El Cerrito Rotary: The Wheel June 24, 2010

Past President Jim Spain welcomed everyone to the friendly El Cerrito Rotary Club. Gary B led the flag salute and Steve provided the thought for the day.

Secretary John:  Introduced visiting Rotarians Gil Ferrey who then introduced two Ambassadorial Scholars who were are guests today:  Jaeyoung Choi from South Korea and Alfredo Rizza from Italy.

Jane led us in reciting the 4-Way Test

Announcements:

Gary B announced the Interact Club is going to participant in the Relay for Life fundraiser at Cerrito Vista Park on July 24-25.  The Interact members would like to have one or two Rotary chaperones for the occasion.  If you are interested please get in touch with Gary.  

Happy Dollars:   Gary B is happy he attended his 50^th high school reunion in Susanville Ca.   Frank is happy to be going to Hawaii on vacation.  Don is happy to be taking his boat on an 8 day cruise of the Delta.  Gary A is unhappy with the cold weather.  He just returned from backpacking in Alaska where it was a bit warmer than here.  Ilhami is happy he had the pretty lady Rotarians at his table.

Sgt at Arms Nancy:  Not on Duty Today

Today’s Program: 

Jim introduced Berkeley Rotarian Gil Ferrey gave us an insight into the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar program and then told us briefly about Jaeyoung Choi and Alfredo Rizza.  Jaeyoung took the microphone and gave us a short bio of himself and explained he will be making a presentation on his scholastic endeavors at UCB at a later meeting. 

Alfredo Rizza began his presentation by explaining his academic study in the Linguistics Dept at UCB where his is focusing on ancient  Hittite language and its impact on the many cultures in the Middle East in the first/second millennia.  Alfredo showed us a few pictures of his home town and the university where he got his degree. 

Then he gave an overview of his research in the Hittite language and its influence on other ancient cultures in the region.  He gave us some insights into the communication challenges faced by the various cultures and the challenges it provided when the various “countries” attempted to create a network of treaty, trade and cooperation.   He treated us to pictures of the pictures of some of the 40000 tablets that have been recovered in archeological digs and how these writings have provided a lot of information into how the numerous languages were translated on many of these tablets.

This was a fascinating presentation that made us all wonder more about how we are where we are today and the influence of the past in the current picture.    

Jaeyoung Choi tells us about himself

Alfredo Rizza tell us about the Hittite Language

Today’s Lottery Winner:   Michael C. had his ticket drawn for the bottle of wine.  Don had his ticket drawn for the lottery and selected a cats-eye  marble.  Next meeting the pot will be $55.

Genie Stone:  Frank and won the magic stone for July.

Thought for the Week:

Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.

--Samuel Taylor Coleridge