Gentrain Lectures are usually held in LF 103 from 1:30 to 2:30 pm unless differently specified. Visitors are welcome; no charge or registration is required. Parking is $1.00 (quarters only) for non-society menbers.

August 6, 2008 - Disappearing Languages Dr. Peter Silzer, Associate Professor at DLIFLC and long-time field linguist, will explain the critical state of less-commonly spoken languages in today's world. It is estimated that several hundred smaller languages will "disappear" in the next decade as more dominant languages take their place in traditional societies. Dr. Silzer will talk about what can be done to preserve these valuable resources. Elderly man from Indonesia who uses a language spoken by less than 1,000 people Dr. Silzer has been a student of languages for over 40 years. He received his PhD in Linguistics from the Australian National University in 1984 based on his description of a vernacular language of Eastern Indonesia. In addition to his many years in field research, he has taught linguistics and translation studies in Indonesia and in the U.S. since 1984. He is also the co-author of "How Biblical Languages Work: A Student's Guide to Learning Hebrew and Greek" (Kregel 2004). August 20, 2008 - Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities and the Elderly Our Wednesday speaker, Michael Castaneda, explains, “The ability of a person to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disaster depends on a variety of factors. The purpose of this lecture is to introduce and discuss ways an elerly person or a person with limited mobility can get prepared for a disaster. “During the winter of 1986, I broke my back in a snow skiing accident that left me paralyzed from the waist own. For the rest of my life I would have to depend on a wheelchair for mobility. I was twenty-one years old. Although this devastating accident changed the way I would live my physical life, it did not change my personality. Living with a disability has not been easy, but most people who know me believe that I’ve managed to do it with a smile on my face and my head held high. “My professional background is varied. For the past ten years, I have lived and worked in Monterey as a survey statistician for the U.S. Army’s Evaluation Division at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) and Presidio of Monterey. While at the DLIFLC, my responsibilities have included survey development and analysis, evaluation of foreign language programs, and improvement of the Institute’s online language-training delivery system. “Around Monterey County, as a community volunteer, I have spoken to North Monterey County High School students in Castroville about the value of education in general and of a college degree in particular. Currently, I am a volunteer member of the Monterey County Citizen Corps Committee. In this capacity, I have participated in outreach conferences for disaster preparedness to people in Salinas and Soledad. In addition, as a volunteer Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Trainer with the Monterey Fire Department, I co-facilitated two 20-hour training courses in the spring and all of 2007 and am currently preparing CERT seminars to be given in 2008. “As an advocate for wheelchair access, I serve on the Executive Board of the Central Coast Center for Independent Living (CCCIL), which promotes the independence of people with disabilities by supporting their equal and full participation in community life. My academic background includes a BS in Health Education from Fresno State University and a Master’s in Public Health from San Diego State University. Currently, I am a doctoral student at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University. My dissertation is focused on enhancing the level of emergency preparedness that the Community Emergency Response Team training program provides for people with disabilities.” September 3 and 10, 2008 - Ethics John Provost, a philosophy instructor at Monterey Peninsula College, will give two lectures on ethics. Philosophy means the "love of wisdom," and ethics is a crucial component of living a life of wisdom. The philosophical life is the examined life, and thinking critically about ethical issues is essential to the examined life. Our goal in these philosophy lectures, then, is to become wiser! One way of doing that is to study the nature of right and wrong. Then we explore how various philosophical schools struggle with the moral decision process. How do we know what is good? How can we be sure we made the right decision? Are there ethical tools we can learn to use to make moral decisions in our own lives? Are ethics in the East different from those of the West? What does Integral Ethics have to offer? These are some of the questions we will be investigating. Most importantly, we will be looking for ways to see how ethics can be applied in our lives and in the world. John Provost has been studying philosophy and religion for over 25 years. He has studied the great ideas of the world found in both secular and religious philosophy. John's approach to contemporary issues, such as ethics, is to study it in the light of the questions and ideas raised by the great wisdom traditions. September 17, 2008 - History and Art of the Ming Dynasty Gentrain instructor Tom Logan will present a slide lecture on the history and art of the Ming Dynasty in conjunction with the trip to the Asian Art Museum on September 20 The Chinese Ming Dynasty lasted from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty of Kubla Khan. The Ming was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic Hans (the main Chinese ethnic group), before falling to the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty. One of the most famous Ming emperors was the Yongle Emperor who entrusted his favored eunuch commander Zheng He (1371­1433) to sail a fleet of large junks west to open diplomatic relations with whatever lands might be there. Zheng He got all the way to Africa and in a famous painting presented the emperor with a giraffe. If he had gone east, he would have discovered America before Columbus did! Ming Dynasty art saw a flourishing in the arts, whether it was painting, poetry, music, literature, or dramatic theater. Carved designs in lacquerwares and designs glazed onto porcelain wares displayed intricate scenes similar in complexity to those in painting.