Week 12b: Friday, 28 November 2014

Video lesson: Encounters in the UK

We'll watch a 17-minute video twice and answer questions about the studying of English by four foreigners in the UK. If you'd like to view the video, it can be found here: https://www.englishclub.com/esl-videos/index.htm . Click on "The Learning English Video Project". There are 7 videos in this series and the video on the UK is the first one on the new page. If you can't open the lesson worksheet here, you can click on "classroom material" at the bottom of the video page.

P.S. 1. Cai Huibin, if Long Yuan is not reading here before Monday afternoon, would you please ask him to bring us his computer again? Thank you. If I don't forget, I will remind him too.  :)

P.S. 2. You don't have to watch the video if you don't feel like it; we'll watch it twice in class anyway. As long as you comment on the worksheet (there are even questions that you can answer in your comment if you don't know what to write).

uk-class-worksheet.pdf

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Replies

  • Thanks for your affirmation.I really appreciate your support.Sorry for not giving you reply soon.I was busy to my linear algebra assignment and did not have time to go online yesterday.
    Actually,my English proficiency is very bad.I'm usually out for an hour or two to comment.I'm very happy that you can understand my great effort in doing this and encourage me.
    In my eyes, my father is a hard-working and independent man, and he is also a man of few words.I never doubted that he loved me, even in those moments when I felt least understood by him.I failed the college entrance examination but there's no limit in the growth.Traveling around the world is our common purpose.He named me 寰萌.It means that I will grow healthily and go to the entire world.
    My mother is different form my father.She wants me stay with her.I also very love her.So I will give her my accompany which is all she wants.For example,we can go shopping together and talk about our life(That's her favorite).
    As to my boyfriend,he is really a considerate and gentle guy.He said he will work together with me.I hope so.
    I will stick to my dream whatever any difficulty I encounter.after all, dad is the man on earth who loves me the best.(That‘s not means my mother loves me less)
  • I knew that the University of Cambridge was founded in 1209.
    Today, it has 805’s history. So it is one of the world’s oldest universities and leading academic centers, and it is a self-governed community of scholars.
    I heard the university form my dad when I was a kid.He intentionally fosters my spirit of painstaking efforts and willpower.He believe I have the ability to study in Cambridge or Harvard.
    But the fact is that I'm studing in Liao Gong Da.
    I feel depressed that I disappointed the one person I'd most wanted to make proud.
    I will travel the world with my father when I have enough money and ability.That's one of the reasons that I learn English.

    They mention the homestay in the film.I can learn that Homestay Student is part of the Host Family and Students are integrated into the Host Family where they further their studies of English and English culture in a relaxed atmosphere of the Host family home.
    Homestay Students can learn and relax in one of the best Homestay environments available. It is vital that Students feel secure in a host family environment, for both the Student, and their family back home.
    • Thank you for the comment, Shelly. Though you were late, as I said today, it is such a good comment that I feel obliged to reply. Very interesting what you said about your dad. So, you blame yourself for ending up at Liao Gong Da? It is not your fault, Shelly. This education system has to take the blame for that. Had this been a normal education system, you would have been allowed to enter the university of your choice (if there were sufficient applications available). So, pse don't blame yourself! Maybe you have disappointed the one you most wanted to make proud, but he is also hopefully not blaming you. And hopefully he is also aware of this education system that reduces Chinese students with immense potential (like you) to only mediocre students wasting their talents on senseless exercises designed for robotic rote-learning methods of gaining knowledge. This system is an insult to the intellectual among the students. Students like you deserve the best universities, Shelly. I am sorry for what has been done to you.

      You have a noble dream of traveling the world with your father. I hope for you that it would materialize one day. Just remember something before it gets too serious ... a bf or husband can ruin a girl's dreams if it clashes with theirs (I'm saying this in all sincerity as I care). So, bear this in mind before your relationship gets too serious ... ;-) But, I notice another interesting thing ... you mention your father only .. Would you take your mother along too? Most girls have better relationships with their mothers, but it appears that you and your dad have the stronger relationship. Maybe you can tell me one day, why?! Thank you for sharing something from your heart.

      Your comment on the topic is spot on and sums it up well. Homestays are probably some of the best English-learning projects in the world today (if not the most successful).

  • Sorry, I don't have the right to express my meaning, I have read the worksheet befor I recoment . I just didn't see the video, may be I can't express it clearly...... I kuow is about to know the UK the Cambridge and so on .
    • Of course you have the right to express what you mean, Zhao Ziwei! I am not a Chinese teacher and you have the right to say anything in my class or in this group!

  • UK is the Unite Kingdom of Big Britan and Northern Ireland. Birmingham is the second largest city of UK.Its capital city is london and the unversity of cambridge was found in 1209.
    A host family is a family consisting of at least one parent and one child under the age of 18 that invites an pair from a foreign country for a specified period of time. The a pair lives “on equal terms” with the other members of the family and in return for food, board, and a salary, cares for children and does simple domestic work.

    • Wow, you have all the answers, Zhang Min! I'll remember not to ask you today! Btw, your explanation of homestay is correct in some circumstances, but I don't think completely in our study here. Are the girls not all living in four separate homes?

      Don't forget to prepare your item for today ... you and your two friends would become the new singing sensations of Liao Gongda! ;-)

  • By the way ,Michaela said when she didn't know something her host's kids would draw her a picture of it and try to explain her ,it's remind me that you did the same thing for us in the classs ,I remember cleanly the first word you drawing us is parachute ,that's simple ,but it makes us understand easily.
  • I've watched the vedio ,the most impressive part on me is the words that you don't come only to learn English ,you come to learn about how people live in the rest of the world.If I were homestayed I'd learn more cultual thing and live it than learn language in a foreign country such as the UK and America.It's kind of like a new life ,meeting people different ,living with the person you haven't seen before and you get along well with each other as closely as you can never image.
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    • Yes Katherine, this is probably the best way to not only master the language, but to enrich oneself as person through interaction with other people from a different culture. The homestay project is probably the most integrated way of "total immersion" and it must be a great way of learning about oneself too and other people.

      Haha, I'm glad to hear that you understood from that simple drawing! Maybe I should draw more...! ;-)

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