish

2. French

3. German

4. Italian

5. Japanese

6. Chinese

7. Russian

8. Arabic

9. Modern Hebrew

10. Portuguese

11. Korean

12. Vietnamese

13. Hindi/Urdu

14. Swahili

Difficulty, according to Uncle Sam

First, consider some cold facts. The U.S. State Department groups languages for the diplomatic service according to learning difficulty:

Category 1. The “easiest” languages for speakers of English, requiring 600 hours of classwork for minimal proficiency: the Latin and Germanic languages. However, German itself requires a bit more time, 750 hours, because of its complex grammar.

Category 2. Medium, requiring 1100 hours of classwork: Slavic languages, Turkic languages, other Indo-Europeans such as Persian and Hindi, and some non-Indo-Europeans such as Georgian, Hebrew and many African languages. Swahili is ranked easier than the rest, at 900 hours.

Category 3. Difficult, requiring 2200 hours of study: Arabic, Japanese, Korean and the Chinese languages.

Will you get a chance to practice this language?

Now, consider another important factor: accessibility. To be a successful learner you need the chance to hear, read and speak the language in a natural environment. Language learning takes an enormous amount of concentration and repetition, which cannot be done entirely in the classroom. Will you have access to the language where you live, work and travel?

The 14 most popular courses according to a combination of linguistic ease and accessibility.

1. Spanish. Category One. The straightforward grammar is familiar and regular. It is also ubiquitous in the Americas, the only foreign language with a major presence in the insular linguistic environment of the U.S. Chances to speak and hear it abound. It is the overwhelming favorite, accounting for more than fifty percent of language study enrollment in the MLA study.

2. French. Category One. Grammatically complex but not difficult to learn because so many of it’s words have entered English. For this vocabulary affinity, it is easy to attain an advanced level, especially in reading. It is a world language, and a motivated learner will find this language on the internet, in films and music.

3. German. Category One Plus. The syntax and grammar rules are complex with noun declensions a major problem. It is the easiest language to begin speaking, with a basic vocabulary akin to English. Abstract, advanced language differs markedly, though, where English opts for Latin terms. It values clear enunciation, so listening comprehension is not difficult.

4. Italian. Category One. It has the same simple grammar rules as Spanish, a familiar vocabulary and the clearest enunciation among Latin languages (along with Romanian). Italian skills are easily transferable to French or Spanish. You might need to go to Italy to practice it, but there are worse things that could happen to you. It is also encountered in the world of opera and classical music.

5. Russian. Category Two. This highly inflected language, with declensions, is fairly difficult to learn. The Cyrillic alphabet is not particularly difficult, however, and once you can read the language, the numerous borrowings from French and other western languages are a pleasant surprise. It is increasingly accessible.

6. Arabic. Category Three. Arabic is spoken in dozens of countries, but the many national dialects can be mutually incomprehensible. It has only three vowels, but includes some consonants that don’t exist in English. The alphabet is a formidable obstacle, and good calligraphy is highly valued and difficult to perfect. Vowels are not normally written (except in children’s books) and this can be an obstacle for reading. It is ubiquitous in the Muslim world and opportunities exist to practice it at every level of formality.

7. Portuguese. Category One. One of the most widely spoken languages in the world is often overlooked. It has a familiar Latin grammar and vocabulary, though the phonetics may take some getting used to.

8. Swahili. Category Two Minus. It includes many borrowings from Arabic, Persian, English and French. It is a Bantu language of Central Africa, but has lost the difficult Bantu “tones”. The sound system is familiar, and it is written using the Latin alphabet. One major grammatical consideration is the division of nouns into sixteen classes, each with a different prefix. However, the classes are not arbitrary, and are predictable.

9. Hindi/Urdu. Category Two. The Hindustani language, an Indo-European language, includes both Hindi and Urdu. It has an enormous number of consonants and vowels, making distinctions between phonemes that an English speaker will have difficulty hearing. Words often have clipped endings, further complicating comprehension. Hindi uses many Sanskrit loans and Urdu uses many Persian/Arabic loans, meaning that a large vocabulary must be mastered. Hindi uses the phonetically precise Devanagari script, created specifically for the language. Predictably, Urdu’s use of a borrowed Persian/Arabic script leads to some approximation in the writing system.

