Review: iPhonics on iPhone

I don’t normally review educational software, especially those on the iPhone platform. I think it is mainly due to the demographics who use the devices on this platform.

I made an exception and took a look at the iPhone application, iPhonics, which teaches English phonetics.iPhonics - Home Screen

This application takes the approach of addressing a young audience for a fairly complex subject, the learning of English pronunciation. The entire application accomplish this by treating the lessons as games.The student chooses either to learn By Letter or By Game.

iPhonics - TutorialsAt first glance the games are a bit difficult to figure out without going through the extensive Tutorial section within the game. These tutorials are in English, so student are expected to be able to read English although may not be able to pronounce or comprehend English audio.

Each time an item is clicked on within the application, both a visual and audio feedback results. Fortunately, for the more experienced students the latter can be turned off in the Options screen within the application.

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When is Nudity Becomes a Taboo

Naked Baby
Just read the article, When Do They Need a Fig Leaf?, on New York Times. This brought up an issue that I see fairly frequently. That is the presence of kids of opposite gender in washrooms.

The article asks at what age should kids be prevented from running around in public or private home naked? Should children ever allowed to be running around naked?

I think these are questions that have different answers depending on your cultural up bringing and the social acceptance of the city/country where you live.

In the case of public washroom I think any children older than 5 should not be allow to go into washroom of opposite gender.

It is unfortunate, but our society has too many weirdos and bad people to allow our children to maintain their innocence. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for children maintaining their innocence as long as possible. I think we should teach our next generation to respect our body and others, educate them on the differences of their body as early as possible, and the appropriateness of when they can be naked.

What do you think? Love to hear your comments below, on Twitter, Facebook or FriendFeed.

Movie Review: The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian (2008)

Poster

My Rating: 3Stars

This evening I saw the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” at AMC Theatre, Pacific Place, Hong Kong.

A good sequel because the screenwrite did not spend too much time reviewing the previous version of the movie, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” 3 years ago. Unfortunately, this is also the reason why I feel this is not a good movie.

This is really a movie written and designed for children. With that in mind this is a good movie, as it has the mystical elements that children likes, characters that spur the imaginations and story-line that will capture the young audiences.

Having said that the story and movie is a bit lacking for adults. If you do not have young children in your household I will suggest you give it a miss.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Unusual Behaviour

This afternoon I was sitting at a McDonald’s restaurant in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, having my Big Mac™. All of a sudden a young kid, about 6 years old, came to my table, without saying anything, he just took a french fried and begin eating it. To say the least I was very surprise.

I am even more surprise that it was a local Chinese boy who did this. As my readers may know, I had always had the impression that local Hong Kong people are shy and not talkative. The action of this young boy is totally out of character for the typical Hong Kong children.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this sort of openness is a good thing. Although, I thihnk the boy may not have simply took the french fried and started eating it. May be he should have asked.

On the other hand, I don’t think young children, for that matter adult, should be eating things given by strangers.

What this incident actually points out may be the lack of education and teachings Hong Kong parents have on their children now a days.

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