English AdvantageEnglish AdvantageInformation for foreign students, especially from the CIS, interested in studying abroad or learning English 
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Necessary Student Accesory!
2008-03-07 08:29:00 Video game consoles are absolutely required for a normal student life. It's a major topic of conversation--which games are the best, how to beat the last boss on the 5th level. We teachers hate that most students can memorize hundreds of cheat codes, secret tricks, and the exact layout of every level of computer games but can't remember the Pythagorean theorem, but it's the truth. Student s these
Blocked in China!
2008-03-04 13:38:00 Once again thanks to Chris Merriman, I discovered that blogspot is blocked in China . I don't know why. So how can Chinese people improve their English and get into elite American universities? Why by checking out my page through an anonymizer, which is basically a web service that conceals where you are going on the Internet from. So even if my website is banned in your country (and I imagine it
Preparing for Final Exams
2008-03-01 09:18:00 An awesome post on Casting Out Nines, the blog of a math professor, about how to prepare for final exams that I have been meaning to share with you. It's all pretty much common sense, but it's always worth hearing common sense again. Also, while he has in mind a math exam, the advice holds for an exam in any subject. Casting Out Nines recommends: Start studying a week or so before the exam and More About: Exams , Final
Blogging and Running a Website
2008-03-01 08:42:00 I rarely blog about blogging because I'm not sure it's interesting to my readers. But then I got an email from a Kazakhstan student in the US saying he was shocked at how many American students have websites. Not only do students these days use Facebook, Myspace and other social services, but they do host website on their hobbies, their travels, even their academic major. More and more, having a More About: Running , Website , Blogging
The Campaign and Education
2008-02-29 09:00:00 International education was mentioned a few times in the recent Democratic candidates' debate. Primarily education came up in discussions of immigration issues. For example, there are plans to build a border fence between the US and Mexico which would but down the middle of the University of Texas, Brownsville. The campus has territory on both sides of the border. Senator Hilary Clinton condemned More About: Education , Campaign
Teaching as Training
2008-02-29 08:38:00 Even though I do teach English in schools, a lot of my students are young professionals who want to improve their language skills. It's really professional training more than teaching because most business people have a set of skills they want to master. Unlike say, Plumbing Courses those skills are not to learn how to unclog a drain or solder a pipe. Instead, it's learning to make small talk, More About: Training , Teaching
Responding to NIU
2008-02-29 08:22:00 After the recent shooting at NIU there have been a number of reactions as students, professors and administrators try to decide how to prevent such a tragedy from occurring on their campus and how to properly respect victims of the shooting. Insider Higher Ed reports on one of the sillier reactions. Arkansas Tech has banned performance of a play about Presidential assassinsAssassins is a
Late Valentine's Day English Learning Ideas
2008-02-29 07:44:00 Valentine's Day was the 14th of February as it is every year and I had meant to post something about it in terms of learning English and American culture. But it was a crazy time for me. Oh well, at least I'm early for next year. First, some cultural information in case you end up in the US wondering what the heck is going on: Cultural Notes Valentine's Day is a day we celebrate romantic love. More About: Ideas , Learning , Late
Errorwatch
2008-02-26 09:57:00 Native speakers make mistakes. Even professional writers. Here's a mistake from an article on Market Watch about an alleged scandal involving presidential candidate and Senator John McCain. An important issue but one marred by this horrible mistake: Paxson also said that Iseman likely attended the meeting, which she helped to arrange it, the report said. This is a very common mistake for ESL
Center for English Language
2008-02-24 09:16:00 I realize my Kazakhstan readership is somewhat limited, but I wanted to point out a great resource here in Astana, the English Language Center . In accordance with the government program to encourage all citizens to learn English (as well as Russian and Kazakh), the government of the city of Astana has created the ELC which provides cheap English lessons to anyone. Lessons are 200 tenge an More About: English Language
Agreeing
2008-02-24 06:56:00 Americans are weird. We have ten thousand ways to agree with something someone says and when you translate them literally, it can get pretty confusing. At least my friends and students get confused. So here are some of the idiomatic ways in English to say: "Yes, I think what you just said was a good idea." Sounds good literally means something like 'The sound is pleasant to me' so it confuses
One of the biggest mistakes you can make!
2008-02-22 08:43:00 One of the biggest mistakes you can make coming to the US is to come without health insurance. As a student you are going to need insurance anyway, because universities require students to have insurance policies before they can enroll. And you need it. Last year when I had a wart on my back, I went to my doctor for 15 minutes just for him to tell me it wasn't serious. That 15 minutes cost me More About: Make
Shooting at North Illinois University
2008-02-15 16:39:00 Today, during an introductory lecture in oceanography, a man stepped onto the stage of the lecture hall from behind the screen and began firing with a shotgun and then a pistol. After firing around 20 shots, the gunman took his own life. 7 are reported dead and 16 others wounded, all of them students. The gunman was apparently "a 27-year-old graduate student in social work at the University of More About: Illinois , North , Shooting
What the heck does that mean?