10. Modern Hebrew. Category Two. Revived as a living language during the nineteenth century, it has taken on characteristics of many languages of the Jewish diaspora. The resultant language has become regularized in grammar and syntax, and the vocabulary has absorbed many loan words, especially from Yiddish, English and Arabic. The alphabet has both print and script forms, with five vowels, not normally marked. Vowel marking, or pointing, is quite complex when it does occur. Sounds can be difficult to reproduce in their subtleties and a certain amount of liaison makes listening comprehension problematic. It is not very accessible outside of a religious or Israeli context.

11. Japanese. Category Three. Difficult to learn, as the vocabulary is unfamiliar, and the requirements of the sound system so strict that even the many words that have been borrowed from English, French and German will seem unrecognizable. With three different writing systems, it is forbiddingly difficult to read and write. Also, social constraints may impede useful interaction.

12. Chinese. Category Three. Whether your choice is Mandarin or Cantonese (the MLA survey does not make a distinction, oddly enough). It is the most difficult language on this list. It includes all of the most difficult aspects: unfamiliar phonemes, a large number of tones, an extremely complex writing system, and an equally unfamiliar vocabulary. Personal motivation is absolutely essential to keep the student on track. On the positive side, it is easy to find, since Chinese communities exist throughout the world, and Chinese language media, such as newspapers, films and TV, are present in all these communities.

13. Vietnamese. Category Three. This language belongs to an unfamiliar family of languages, but it does borrow much vocabulary from Chinese (helpful if you already speak Chinese!). It has six tones, and a grammar with an unfamiliar logic. It’s not all bleak, however, Vietnamese uses a Latin derived alphabet. The chances of speaking this language are not high, though there are 3 million speakers in the USA.

14. Korean. Category Three. Korean uses an alphabet of 24 symbols, which accurately represent 14 consonants and 10 vowels. However, the language also includes 2000 commonly used Chinese characters for literary writing and formal documents. Speech levels and honorifics complicate the learning of vocabulary, and there is liaison between words, making them hard to distinguish. The grammar is not overly complicated and there are no tones. It borrows many Chinese words, but the language is unrelated to other languages of Asia.

The most important factor of all: personal motivation

The third, most important factor is up to you. The easiest language to learn is the one that you are most motivated to learn, the one you enjoy speaking, the one with the culture that inspires you and the history that touches you spiritually. It is useless to try to learn a language if you are not interested in the people who speak it, since learning a language involves participating in its behaviors and identifying with its people.

So, consider all three factors: motivation, accessibility and linguistic ease, in that order, and come up with the final list yourself. The bad news is that no language is really easy to learn, but the good news is that we humans are hard wired for a great amount of linguistic flexibility, as long as we know how to turn on the learning process. If the rewards and benefits of the language are clear to you, you will be able to get those rusty language synapses sparking in your head and start the words rolling. Bonne chance!

Australia’s stylish southern city is the haven for the lovers of fine culinary. Melbourne is the city of the fickle diner, the boiling pot of so many cultures. And it offers some of the best gastronomical treats in the world.

So after a lot of deliberation, experimentation and research, I have created a comprehensive list of the best restaurants in Melbourne. Fine-dining or not, if the place will make your taste buds go crazy, it is on this list!

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

The first of legendary chef Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant to open outside of the UK. A bit less ‘Alice in Wonderland’ than the Fat Duck, but this place will blow the living daylights out of you with its breathtaking location, the amazingly sleek decor and the attention to little details. The menu is a delectable walk through the history of British gastronomy. And as always, Heston does not disappoint one bit, making this one of the best restaurants in Melbourne

Cuisine: European

Address: 130/8 Whiteman St, Southbank VIC 3006, Australia

Phone:+61 3 9292 5779

Vue de Monde

Shannon Bennett’s wonders of gastronomy are housed on the 55th floor of the Rialto. Vue de Monde is a powerhouse, another of the best restaurants in Melbourne. Complementing the breathtaking 360 degree view is the dark and sleek interiors of the restaurant.

