Flowers

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[Denmark Pilongo]

Denmark Pilongo
Customer Service Specialist

"I am glad I found The American Institute because they helped me in improving my conversation fluency and developing my confidence. At first, I was very intimidated when speaking in English, but I became more and more comfortable. I am currently working as customer service specialist in the BPO/Call Center industry, and I have The American Institute to thank for. I am still a part of the institute through their English Club called Universal Pro-English Club. We've done many activities including trips to Baguio, Lucena, interview strategies, and many more so that we can use English in a natural setting."

Alice Anod
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"The English language Specialists are very different from all the teachers I've had in high school or college. Most teachers I've had in the past were very strict and distanced themselves from the students, but these guys will make you feel like you're one of them. In fact, we call them by their first names, not "sir" or ma'am." They respect us as students with individuality, and at the same time, we respect them for their knowledge and expertise. I used to work for a relatively small local bank, but now I work for a major international firm after developing my speech and communication skills through them."

Elaine Villafuerte
Hotel Operations Specialist

"Before I came to The American Institute, I was already somewhat confident with my English; I simply wanted to polish my speech and communication skills. What I found was that I had so much more to learn. They really taught me how not to just speak English, but how to speak WELL. I was able to improve my critical thinking skills and became a more organized speaker. Now, I work for a five-star hotel, and I am so much more confident when dealing with local executives as well as foreign business professionals. I would highly recommend their services."

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[ANC, the News Channel of ABS-CBN, partners with The American Institute.]

ANC, the News Channel of ABS-CBN, partners with The American Institute.  On October 3, 2007, The American Institute became the official consultant for the Philippine Debate Championship which is co-sponsored by ABS-CBN/ANC and Philippine Graphics.  The debate tournament uses the parliamentary debate format, in which two university students compete against two others.  General Manager and English Language Specialist Christopher Delacruz, an Impromptu Speaking Champion in the US and Canada and Finalist in several  parliamentary debate events in the Northwest Public Debate Association has and will be helping the teams to prepare for the nationally televised debates and help lead them to the world championships which will be held in Thailand.  The debates air live on ANC every Wednesday at 8 pm.

[Wednesday]

Does any of you have a favorite type of flowers? My favorites are daises,roses and tulips. I'm not much a big fan of roses really but if someone would give me one I wont have no problem with that. I prefer tulips though, they are very pretty but its quiet expenisve.

Many flowers have important symbolic meanings in Western culture. The practice of assigning meanings to flowers is known as floriography. Some of the more common examples include:

Red roses are given as a symbol of love, beauty, and passion.
Poppies are a symbol of consolation in time of death. In the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, red poppies are worn to commemorate soldiers who have died in times of war.
Irises/Lily are used in burials as a symbol referring to "resurrection/life". It is also associated with stars (sun) and its petals blooming/shining.
Daisies are a symbol of innocence.
Flowers within art are also representative of the female genitalia, as seen in the works of artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Imogen Cunningham, Veronica Ruiz de Velasco, and Judy Chicago, and in fact in Asian and western classical art. Many cultures around the world have a marked tendency to associate flowers with femininity.
The great variety of delicate and beautiful flowers has inspired the works of numerous poets, especially from the 18th-19th century Romantic era. Famous examples include William Wordsworth's I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and William Blake's Ah! Sun-Flower.

Because of their varied and colorful appearance, flowers have long been a favorite subject of visual artists as well. Some of the most celebrated paintings from well-known painters are of flowers, such as Van Gogh's sunflowers series or Monet's water lilies. Flowers are also dried, freeze dried and pressed in order to create permanent, three-dimensional pieces of flower art.

The Roman goddess of flowers, gardens, and the season of Spring is Flora. The Greek goddess of spring, flowers and nature is Chloris.

In Hindu mythology, flowers have a significant status. Vishnu, one of the three major gods in the Hindu system, is often depicted standing straight on a lotus flower. Apart from the association with Vishnu, the Hindu tradition also considers the lotus to have spiritual significance. For example, it figures in the Hindu stories of creation. (via wikipedia)

The national state flower of Hawaii is the Hibscus.When i was a kid whenever my family and I would visit my great grandmother in her province. She would have plants of Hisbiscus on the side of her house and I'd use to pick on it all the time to play with it or put it on the side of my ear. I thought I'd never see them again when my family and I immigrated here in hawaii,much to my surprise there are a lot of them here which makes me happy because it would remind me of my great grandmother whnever I see one. I guess you can count as Hibicus to be one of my fave flowers as well





now thats how you talk about flowers

[jonah]

i love tulips ever since i saw them it's like love at first sight.
they are very much like me.
they are like perfect but sensitive.
the petals are like steady and hard but if you touch them they are so smooth and soft.

i love roses but its when they are already dry.
i don't know why but i think its the way i feel when i look at them all brown or even black coz they are so sad..

