If you don’t find these sentences
Hilariously funny,
You may be a murderer
Of English!

I received a Master’s Degree in linguistics in 1973 from New York University and set up my private school “The English School,” hired a number of teachers and assistants. Then I was awarded a Ph.D. also in linguistics in 1988 at New York University. Taught English and trained teachers at New York University, Hunter College, Brooklyn College and The City University of New York.

T H E . E N G L I S H . S C H O O L
Established in 1973

Dr. Robin Starbuck, Director
Midtown Manhattan @ United Nations Plaza

Dr. Robin J. Starbuck
PUBLICATIONS besides Doctoral Dissertation:

Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Variation – Page 174

https://books.google.com/books?isbn=9027282773

Robert Bayley, ‎Dennis R. Preston – 1996 – ‎Preview – ‎More editions
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 7:11-36. Dusková, Libuse. 1984. Similarity — An aid or hindrance in foreign language learning? Folia Linguistica 18:103-15. Eisenstein, Miriam R., and Robin J. Starbuck.

Variation in second language acquisition – Volume 50 – Page 125

https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1853590274

Susan M. Gass – 1989 – ‎Snippet view – ‎More editions
8 The effect of emotional investment on L2 production MIRIAM R. EISENSTEIN ROBIN J. STARBUCK New York University As research in second language variation has progressed, it has become increasingly apparent that a number of …

Current Issues in European Second Language Acquisition … – Page 192

https://books.google.com/books?isbn=3823350439

Bernhard Kettemann, ‎Wilfried Wieden – 1993 – ‎Preview – ‎More editions
Eisenstein , Miriam R . & Starbuck , Robin J . ( 1989 ) , ” The effect of emotional investment on L2 production ” . In : Gass / Madden / Preston / Selinker , eds . ( 1989 ) , 125 – 137 . Felix , Sascha W . ( 1984 ) , ” Maturational Aspects of Universal …

There is an urgent need in “Christianity” to look for, seek out and find the good in our fellow believers’ teaching – EVEN WHEN WE DISAGREE with some significant doctrinal point. Of course we must exercise the greatest due diligence with our discernment.

My own spiritual climb has received a huge impetus of late from Kathryn Kuhlman and yet I do not subscribe to the doctrine of Dispensationalism – not at all. Kathryn Kuhlman has a singular message – and once one gets it, he can go home, so to speak. It’s simply this: want nothing … absolutely nothing … but the Holy Spirit. That’s all. When I watch her videos, my whole be-ing begins again to breathe freely and so much junk from the past becomes nothing more than a sweet memory of what I’ve overcome.

What do you have in life that is more important than the Holy Spirit? Whatever it is, that is your worst enemy – your only enemy, really. You must crave (my word) the Spirit of God: it’s Jesus living in you, the hope of glory. But I sense that very few people are actually experiencing His overwhelming presence in an exciting and palpable way.

We can – and must – assimilate all newly-gleaned knowledge gently enough to allow ourselves to keep our beautiful, flexible minds open … open, that is, to the Holy Spirit. We are big enough now (mature enough) to learn from other believers, even if they are awaiting a rapture and we believe it’s come and gone!

We’ve got to NOT get cocky and think that we have all the answers; ask our precious Abba (Daddy) to guide us in every thought and tell Him to take anything from us but, please “Take not Your Holy Spirit from me.”

I’M WONDERING ……. JUST WONDERING ……. how many of you out there can do honest research on a topic that you haven’t been in agreement with? You mustn’t answer too quickly because this requires very careful mental scrutiny. I’m not talking about reading something while taking to the reading your own preconceived notions: I’m talking about assuming that your preconceived notions are somehow completely WRONG! I’m talking about an open mind that is really honestly open. I know as an absolute fact that most people CANNOT do this. They have their well thought out, well prayed over set of prejudices – whether they want to realize it or not!

I tried doing this kind of research on a topic that I don’t even care to disclose here because the topic is so hot that nobody fails to have a set of opinions about it. But I did do something that I’m truly wondering how many people can even do: I broached an issue RECOGNIZING AND ACKNOWLEDGING my own personal prejudice and gave it a kind of Cartesian litmus test. I knew that I wanted to find proof that something is very, very wrong and abhorrent in God’s eyes. Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” comes into play as “There is, therefore God is”.