Great views isn’t just what Vue de Monde has to offer, the theatrical meal will be one of those experiences which will leave a great taste in your mouth afterwards.

Address: 55, Rialto Towers, 525 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone:+61 3 9691 3888

Cuisine: Australian, Contemporary

Minamishima

“Melbourne’s best sushi”, as claimed by Time Out’s Larissa Dubecki. Another candidate of our list in the best restaurants in Melbourne is Minamishima. Minamishima is the restaurant which serves the omakase of Chef Koichi Minamishima. There is no a-la-carte menu; the omakase means that the chef will take you on a gastronomical trek. And boy, is Koichi Minamishima great at it. The place is very intimate with a long bar, where the chef individually serves the seating on the long bar. If you want to picture Minamishima, think elegant, understated decor, think traditional, think sake, and think delicious.

Address: 4 Lord St, Richmond VIC 3121, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9429 5180

Cuisine: Japanese, Sushi

Attica

There’s a very sober and humbling feel to this unassuming building which serves some of the best food in the world. From afar, you cannot say that this is one of the best restaurants Melbourne has to offer, but Attica goes one step further. It ranks as one of the best 50 restaurants in the world. The entire restaurant resounds of warm earthly tones. The intimate space, the Tuesday night Chef’s Table and Ben Shewry’s attitude are clear testament to the fact that even after all this fame, food comes first at Attica.

Address: 74 Glen Eira Rd, Ripponlea VIC 3185, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9530 0111

Cuisine: Australian, Contemporary.

MoVida

Frank Camorra’s MoVida is the restaurant responsible with the city’s fascination with modern Spanish tapas. What was, at its beginning, a casual tapas bar has now turned into one of the best restaurants in Melbourne, where booking is required, often months in advance. The gap left by the casual bar is now filled by the sister MoVida Next Door. The menu of tapas and racion is designed to be shared, but don’t get carried away so easily. Leave some room for dessert as well, they’re just as amazing.

Address: 1 Hosier Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9663 3038

Cuisine: Spanish

Flower Drum

The seductive ambience, the extremely efficient and seemingly choreographed service and Anthony Lui’s timeless presentation of the Cantonese have pulled this 40 year old institution with the changing times, two recessions, the digital age and the Flower Drum still remains one of the best restaurants in Melbourne. And, of course, the Peking Duck is one of the best in town and its presentation is matchless. The restaurant has been revitalised, thanks to efforts of Jason Lui, by getting it online and revising the menu.

Address: 17 Market Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9662 3655

Cuisine: Chinese

Pei Modern

Pei Modern is Mark Best’s creation – one of the most highly regarded chefs in the country. Pei Modern, housed in a former post office, oscillates between formal and casual. The post office has been redecorated to resemble the ’70s west coast America, with a lot of timbers, stones, marble and glass. The menu is built upon market fresh and the seasonal ingredients. Pei Modern is open daily and has a bar area, which they won’t let you book; and there is a dining room for lunch and dinner which you probably should.

Address: Sofitel Forecourt, 45 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9654 8545

Cuisine: Modern European

Kappo

Time Out ranked Kappo as one of the best new restaurants in Melbourne. This intimate affair of around 30 seats, clustered around the bar is another omakase restaurant. Headed by chef Kentaro Usami, Kappo is about over the counter food and the interaction between the chef and the customer. The menu focuses on the mountain vegetable cuisine, fish and very little red meat and is broken down into a five, seven or nine course meal. Kappo is all ritual and restraint, precision and humility and not a single scratched table.

Address: Ground Floor, 1 Flinders Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9639 9500

Cuisine: Japanese, Contemporary Australian

Cutler and Co.

Cutler and Co. is the creation of the dynamic duo – chef Andrew McConnell and architect Pascale Gomes-McNabb. They’ve turned an old metalwork’s factory into an elegant and simplistic fine dining restaurant – one of the best in Melbourne – where the decor never ceases to please and the food never ceases to amaze. McConnell’s passion for the exceptional and unusual produce is well reflected in the bones of the restaurant. And though the restaurant is fine dining, it is highly accessible; you’ll encounter an entire spectrum of people dining alongside.

