CROSSROADSCROSSROA DS Language StudioÊs Newsletter January,January, 201
20 1 3In the Chinese zodiac, and other East
Asian countries with connected calendar
systems, 2013 is the year of the snake.
This particular year is linked to theelemental symbol of water.
In many East Asian countries, locals
combine water and snakes, as well as someother ingredients, to produce an alcoholic
beverage which is said to restore health andvitality. Usually using rice wine as a base,
there are two main types of snake wine.
The first, and a type very common in thenumerous souvenir shops in China,
Vietnam and other South East Asian
countries is steeped snake wine. This iswhere a large poisonous snake is put into a
glass jar, sometimes with other snakes andscorpions, and then filled with alcohol.
After a few months, the wine has absorbed
the supposedly beneficial essence andvenom of the snake. The venom at thisstage is no longer poisonous, as the alcohol
has made it harmless.
The other type of snake wine is mixed,
where the fluids of the serpent are drained
into the rice wine, and the mixture isconsumed immediately. These fluids areoften snake blood, and sometimes the bileof a snake.
Because of the high alcoholic content of thisdrink, it is consumed mainly in shot form.
The first instance on record of snake
wine being consumed was in China in 771
BC. Almost a thousand years later we cansee the first documentation of themedicinal properties of snake consumption,
in a Chinese medical journal. The benefits
listed are vast, including cures forbaldness, lack of virility, and poor vision.

Somedrinkers
also choose
to maximise
their chances of the health benefits byeating parts of the snake such as theHenson
RecordingStudios,
LA, USAorgans, including, ineyeballsor theinternal
northern Vietnam for instance, the still
beating heart.
Importation of this drink to many
countries is illegal as the types of snake
used in the production of the drink areendangered, and therefore protected bycountries with higher levels of respect forthe protection of animal species than China,
or many of the countries in South East Asia
where this drink is commonplace.
The cobra is the most common species ofsnake to be used in the production of snake
wine, and this is one type of snake which isprotected by international trade law. The
law applies to both dead and living animals.
Other protected animals which are often
seen in these types of "medicinal" elixirs areturtles and seahorses.
The benefits of consuming snake in any
form are unproven and rank alongside rhino
horn, dried seahorse and tiger bones as an
example of a belief in eastern medicine whichis contributing to the demise of these species.

Article by Craig

NET LESSONS: Are you too busy to come toCROSSROADS?....Try our lessons on the Internet!

SITE OF THE MONTH:
Find the meaning of dreams about snakes:
http://esmesanbona.hubpages.com/hub/Snakes-In-aDream-The-Meaning-of-Dreams-About-Snakes

Joshua Says: 2012 has passed and the world didn’t end as somepeople were predicting. As a matter of fact, I’m feeling pretty
positive coming into this new year. We have new students joining
us and the new semester system looks like its going to work out
well for everyone. Everything looks set for another great year. AllI need to do now is wish everyone a “Happy New Year”!

Junko Says: The Academy Awards nominees will be announced thismonth. A number of UK movies are expected to do well, and many thatsucceeded in the BAFTA nominations (the UK Oscars) are expected tobe in the front running for the USA nominations as well. I think
watching movies can help your English a lot. You can often get scripts ofyour favorite movies from the Internet which helps, too.

Matthew Says: So 2013 brings in yet another year of nonsense fromthe media. One of my New Year's resolutions is to never watch,
listen to or read the news, which should be fairly easy to achieve.
Another one I made is to finish my piano book and to teach my dogs
six new tricks each. How many resolutions did you make? I madethirty! You are welcome to ask me what they are in class!

Craig Says: In the last month I have managed to get to
Hiroshima, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka and Nagasaki. That's quite a lotof travelling for one month, and I think I will have to stick aroundin Matsuyama for the next few months until Golden Week, when I
can afford to go to Hokkaido and make my distillery pilgrimage!
Then I will have been to all the main islands in Japan.

Arnaud Dit:

Bonne année! Dur dur de reprendre le travail, dansle froid, après les fêtes de fin d'année! Mais courage! Je voussouhaite à tous de passer une merveilleuse année !



1. I’m going to do “10 minutes every day”;
2. I’m going to drop in regularly at ourInternational Cafe-Club so I can practise speaking
English (and other foreign languages) more;
3. I’m going to read more books and watch moremovies (without sub-titles), in English;
4. I’m going to support our 1+1 campaign byinviting more of my friends to join our school;
5. I’m going to be kind to snakes.

Professor
Matt’samazing
experiment

Here’s some great news to start the New Year with: One of our students,Rikuta Morifuji, has passed the Eiken first level. Rikuta is a first-year high school student.
Here is what he has to say about his experience:“Last autumn, I passed the 1st level of the Eiken examination. Now, I’dlike to tell you the experiences I had in my studies.
I first decided to take the Eiken examination about a year ago. I wanted
to measure how well I understand the English language, and began
preparing for the exam.
However, passing the grade 1 examination was much harder than I had
expected. The level of vocabulary used in past questions of the exam wasincredibly high and I could hardly understand what was mentioned in thepassages, so I spend most of my free time memorizing English words.
A few months later, I went to take the Eiken examination. I was pretty nervous, but soon after the test
began, I found myself solving the questions with ease! I was able to understand the passages easily, and thelistening section was not so hard for me as well. Then, I passed the Grade1 exam.
It goes without saying that learning English is no easy task. However, the efforts you’re making today
will surely pay off in the long run. Please keep on studying English so that you can enjoy English in thefuture.”……Congratulations, Rikuta! Good Job!!

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