Of course the Scriptures are the place to turn to – that’s a given. What I want to quit doing is bringing my own preconceived notions into my interpretation of Scriptures. That’s a pretty hard thing to do when you’ve got to draw the line somewhere as to what more you’re going to take in from the Anointed scholars out there. I know that the Holy Spirit is/was perfectly capable of guiding and teaching me. The issue that I had personally found so reprehensible … well, I was unable to prove that people who buy into this paradigm are forever lost and I even had to deal with a sense of disappointment because my sense of justice and judgment had been shaken to its core.

Anyway, my whole point is to ask if anyone … anyone at all … is willing to acknowledge that they do have prejudices and preconceived notions which absolutely must be put on the shelf if they want to read anything honestly and squarely. The only way to put this junk on the shelf (suspend judgment) is to acknowledge that you have it in the first place!

Are You adequately open-minded?

Generally speaking, people can be grouped into two categories of intellectual preference. The first group prefers explorations which require a precision of logical processes. These are the people who become interested in the natural sciences and mathematics. They do not become scientists because of their education, they choose a scientific education because it gratifies their scientific mental set. The second group prefers explorations which involve the intellect in a less logically rigorous manner. These are the people who become interested in the liberal arts. They do not have a liberal arts mentality because of their education, they choose a liberal arts education because it gratifies their liberal arts mental set. Since both groups are intelligent, it is not difficult for members of one group to understand what members of the other group are studying. However, I have discovered a notable communication problem between the two groups. Many times my physicist friends have attempted to explain a concept to me and, in their exasperation, have tried one explanation after another, each one of which sounded (to me) abstract, difficult to grasp, and generally abstruse. When I could comprehend, at last, what they were trying to communicate, inevitably I was surprised to discover that the idea itself was actually quite simple. Conversely, I often have tried to explain a concept in terms which seemed (to me) laudably lucid, but which, to my exasperation, seemed hopelessly vague, ambiguous, and lacking in precision to my physicist friends.
Gary Zukav
The Dancing Wu Li Masters

RAPE THWARTED MIRACULOUSLY:
She was a college freshman, full of promise and purpose, prepared – as she’d ever be – to give an oral presentation in front of her acting class that day.

Making her usual trek through Central Park to Hunter College, she began to realize that she was quite alone in a rather secluded area of the park, when SUDDENLY, out of nowhere, a man appeared and wrapped his arm around her waist. Panic set in along with one single thought, “God…”

She sized up the situation in a millisecond, took a deep breath and began to BABBLE (meaningless confusion of words) like a lunatic! “You didn’t have to startle me,” she babbled in feigned admonishment; and he responded by tightening his grip on her waist … as they continued walking together.

“If you had wanted to walk with me, you could have just asked me without startling me” she cooed with amazing self-composure. When she became cognizant of her own lack of fear in the face of an ever-increasingly dangerous threat on her life, she had but one thought in mind as they rounded the corner near the lake: “KEEP BABBLING!” – “Where are the ducks? There were always ducks here, you remember? This is the duck pond and I remember I used to always feed the ducks” … she continued babbling incoherently: “I didn’t even know if it was allowed but I fed them ‘cuz they were so cute, … so where are they?”

Around the corner she noticed a steep staircase leading up and out of the park. She knew he had noticed it too by the tightening of his grip on her waist, which prompted her to BABBLE MORE: “Ducks …are… strange… animals … well … I … don’t … know … if … they … qualify … as … animals….”

His grip finally relaxed a bit. IN A FLASH, she darted up the stairs, taking two at a time, until she heard the sweetest sound emanating from below (his screaming an obscenity at her): “YOU B.I.I.I.I.I.I.T…!!

She had reached a safe distance from her would-be attacker. (I can vouch for the veracity of this account as I was the “She” in question.)

Some years later, as I was coaching a Japanese student of mine, the famous actress, Eri Ishida, on how to prepare her lines for an upcoming movie performance, as English practice, I told her this story in broken Japanese and she translated it back to English. Then, rather dismissively I confessed that I had been taking a college course in acting at the time and it wasn’t really myself who was so calm, cool and collected in the face of an inevitable rape and very possible murder. Eri very forcefully countered this argument by asserting, “THAT WAS THE REAL YOU, TOO” and added that this part of my be-ing was under the surface, but very present. “As a matter of fact it’s the ‘you’ that surfaces whenever there’s an emergency.” my loving student advised her teacher!

SEQUEL to “Rape Thwarted Miraculously”:
Many of my students and friends said “Oh, I could never do what you did. Where did you get the courage?”
I explained that I had been keenly aware that my very life was in danger and instantaneously turned to God – where I got the directive to ‘BABBLE’. For another person, it might have been to run or swim or I don’t know what; but God chose to instill in me the gift of ‘babble’ to distract and quell an otherwise horrific threat.