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Trip to California

Posted by khwu under Newsletter, Spring 2013 Issue 2

Abdullah Alhajri is a transitional level student in the IESL program.

Travel is the most beautiful part of my life. Whenever I get a chance to travel to different places in the world, I will not waste it. As I became older, I did more and more in traveling. Every year I planned for where I would travel. The last five years I have been to many places and I feel that each new trip was the best one in my travels. Now, I think traveling with a new life partner for the first time is one of the happiest times. Recently, I married the girl who I will share my life with. On January 1^st 2013, we decided to travel to California for two weeks. We began our trip in San Francisco, then traveled to Los Angles through the coastal road, which is Hwy 1 and then to San Diego.

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

All About Soccer

Posted by khwu under Newsletter, Spring 2013 Issue 2

Mazen Aboudah is a transitional level student in the IESL program.

Soccer, also named football, is a sport played by two teams. In UK, people call it football and most people call it soccer in Canada and the United States. Soccer has been played by over 250 million players all around the world and it has been considered as one of the most popular sports. Soccer has a long history. In ancient age, people kicked a ball as a game in many countries such as Australia and China. The modern rule of football or soccer was written by The Football Association in middle 19 century in England. The famous World Cup was also organized by the International Federation of Association Football.

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Chinese New Year Reflection

Posted by khwu under Chinese New Year Special, Newsletter, Spring 2013 Issue 2

Zeyu Yin is an advanced level student in the IESL program.

Every time Chinese people are asked “What is the grandest festival in China”, most of people will answer Spring Festival. Indeed, Spring Festival is the most important festival in the year. In New Years, everyone will set their job aside and hold together to share a wonderful meal. In China, celebrate New Year can date back to 5000 years before. In that time, people were not celebrated for New Year come but defense against a monster called “Nian”. This is why Chinese people like to use firecrackers to celebrate New Year. In a word, Chinese New Year is filled up with happiness and joy. You can see everyone’s face is smiling.

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Chinese New Year

Posted by khwu under Chinese New Year Special, Newsletter, Spring 2013 Issue 2

Miao Cai is an advanced level student in the IESL program.

Spring Festival is the most important holiday in China, and during those days all the people put the work aside and enjoy some delicious food with their families. This interesting custom originated 5000 years ago. At first, people were going to frighten a fierce monster. It hid in the deep ocean and only appeared at one special day and consequently, a terrible disaster would come. Therefore, people used fireworks to drive the monster away on that day. Also, cooking some food together would help to unite people. As time goes by, this custom continued until today. Every Chinese person uses his or her own way to celebrate this grand festival.

http://www.myhealthbeijing.com/2013/02/nyt-spring-festival-eating-habits/

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Culture Shock

Posted by khwu under Newsletter, Spring 2013 Issue 2

Bader Almuhanna is an intermediate level student in the IESL program.

Culture shock is a problem we face in our life when we move from our native country to another country that has different attitudes, customs and languages. The idea of culture shock reminds me of the first time I came to the United State in 2011. I had a hard time communicating with the Americans since in my home country, we speak Arabic. The first thing that takes me a while to get use to is the food. Every country has a diversity of foods. There were some American foods that I could not get used to like hamburgers and hot dogs. I grew up my whole life with a certain kind of food. Also, people in my country don’t eat pork, nor do they eat the animals that have not been slaughtered properly.

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Friday, April 12, 2013

Chinese New Year’s Memory

Posted by khwu under Chinese New Year Special, Newsletter, Spring 2013 Issue 1

Lihua Zhang is an advanced level student in the IESL program.

The Spring Festival is the most important festival for all Chinese people. New Year means a new start; everyone can think about their plans for next year. Like the old saying goes: “a good beginning is half of the success,” so people should make a plan.

People begin to prepare for something before the New Year; people buy pork, chicken, fish and vegetables and so on. Houses are cleaned, Chinese signs, “Down –Fu” are posted on the door, and people at the gate hung some colored lanterns.

On the New Year’s Eve, all family members get together and there is a big meal. Everyone celebrates with each other and everyone is happy. People wear new clothes; parents give their children lucky money in red envelopes. At 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, there is a very traditional ceremony on CCTV, Spring Festival Gala, and many people like it. It brings so much happiness to Chinese and makes all Chinese miss home. However, different people have different opinions; some people think it should be abolished, while there are also other people who disagree and they think it should be held.

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Friday, April 12, 2013

International Students Suffering From Culture Shock

Posted by khwu under Newsletter, Spring 2013 Issue 1

Yuxin Shao is an intermediate level student in the IESL program.

Learning a second language is definitely a popular thing in many countries; moreover, some parents send their children to American or Canada or others English speaking countries since English is the most official and most widely spread language in the world. Therefore, international students from all around the world go abroad for studying a second language. Then, they will face a problem that cannot be ignored, which is called culture shock.

Culture shock is the term for the uncomfortable feelings of getting used to a brand new environment. This word contains various types of situations such as the lack of communication with roommates, unfamiliarity about local directions or even having no idea about what to do and how to act in the class. Sometimes, that causes embarrassing conversation or physical illness.

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Friday, April 12, 2013

Travel with Carnival

Posted by khwu under Newsletter, Spring 2013 Issue 1

Shuai Zhou is a Transitional Level student in the IESL Program.

Last summer, my friends and I traveled to Caribbean; it was a really fantastic and unforgettable vacation. We enjoyed our journey in a boat named “Carnival” for 7 days. The Carnival is the biggest boat that I have ever seen. It can carry thousands of people and has all facilities that people used in land. On the top of boat, there is a pool with a drink bar. The gambling house is on the fourth floor is the most popular place in boat. At first, we fly to Miami for several days because we boarded from Miami. See the huge boat on the left. Our journey is about to start!

Eating and lodging are the two most important conditions during a vacation. In the Carnival boat, we have perfect eating and living condition. The boat has two kinds of rooms. One is a room with two single beds.

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Friday, April 12, 2013

A Special Spring Festival

Posted by khwu under Chinese New Year Special, Newsletter, Spring 2013 Issue 1

Yudan Lurong is an advanced level student in the IESL program.

Spring festival is one of most significant festival in China. It started around 2000 years ago. There is no specific date for this festival. The date is the first day of the traditional Chinese calendar, which is different from the Gregorian calendar. For example, January 23rd was Spring Festival in 2013; however, the festival was in February 10^th, 2012. Just as the date is changing in different years, the ways of celebrations are also changing from old days to modern life. In the past, the emperors offered sacrifices to gods and feted his subordinates in Spring Festival.

On the contrary, Spring Festival is regarded as the beginning of New Year in modern China and the day of family time. People usually unite together with their family to celebrate the festival no matter where they live or work. There will be a big dinner on New Year’s Eve and all family members will watch festival gala on TV together. These things have become part of traditions in modern Chinese families.

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Friday, April 12, 2013

The Bridge Festival

Posted by khwu under Newsletter, Spring 2013 Issue 1

Tian Wen is a transitional level student in the IESL program.

Last year, I went to the Bridge Festival of Houghton & Hancock with my friends. It was a big festival that celebrates the establishment of the Houghton bridge.

Houghton Bridge has an important history. It was officially opened in 1959. The bridge connects Houghton with Hancock. It is really a great bridge; the meaning of the bridge is not only making the people’s way of go across the lake easier but also making the economic communication between the two cities easier.

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