Address: 55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9419 4888

Cuisine: Modern Australian

Tipo 00

Andreas Papadakis, last seen in the kitchens of Vue de Monde, has come up with “another pasta bar in Melbourne”. But is Tipo 00 “just another pasta bar”? It certainly topped Time Out’s list of the Best New Restaurant in Melbourne. Wading through the crowd of naysayers this joint has become a prime example of how pasta is done right. But it is more than just a pasta bar. The menu has some divine collection of mains as well. This little spot on Little Bourke Street will drag you back again and again.

Address: 361 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Phone: +61 3 9942 3946

That’s it for now – but remembers that this list is in no particular order. We’re happy to hear about your experiences at the restaurants on this list, as well as your suggestions about which of your favourite joints you need to see on it! So make sure to comment and rate these places so that we can keep updating the status of the best restaurants in Melbourne!

With the development of the economy and the prosperity of the society, kids’ lives become better and better. Their family environments are more harmonious, their living environments are more comfortable and their education environments are more superior as well. All in all, kids’ lives are getting better than before. Sometimes I liked to poke furniture stores. I like the special and beautiful furniture for I love something about interior designer. And when I find something beauty, I will be excited. Do you have such this feeling?

In the furniture store, except the adult furniture, I also care about the kids’ future as well. There is so many kids’ furniture nowadays. Kids’ beds, kids’ chests, kids’ table and chairs, kids’ rides, kids’ toy, dolls houses, soft plays, distorting mirrors and so on. Each of them has different features, and when they are matched together properly, you will find a sweet and warm paradise.

As we all know, we spend about one third time of one day in bed. And so the children are. They may need more time to sleep. Experts said that a one year old child should sleep about 13.75 hours. And as their growing up, their sleeping time will be reduced. That shows us that sleeping is important for kids. So choosing a suitable bed for your kids is significant as well. Although there are so many kids bad in the market, all of them do not measure up to standard. That will do harm to your kids. Some experts suggest that a suitable bed for kids should be wooden with a fence. Because kids are growing up, their spinal columns will not grow up as normalcy. It will have detrimental influence on the development of kids.

The world of children is a toy kingdom, but they have no more consciousness. After they play their toys, they will not pick them up and put them away. And you have to deal with such these trivial details. How to handle this problem? Maybe a chest can help you. There are many chests in the market, such as wooden chest, plastic kid chest, and synthetic material kid chest and so on. And the chest for kids can not only as toys’ storage but also as storage for books, newspapers, clothes, blankets, shoes and something else. In other case, you can train your kids’ consciousness and their capacity of packing.

I think most of kids have fantastic dreams. When you were a child, have you ever dreamed that you lived in a dream house what you decorated by your self? Or have you ever dreamed that you will be a doctor, a teacher? Maybe you and I have dreamed that. And your kids are dreaming now. So doll house provided a platform for your kids.

There is so many interesting and suitable kids’ furniture in market that I can not count clearly. So now it is time to check whether your kids’ furniture suitable or not. Choosing suitable furniture for your kids is significant.

My love affair with food has to compete with my love affair with NYC. I contemplated publishing my first article about a spot in Sydney where I live, however I thought it would be more authentic to start with a place in NY seeing as I have just recently returned from my trip and this would be my latest foodie venture. I also want my articles to include places to eat for all budgets, so I was initially hesitant to make my first place about Buddakan which can pull at the purse strings. However, I believe the best investment I can make with my money is letting it sit in my stomach – and besides, a trip to Buddakan is a treat which I need to share! For any Sex and the City fans this is the rehearsal dinner restaurant from the first movie – it’s also a stop on the HotSpots tour if you do that whilst in NY (although you don’t actually get to eat here on the tour it’s a more of a gawk at the amazing scenery – notably the chandelier).

