Unit 10-11: Cell Phone Culture

This week, we learned about how Apple's iPhone will compete with new Samsung and LG smart phones that use Google's Android open-source operating system. What kind of cell phone do you have? Will you buy a new cell phone next year? What kind do you want? Tell me about your current and future cell phone purchases. What do you look for?






Please practice using the following grammar styles we learned in class this semester. Write one sentence to answer each question:

1. PRESENT PERFECT (p. 93)/CELL PHONE VOCBABULARY (p. 109) - What has been your cell phone experience until now?

2. TIME CLAUSES (p. 78) - How do you usually use your phone? What do you use it for?

3. COMPARATIVES (p. 15) - Compare your current cell phone to your past cell phone.

4. SIMPLE FUTURE (p. 64) - Are you going to buy a new G3 smart phone? What kind will you buy?

Please make sure your response is at least 50 words.

Unit 9: Preparing for Job Interviews

This week in class, we talked about how to talk about your talents and skills in a job interview.

You can state a quality about yourself, then give an example of how that quality fits you, based on your experience. You practiced these while you were being interviewed for some unusual jobs.

CLICK HERE to see more information about how to use PRESENT PERFECT verb tenses (for describing your experience).

Now, find a job you think you would like to do. The job-hunting website Monster.com lets you find real job postings in your area of interest. CLICK HERE to try out their "career-mapping" tool. It's fun!



When you find a job posting you like, try to think about how you would describe your qualities and skills for the position. Then, post the JOB TITLE with your description of YOUR QUALITIES and EXAMPLES FROM EXPERIENCE below. Please make your post at least 50 words.

This blog entry is a little difficult, but it could be very useful in your real life! Good luck.

Becka

Unit 8: Storytelling

Sometimes we don't realize it, but humans are always telling stories. Sometimes these stories are fables from long ago. Often, they are simple events we relate to our friends. This week, we talked about storytelling. To do this, we practiced how to use simple past verbs vs. past continuous verbs. We also talked a little about how to use stative verbs. If you are not sure about what stative verbs are, CLICK HERE for a list and a description to help you.

For your homework this week, choose one of the videos below. Each video is a Canadian story, but these stories don't have many words. Please write at least 100 words to tell one of the stories. You may read your classmates' work, but don't copy them! Instead, try to improve upon what they did. Also, don't forget to do your WORKBOOK: pages 48 and 49C.

Here are the stories you can choose from:

1. The Story of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Mascots


2. "Neighbours" by Norman McLaren


3. "The Big Snit" by Richard Conde


Have fun with these stories! See you in class.

Becka

Unit 7: How do you celebrate your favorite festival or holiday?

There are lots of festivals and events that happen here at SCH during the semester such as the Cherry Blossom Festival, Spring Festival, GEE Days, the Medical Students' Festival, end-of-semester performances, homecoming, and more. Did you take part in any of these? How did you celebrate?

Here are a few of my pictures from past campus festivals and events:


Buddha's Birthday, May 2009


SCH Cherry Blossom Festival, April 2009


End-of-Semester Fine and Performing Arts Students' Festival, December 2007


My husband, Jim (left) and Prof. Min Kyung-won (right) are enjoying the SCH Spring Festival, May 2007.


Here are some students performing at the Spring Festival 2009. Do you recognize any of your classmates?

NOTE: try practicing expressions we learned in class, such as "before," "after," or "when," as well as definite and indefinite time expressions about events coming in the future!

Your Palm Reading Homework

Here is the hand out for tonight's homework.

Remember to practice definite/indefinite time expressions (page 61) and simple future tenses (page 64). Have fun!

Midterm Review: Where do we go from here?

This week, I asked you to find your own reason for learning English. Some of you need English for your future job. Some of you want to travel abroad. A few of you even said you want to make friends with foreigners and understand how different people think. PLEASE POST a comment below (minimum 50 words) and share your reason with us. Let's motivate each other!



I also want you to think about how we can do a better job of using this class as a way to help you improve your skills. As you know, I try my best to give you interesting and relevant chances to use the English skills we study. I also tried to give you a fair test to measure your ability. But is there a way we can do this better? What do you think?

PLEASE CLICK HERE to take the class survey.

Finally, I want you to remember that STARTING NOW, you still have a chance to earn 50 more points (+5 bonus points!) to your current grade. Don't give up!

Next week, we will talk more about your future in Unit 6 of the textbook. You can preview our lesson by looking at next week's vocabulary on pages 56 and 61 of your text book.

Remember, "the only way out is through." Let's work together to help you improve your English skills over the next seven weeks.

Cheers,
Becka

Guide to Shinchang

How can new students to SCH learn about what Shinchang has to offer?



Please post your paragraphs about our neighborhood here!