[alucard]

i have yet to see a papaver somniferum, or the lowly poppy, it has various colors and you'd experience various colorful hallucinations if you consume too much of it's refined extracts and get addicted to it. so i've read that poppies are given as consolation for those grieving, but the derivative extracts of the poppy could help the beneficiary in getting numb from the pain that they are suffering. so get some poppy derivatives from some local illicit pharmacist in your neighborhood and savor the joy of being in the womb when you feel down and grieving.

now that's a better way to talk about a flower

[hyperonin]

i still prefer the traditional flower.. Rose..

[alucard]

well okay, let's talk about the rose. of the family Rosaceae (wiki) with tons of variety and tons of differing colors and appearance. the most common would be those that sell a lot during valentines day i think it's the china rose or the hybrid tea rose, well i can't see the roses they sell here in wiki so i'm just gonna assume those are the closest varieties we often encounter here.

"The rose has always been valued for its beauty and has a long history of symbolism. The ancient Greeks and Romans identified the rose with their goddesses of love referred to as Aphrodite and Venus. In Rome a wild rose would be placed on the door of a room where secret or confidential matters were discussed. The phrase sub rosa, or "under the rose", means to keep a secret ? derived from this ancient Roman practice." -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose

as i have read and watched the novel "the brotherhood of the rose", it had always stuck on my mind that roses were used as a symbol of secrecy. it was described in the novel as one clandestine operative's favorite botanical hobby and was so obsessed with it and went on to breed a dark colored one.

"Early Christians identified the five petals of the rose with the five wounds of Christ. Despite this interpretation, their leaders were hesitant to adopt it because of its association with Roman excesses and pagan ritual. The red rose was eventually adopted as a symbol of the blood of the Christian martyrs. Roses also later came to be associated with the Virgin Mary." -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose

well that just goes to show the hipocrisy of the roman catholic doctrines, they didn't want their religion to have any association with the pagan roman beliefs but most of the roman catholic holidays are based on most pagan rituals. i mean, what does even easter mean for the religious anyway, everyone thinks it's the celebration on the ressurrection of christ, but such isn't the case, well i only found out through neil gaiman's american gods on the true heritage of that festivity. if you want to read on, be my guest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ēostre. and if that isn't proof enough, better look up on the history and the related reason for it, and it's not about the birth of christ either.

there's also this novel and film the name of the rose released in 1986 and stars sean connery and christian slater. it was based on the book by umberto eco and it's a good lengthy read. the title doesn't have anything to do with the story, it's a detective whodunit, but the mere symbolism of the rose on secrecy and other obscure ones kind of relate it's mysterousness to the books plot and storyline anyway. Umberto "Eco wrote that he liked this title "because the rose is a symbolic figure so rich in meanings that by now it hardly has any meaning left." -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose,  and besides, it's all about an monastery of religious catholics killing each other off or one mean zealous bastard poisoning the readers of a book because of some liberal idea.

 

[Wednesday]

I was walking early this morning and I came across an old blind man with an eye dog with him. He was holding flowers in his hand. He stopped in front of me and said " Will you please take this flowers and give it to someone you care about. It will give you goodluck." I was surprised by his gesture and what he had said. I wanted to tell him to give it to someone else but he felt my hesitance so before I could say anything he found my hand and gave me the flowers and said "Be a good girl and do what I say." I just said thank you and he walked away. I looked down on the flowers in my hands and it was actually very pretty. I wasnt actually familiar with the flower so I asked some people around me and they said it was a poppy. I looked it up today and sure enough it does look like what the old man have given me. It's blue poppies and I really dont know who to give it to. I care about so many people,right now I just put it in a base while I thin about who to give it to. Well, I already gave one to my mom and dad. I have 4 more left.  I should keep it for myself and have all the luck for me heehehe.

[Wednesday]

Wow,I just read that poppies are a luck or a charm to Capricorns. That's weird because I'm a Capricorn. Could that old man have known that?

[bread_stix]

People find it weird when I tell them my favorite flower is a white rose, cause most of them associate white roses to be the flower for the dead.   

[alucard]

well people find it weird when i used to piss on my mom's tiny garden. and sometimes her friend would come to the house and smell the urine filled roses, that's extra value for their buck. so i take better good care and look at the leaves of flower plants first before i let the kids smell or play with them. if there are brown acid blotches on the leaves and catterpillars stay away from it, it's more likely than not that it's been urinated on. at least pissing on those flowering plants taught me some good insights, that sometimes it's not really that good to just hang back and smell the roses. i think some hippie junkie coined that phrase...

[Wednesday]

My flowers withered today.It's lifeless,gloomy looking dead flowers. I guess my luck ran out. I didnt deserve it anyway. I think that old man just gave it to me because he felt I needed it. I did need it but it doesn't mean I deserve it and the flowers knew that and they died on me. I wish it gave me more time to give them away,not because of the luck I woud get but more of just giving it to someone more deserving maybe they'd have better luck than I'd have. Looking at this dead flowers makes me so sad.