Lex and I visited Buddakan on New Years Day 2016. Our table was for 8pm and I strongly recommend booking through OpenTable if you’re planning a visit as it is a popular place with locals especially on the weekends. The restaurant is located in Chelsea right next to the Chelsea Markets. It’s quite a discreet entrance, but don’t let that fool you. When you enter the dimly-lit restaurant, sophistication seems to ooze out of every corner. You’re greeted by a long line of hostesses where you provide your reservation name and check in your coat and then promptly ushered to a bar area. We waited no more than three or four minutes which was just enough time to properly get excited for our food and to soak up the atmosphere. Our server walked us to a table at the far end of the main floor. There is a lower floor with a community table to share food and conversations – again to reference Sex and the City, this is the table Carrie and Big used for their dinner. I would definitely love to go back and request a spot at this table. The Pan-Asian hip spot has a great sense of energy and elegance, and the patrons are addressed according to the dress-code, “downtown chic”. Our lovely server introduces herself and explains the menu. Her recommendations for two appetisers, two mains and two sides for a party of two were almost too much, but as the fare was too good to resist we shamelessly finished everything. I should mention the current two executive chefs are Yang Huang and Brian Ray – props to you boys.

What we ordered

We started by ordering a bottle of red – if I could remember which one I’d include it! I’ll have to ask Lex, he’s good at remembering the wine list.

For our two appetisers we chose the edamame dumplings and the pork buns. The dumplings sat in a shallot-sauternes broth and came in five bite-size servings. They were delicious, melt-in-your-mouth dumplings that were the perfect introduction to Buddakan. The pork buns were Lex’s choice and weren’t typically what I would have ordered, but I’m glad I tried them. The buns consisted of charred pork belly, spicy shallots and napa cabbage. Lex classified them as the “best pork buns I’ve ever tasted”. Even though I’m not typically a pork bun gal, I must admit they had a beautiful texture and just the right amount of spice.

For our sides we ordered the Asian green stir fry and the vegetable rice. We were tempted to order the pork noodles – next time! The Asian greens had pine nuts and garlic chips mixed throughout and made the perfect side-kick to our mains (although I could have just eaten them on their own – they were amazing!). If you’re not a garlic fan probably steer clear of these as they definitely had a strong garlic taste (making them all the better in my opinion). We also ordered the vegetable fried rice which had a hint of coconut and pineapple to add flavour. Again, it was perfect as a side-kick but also on it’s own!

There were so many delicious mains to choose from. There’s a variety of seafood dishes including the Salt and pepper black bass, Glazed Alaskan black cod and the Cantonese steamed sole. Since Lex isn’t a seafood fan we stuck with the Meat and Poultry options. My eyes were immediately drawn to two options and before I told Lex what they were I asked him to tell me what he wanted, luckily we were spot on! We made the easy decision of ordering the Black pepper beef and the Broken chilli chicken (you should know that Lex and I both love chilli, we tend to order it or add it to most meals). The beef was a wok tossed rib eye on a crispy bird’s nest – which to our delight was edible! The two textures complimented each other well, and the sauce was so flavoursome we made sure we poured every last drop over the veggie rice. The chicken was simply delicious and honestly like nothing we’ve ever eaten before. It was a charred scallion smeared with chinese pepper and chilli sauce. I should make mention here that the chicken made the perfect companion to the Asian greens and the wine!

Admittedly we were too full on food and wine to order any desserts, but that’s not to say the Executive Pastry Chef Daniel Skurnick didn’t have many mouth-watering options to choose from. Lex said he would have chosen the Crying Chocolate dessert which was a malted ganache with vietnamese coffee ice cream, and I would have chosen the Passion Fruit Meringue with yogurt semifreddo and passion fruit ice cream – yum! Other notable options included the Apple Tarte Tatin – a cinnamon streusel with soy sauce ice cream – and the Almond Bread Pudding with bananas, butterscotch sauce and whiskey ice cream.

And so our bellies were full and our plates empty. I won’t say that this was the cheapest meal we’ve ever eaten, it was an expense. In saying that though, the servings were generous and the wine took up a large portion of the bill. We also gave a generous tip because the service was truly part of the experience, and we had already been to a few places with less than favourable service, so we wanted to acknowledge the attentive and knowledgeable service we received.

If you love Asian food then this is a must for you. Let me know if you try it out or have been before.

Lis x