Showing posts with label Educational Opportunities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Educational Opportunities. Show all posts

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Chinese Language and Culture at NHFPL

The New Haven Free Public Library will once again offer a series of weekly classes in Chinese Language and Culture starting Monday, Mar. 4 and running through May 20. 

Class meets at the Ives Main Library, 133 Elm St., on Thursday evenings from 6-7:30 pm and is taught by Grace Zhao. 

Participants in this series will learn basic Mandarin Chinese vocabulary in a cultural context. Classes will include practice in greetings, common phrases, and conversations for such daily activities as eating, shopping, traveling, visiting friends and making phone calls. Traditional Chinese customs and celebrations will also be covered. Classes are designed for individuals who are planning to travel or do business in China, as well as those who just want to learn more about chinese language and culture. 

About the Instructor.
Grace Zhao is from The People’s Republic of China. She is an experienced Mandarin Chinese language instructor and tutor in the New Haven area and helped to originate this series in cooperation with the Library and the Council on Far East Studies at Yale University.

Class size is limited to 20 students (ages 16+) and registration closes on February 27th. If minimum class registration is not met, series will be canceled and refunds given. 

Register now at Eventbrite or call the library at 203-946-8835. The course is $35.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Education is Priceless

You can take this class for free online.

One book from the course
Many of the courses involve 6-14 hours of work per week; they're 6-week courses. But they're free and they're available at Yale University, although technically in cyberspace.

We all need education. Some of us are morally challenged, for example; taking a course on Morality in Everyday Life might be useful. But to take one of these courses, what kind of prerequisites? None, really; for example, the "Morality" course simply requires the ability to read The Atlantic or the New Yorker. And that's pretty basic.

These aren't just educational opportunities, however; they're challenges which can help us understand more about ourselves and the world around us; each one in its own way.

Here are a few examples from the Coursera Page.



Roman Architecture
Roman Architecture is a course for people who love to travel—in actuality and virtually—to a wide variety of places and we will do that together as we explore the great buildings and engineering marvels of Rome and its vast empire in their ancient and contemporary contexts.(Sign Up)



Moralities of Everyday Life

Moralities of Everyday Life
.  How can we explain kindness and cruelty? Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? Why do people so often disagree about moral issues? This course explores the psychological foundations of our moral lives.
(Sign Up)



Constitutional Law
Constitutional Law.  An introduction to the main themes of the American Constitution—popular sovereignty, separation of powers, federalism, and rights—and to basic techniques of constitutional interpretation.
(Sign Up)




Financial Markets
Financial Markets. An overview of the ideas, methods, and institutions that permit human society to manage risks and foster enterprise.(Sign Up)

"Now we're having a financial revolution... You want to do something? You have to finance it. And it gets complicated, and there's a theory and a method that is part of our civilization."