http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/index/ en U.S. Department of State 2012-02-11T15:54:03+00:00 DipNote Blogger Melvin Hall writes:

Hello Rosemary and Wendy, Thank you for your thoughtful comments. Although my response is delayed, I hope you find it useful.

@ Wendy, your suggestion that we use "Weekly Reader" or something similar is a good one. We are in fact looking into ways to reinforce the message about Youth Programs already posted on social networks and cyberspace in general. Information about Youth Programs sponsored by the Department of State is posted on the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs website. In addition, ECA's implementing organizations have extensive instructor networks which they use to get the word out to schools about our programs. And, no, I am not related to Edward T. Hall. Thank you for the reference about "silent language" -- I will look it up.

@ Rosemary, thank you for sharing the blog on your webcampus; it is nice to make a connection with language instructors. Please see this photo eulogy to the technology of blackboard and chalk. Thank you for bringing this to our attention the versatility of chalkboard technology. It seems the chalkboard served Einstein well when imagining and advancing revolutionary theories of physics that would eventually change the way we all see the world.]]> http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entires/language_exchanges_connect/ Tue Apr 07, 2009
Dear Mr. Hall --

What a swell & detailed entry. COOL. By any serendipity are you related to the essential Edward T. Hall of *Silent Language* fame? He put me on to facets of language that I would have been oblivious to without his little book. We are speaking a silent language of respect or disrespect every moment in our gestures and postures. I assume all diplomats still have read Hall's little primer before they set out as possible bulls in other folk's cultural china shops?

Please tell us sometime what specific steps State is taking to get the wonderful info about the NSLI-Y Group (Language Initiatives for Youth) & other Youth Programs opportunities out to schools in the U.S.A.? When I was a kid, there was a little Weekly Reader 'newspaper' that was distributed to schools.

TNR -- The noosphere rocks.]]> http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entires/language_exchanges_connect/ Sun Mar 22, 2009
LOL Melvin! If BOS was Hillary, I don't think you have to worry. She probably was the one who tweeted me the URL for this article.

I teach language teachers, so I am going to share this article with them on our webcampus. For the record, though, I still like the old-fashioned technology of blackboard and chalk. You can teach anywhere in the world with that, even if your classroom has no walls.]]> http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entires/language_exchanges_connect/ Sat Mar 21, 2009