I love movies

My husband and I went to the movies at Multiplex Cinemas, located in Edgewater, NJ.
This movie's title is "Night at the museum". Being inside the movie theater was a powerful experience for me. The sound was loud and exciting. This is the seventh I have seen at the movie theater. This is my husband's second time in America. We were very exicited.
I think that we want to go to cinema again.(We check next movies "Ghost Rider" and "The Astronaut Farmer)

On the wrong side of the road!

Living or moving into in a foreign country is never an easy thing to do. Not only do we have to adapt with the language, but also we have to get used to the culture and the little things we have taken for granted. For instance, I remember that in my first few weeks here in New York City, I was always walking in the wrong side of the road. In Indonesia, people drive and walk on the left side of the road. The thing was that I knew and was aware in the US that the traffic is on the right, and crossing the street always made me nervous. But what I didn't realize was people also walk on the right side. I could not figure this out for my first few weeks here. I always walked on the wrong side of the road, on the sidewalk, in the subway station, in the hallways, in the supermarket. I was so frustrated! I was always in the middle of other people's way, and I also felt that people were always in the middle of my way. Finally I started to realize it and trying hard to follow the 'American's way'. However, it was not easy to break the habit of walking in the left side. It took me a few months before I finally got used to walking on the right side. Now it feels normal to me. However, I guess when I go back to Indonesia, I will be confused again, because I have to switch to walking and driving on the left side again.

Do you feel the same? Do you have any similar experience?

Our morning exercise @Morningside Heights

Today's class started with a game called 'Last Man Standing'. This game is a whole class activity. The purpose of this game was to review verb forms and Present Perfect Tense.

To start, all participants formed a circle, then they had to respond quickly to the word mentioned by me. In the first round the participants had to respond by saying the past and past participle forms of the verbs mentioned. They took turns in responding. If they mentioned the wrong verb or they were too slow (taking more than 2 seconds), they had to squat. The game went on until we got the last person standing, who is the winner! In the second round, they had to respond by saying a sentence using the verb in the Present Perfect structure.

Well, amazingly we had some tough players. And the proud winners of this game were Sachiko (1st round) and Heui-Kyeong (2nd round). What a fun morning exercise for everyone! Right ladies? ;-)

Litte March Amulet

Every year Romanian people knit two little tassels: a white one and a red one. At the beginning of March, they offer this amulet to the girls they love… In Moldavia, part of Romania, all persons can receive a little March amulet. Red means love for everything that is beautiful and white symbolizes the pureness and health of the snowdrops, the first flowers that appear in spring. That is the first celebration of spring in Romania.

The Legend of March Amulet
Once upon a time, the Sun embodying a handsome young man, got down from the sky to dance a “hora” in a village. A dragon lay in wait for him and kidnapped him from among the people and threw him into a jail. The world got sad. The birds wouldn’t flow and the children wouldn’t laugh. No one dared to challenge the bad dragon. But one day a brave young man decided to go and save the Sun. Lots of people saw him off and shared their strength with him. So they helped him defeat the dragon and save the Sun. His journey lasted for three seasons: summer, autumn and winter. He found the dragon’s castle and they started to fight. They fought for days and finally the dragon was killed.
Powerless and wounded, the young man set the Sun free. The Sun rose in the sky cheering up all the people and filling them with joy. The nature revived, the people got happy, but the young man couldn’t live to see spring coming. The warm blood from his wounds dropped on the snow. While the snow was melting white flowers, called snowdrops, messengers of the spring, were appearing out of the snow. Even his last drop of blood dripped out in the immaculate snow. And he died.
Since then the young people have been knitting two little tassels: a white one and a red one. At the beginning of March, they offer this amulet to the girls they love… Red means love for everything that is beautiful. It reminds us of the colour of the brave young man’s blood. White symbolizes the pureness and health of the snowdrops, the first flowers that appear in spring.

I hope you will enjoy reading about it.

Today's class

Today we started the theme of ROBBERY. We used pictures to make some speculations of what has happened. Then we started the second unit titled 'Whodunit'. The listening activity seemed pretty challenging. It was a bit tricky. I guess the sound was not loud enogh, was it? The pronunciation drilling was quite interesting, though some learners need to speak up more. We went through the police report and then practiced the two conversations in small groups. Time just went so fast and by the time I needed to explain the MODALS OF SPECULATION/CONCLUSION/PREDICTION (present and future contexts), I was left with very little time. We went through the modals 'may', 'might', 'could', 'must', 'have to' and 'can't'. I hope in the next lesson we can try using this modals of specualtion in different kinds of activity.

Well, glad to have Magda, Sachiko, and Miriam back in class. So, what do you guys think of today's class? And Tomoko, how was Niagara Falls? Isn't today very cold? You could share with us the 'frozen waterfall' story.

For the next class, I would like you to think about the most memorable experience you have had during your stay in the US.

Please post your comments. Go for it! =)

Our class, CEP @Teachers College

Well, to tell you the truth at the beginning of our class I was quite a bit nervous. I was nervous about teaching in a new situation and also meeting new students. You know, almost all of my teaching experience has been in Indonesia, my home country. Although I had taught before in Canada (1996) and gave some presentations at international conferences, I was still nervous. But when I started to know the students in my class I felt so much better. Now I know that all of you guys are very good learners. You have very positive attitude towards learning. You have always shown great enthusiasm in class, never hesitate to take risks in learning and always want to do more and more. I am sure every teacher will feel as happy as I am now to have such wonderful students like all of you.

So far, I can say that I am quite happy with some progress that you have made with your English. I can see that all of you have been trying to take more risks in speaking and experimenting with the language. What also makes me happy is that how our class has started to be like a small community, just like a family. Everybody is helping each other. I remember one day, when the class was over some of you were still in the class discussing the lesson, and helping each other with explaining some grammar points. Also last week I learned that some of you visited your classmate's house and had some wonderful time. It is a great atmoshere! Keep it up.

And please remember not to be afraid in making mistakes in learning a language. Don't be so obsessed with grammar. Learning a language is not like learning math. There are a lot of exceptions and special cases. So take your time to digest all of them. Making mistakes is part of the learning process, just like all the skills in the world. Well, just like cooking, swimming, dancing, or playing the piano. We have to make mistakes in hte process to be better. The secret is to keep learning from the mistakes and keep improving. So be relaxed about them. Also, don't use translation too much. Try to be more spontaneous when you speak or write, Use what you remember, not what you don't remember. Well, I will show you more later in class.

As for now I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Ciao!

WELCOME!

Hi everyone!

Welcome to our blog! This is the blog for Iwan's Intermediate 3B morning class, Spring 2007 at Community English Language Program (CEP) in Teachers College, Columbia University. The blog is a tool for us to expand our language learning, giving more opportunities to go beyond the walls of the classrooms. I will post topics, questions, announcements, and different kinds of stories, where you can respond to any of them if you wish to. Remember you don't have to respond unless I really want you to do so. There is no pressure!

This blog is about you, about connecting all of us in the spirit of learning and friendship. And most importantly to stress the idea that LEARNING IS FUN and that's how it should be.

So, take this opportunity, enjoy your cyber space interaction using English, and let's have some fun.