2008-02-15 11:07:00 One of the hardest things to teach or learn in English is idioms, particularly idioms or sayings that come from pop-culture. There are so many of them, so there is no way to systematize them into a teaching program. And you may run across them in a lot of different situations. So I may post some of these from time to time up here. These are a few that came up in class the other day: Note that
Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover: A Lesson Plan
2008-02-14 05:47:00 I recently read about a study on head scarves and prejudice thanks to a poli-sci blog, the Monkey Cage. They took Americans and showed them pictures of a woman. In some of the photos she was wearing a headscarf and in others she was not--but it was the same woman with the same facial expression. They then asked respondents various questions about the woman: is she married, is she social, how old More About: Judge , Book , Cover , Lesson , Plan
Entertaining Grammar Resources
2008-02-11 09:49:00 Grammar Phobia answers readers questions about grammar and has very well illustrated examples about real problems people have with grammar. Grammar Girl is the author of a well-known podcast and she also has a blog where you can get the transcripts. Again, real grammar problems explained clearly and with a bit of humor. SPOGG: The Society for the Promotion Of Good Grammar has a nice blog More About: Resources , Grammar , Entertaining
Secondary School in the US
2008-02-06 09:32:00 This post will help you understand how the US secondary school system works, including what students study, who governs the schools and other key issues. This is just an outline and because the US system is decentralized, it is hard to generalize accurately about all schools. If you plan to enroll in a US school, you will want to consult local resources. Secondary School s are usually divided
Innovations
2008-02-06 07:09:00 Along with the new template, I've also added a "Share This" button on the bottom of every post page. Click on the link to quickly add any post from this blog to your Google bookmarks, Digg, Technorati, MyYahoo! and a bunch of other sites. Also, in contrast to other blogger.com sites, I've set it up so the post title links to the post page. Not the time of the post--which I deleted because I More About: Innovations
Some More Useful Websites
2008-02-04 09:40:00 Welcome2College is a great website with some really interesting and useful information for anyone who wants to study in the US at the university level. It has a cool College Preparedness Survey and even a special section for parents. Though designed for American students, the site is really useful for international students as well. Survive High School is another awesome site if you want to know More About: Websites
New Template
2008-02-03 05:40:00 No you haven't gone mad or forgotten to update your bookmarks. I decided to change the look of the blog a bit. If you have any comments, complaints, suggestions, notes, please let me know. Hope you like it now that it's a bit more colorful and I think the sidebar is a bit more logically organized. More About: Template
Funny Signs
2008-02-03 05:26:00 In the course of my life here I occasionally come across some very funny English mistakes. Here are two that I managed to document on my (not high quality) cellphone camera: This is from an ESL workbook. Clearly they meant to say that the answer key begins on page 1 as numbered in Roman numerals. But it ends up looking like Key pi (as in 3.14159...). I thought this was an English book! The More About: Funny , Signs
Not The Right Message
2008-01-30 04:56:00 Another great post from Rate Your Students on how not to write to your professors, or why good English is important for foreign students and for Americans alike: hi mrs. thomas, i know this is irresponsible but wud it be okay if u gave me the add code number. the one that i signed up for at the end of the class Read more to see the professor's response. More About: Message
Free Reading
2008-01-26 06:35:00 An interesting resource for teachers I discovered while browsing around: Free Reading . It's a project of the State of Florida to provide teachers with free resources to teach reading to primary school students. While designed for American students, a lot of the resources are transferable for ESL. A lot of resources and lesson plans here where the methodology of the lesson is very carefully
Case at Brandeis Has Exploded
2008-01-26 06:03:00 The case of a professor who used a racial slur in a class at Brandeis has become a mess and from the attention it is getting may become a precedent on free speech and academic rights. According to a report on Inside HigherEd, the professor, Donald Hindley who has tenure in the Political Science department, has yet to receive due notification of what exactly he said that qualifies as "racial More About: Case
Blog of a high school freshman
2008-01-20 04:42:00 Just stumbled on a resource that might be interesting for foreign students. It's the blog of a high school student, and it has some interesting posts about what school is like in the US, and some good advice such as the importance of community service when applying to university. It's a new blog, but hopefully it will be a good resource. More About: Blog , School , High School , High , Freshman
Traditions at Harvard
2008-01-17 05:35:00 The Primal Scream is a tradition at Harvard that allows students to mark the end of the reading period--when students study for their semester exams--and the start of the exams themselves. As one might expect from a respectable and conservative institution like Harvard which has produced such a wide array of prominent politicians, businessmen, and respectable members of society, the Primal Scream More About: Traditions
ESL as Prostelytizing
2008-01-15 10:04:00 A Bosnian student recalls being tricked by missionaries with promises of English classes AND a cool movie. It's a dirty bait and switch that some religious groups use, advertising English and then once they get you there, trying to convert people to religion. So be careful of that.
Two Resources
2008-01-13 03:12:00 Just a quick post to tell you about some fun things I found. The first one is Movie Review FAQs, a nice little site that gives you the basics on films so you can decide if you want to see it or not. I think it's a good resource, especially for ESL learners who want to use films to practice listening. The second one is a post on Translating Letters of Recommendation. Very funny, but also very More About: Resources
Articles!
2008-01-12 15:03:00 One of the biggest problems that Russian speakers have with the English language is those pernicious articles like a, an and the. In Russian or Kazakh or a lot of other languages, there is no equivalent! Even for French, Italian or Spanish speakers it can be confusing because unlike most Romance languages, in English we sometimes drop the articles! So here's a quick guide to the basic rules of More About: Articles
Happy Holidays
More articles from this author:2008-01-08 03:26:00 As you may have guessed, I went on vacation for the holidays and while I had Internet access, I focused my time on my family and friends...and opening presents! I hope all international students in the US had a chance to go home to an American family for Christmas. It's a huge holiday and a big cultural event. And every family has its own traditions so it's always fun and interesting. Don't mean More About: Holidays , Happy Holidays , Happy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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