Studying English through America culture

      It began on August 3rd, the day when this ESL class started. Studying about America culture and their language are the main reasons why I chose this class. I had studied my major in the MBA program and realized that I needed to improve my English so I decided to take this class. After 10 weeks, my English has actually improved significantly. Studying any language is not just about vocabulary and grammar, it’s also important to learn about the culture and tradition.

Out front of National Museum of America History

Revolution House

      I’ve learned many things from this class. Specifically, going on field trips was most helpful to me. During the time, I have seen with my own eyes gorgeous architecture and real life activities. For instance, my class went to the America History Museum on the National Mall in Washington D.C and it was in the third week after class began. I saw a lot of stuff such as the Original America Flag, the Philadelphia Gunboat, the Revolution House, the First Lady Gowns, also lots of information about war history while I was walking around in the Museum. After this trip, I have much more knowledge about America that maybe I wouldn’t know otherwise. It clearly allowed me to visualize where the American way came from. 

Viet Nam - America War

Viet Nam - America War

Philadelphia Gunboat

Hillary Clinton Gown 

The Star Spangled Banner

     Somehow, I couldn’t completely understand the meaning of idioms and word phrases on my own but with the teacher’s help it’s no longer a problem. Some common idioms have been given and discussed among the class like “I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place” which means you can’t choose between two difficult things or word phrases like “to strike a chord” – to say something that people are happy to hear, “at the push of a button” – it’s automatic, and etc… They have been using a lot on news and communication sometimes so learning them is a big step to understand America culture.

     Another interesting thing that I like is Ted Talk. It helped my listening by showing different kind of voices and from inspiring people who are really good at presenting. After that we had chances to discuss, sometimes we argued with many different opinions. One of the videos that we argued about the most is the animal rights through the “Chimps have feelings and thoughts. They should have rights” by Steven Wise. By discussing and arguing like that I and my class mates practiced a lot of speaking English to each other and were more comfortable with American way. That is something you can’t find it anywhere. Here is the video: 

     
     In conclusion, studying culture and tradition in this class have contributed a huge helpfulness to me. In fact, my English has been improved more than I ever expected by going on field trips, discussing idioms and arguing with my own opinions to other students. The good thing about the class is that we have been practicing in American way everyday since the day it started.

My English Class

     Have you ever thought about studying in the ESL program at Stratford University. In my class, we read the Newspaper everyday, go on trips every week, and practice critical thinking all the time. 

  

    First reading Newspaper enriched my vocabulary. For example, the word sanction which means

a threatened penalty for disobeying a law or rule. I knew this word when we read the article in the Newspaper.  And, the word bottleneck which means moving from wide to narrow. I knew this word when we spoke about the traffic in the DC. In addition, reading Newspaper informed us of events. For instance, Pope visited and that helped us to be aware about the crowded in Washington DC. As a result we didn’t go trip when the Pope visited. Moreover, reading Newspaper improved my reading skills. When I started my class my skills in reading were slow. But know my reading is faster than before. Our teacher wrote some questions in the bored and we had to find the answers from Newspaper.Then he reviewed the answer with us.

Collection of links

Good Morning students,

Here are some links to help you with background for your projects :

Detroit

New Orleans

Your presentations should be posted to the blog by Monday morning, 9am.

TED Talk - Barry Schwartz: The way we think about work is broken

US Library of Congress

 Tomorrow, September 16th, we're going to visit the Library of Congress.  It is located at 101 Independence Ave SE, across the street from the US Capitol building.  It opens at 8:30a.m. and closes at 5p.m.  The closest Metro station is Capitol South on the Orange or Blue lines.  When you exit the metro station, walk 2 blocks to the north on 1st street.
     We can take a free guided tour around the building which starts every hour, at the half hour and lasts about 1 hour.  We're looking forward to it because there are a lot of interesting things to learn there.  See you tomorrow! 

Field Trip to the National Botanic Garden

Tomorrow, Thursday, September 9th, we are going to visit the National Botanic Garden located on the National Mall near the U.S. Capitol Building on the corner of 3rd St. SW and Independence Ave SW.  The closest metro stop is Federal Center on the Blue, Silver, or Orange lines. 
 

    

We will be making a short video in 2 teams, Dalal and Kelvin will work together on Team 1 ; Huy and Ahmed on Team 2.  Each team will be responsible for producing a voice over on Friday.  See you tomorrow!

Sharing knowledge

     Yesterday, we had a meeting with all students in English as a Second Language (ESL) and Information Technology (IT). We talked about happiness and goals.  There were a lot of  international students and professors.  Also, some of  the students shared their experiences, and knowledge while the others were listening.  The professors were active in the discussion. Also, we had our pictures taken while we were talking and smiling.  We also had snacks together. I think it was useful because we shared our experiences, practiced English, made friends. It influenced us to know each other and speak and listen to different accents. Also It encouraged shy students to talk.
      Finally, I have some recommendations to improve the meeting.  We should  let the students share in choosing the topic for the discussion. Ask each  student  to write a question and ask the group about their opinions. We should  try to make the meeting informal, and we can start with a story or something funny to let students feel relaxed in the meeting. We should mention the goal of this meeting and explain the benefits.  If any international students want to bring their  food or coffee, we can talk about it. In addition, we should organize the seats to let each one see the others.

Do you have any recommendations to improve the meeting?