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Deals for online shopping
2007-09-05 07:32:00
Every student likes to get stuff for free or for cheap. I just posted on getting textbooks at discounts, but there are other ways to use the Internet to get good prices on lots of stuff. Coupon Chief is a site that gives you coupon codes for free to tons of stores online. It's your ticket to good prices at places you would shop anyway.For example, if you need those textbooks at a good discount, check out Amazon coupon codes deals. Right now Coupon Chief can get you free shipping on orders over $25, plus tons of regular daily deals. If you're studing English, check out Kaplan deals for access to free practice labs for every standardized test! And every student needs a computer. So check the Dell discounts being offered, like $350 off a purchase of at least $999, or printers for only $69! You'd probably be shopping for student supplies at these stores anyway, so why not save some money at Coupon Chief? And the coupons are free, right? You don't lose anything.Plus, it's getting to...
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My Economics Text Costs How Much???
2007-09-04 05:30:00
The New York Times has an article up on where to buy cheap textbooks and books for school. Text books have gotten extremely expensive lately and so students turn more and more to the Internet to find deals on books they need. The NYT had some good advice for students who want to get the best price on their books.Instead of having to check amazon.com and Biblio.com and a whole bunch of sites to get the best deal, however, Bookfinder.com, which compiles data from a variety of bookselling websites, should be your first stop. You can search by title or author, subject, keyword, or even ISBN (the international publisher's number) to ensure you get the exact book your professor wants. And you have the option of buying used books at a good discount.However, that doesn't save you the problem of delivery time. It will still take 2-8 weeks to get your books from an online dealer. So if at all possible, check for the syllabus of your class beforehand. A lot of professors publish their book l...
More About: Economics , Costs

Hotel Reservations All Over the World
2007-09-02 07:51:00
I know a lot of international students who show up at the doorstop of their university without realizing that the dorms aren't open yet and suddenly they need a place to go. Grad students show up without an apartment thinking they can stay in some cheap campus housing. In fact hotels near the campus are often the most expensive. So if you're looking for good Hotel Reserva tions at competitive pricing, check out Hotelreservations.com. For example, Boston is one of the most expensive cities in the country for real estate and with 100 universities, it is not a good place to show up without a hotel reservation during moving in time (or graduation!). Plus the prices are insanely expensive. But Hotelreservations.com has prices of $153 at The Shawmut Inn, which is right up near Boston University. Trust me, that's an astounding price for downtown Boston. Even better, you can get a reservation at the Days Inn, about two blocks from Harvard, for $109. Even some of the luxury hotels are show...
More About: World , The World

Packing List
2007-09-01 07:08:00
The 1st of September is Knowledge Day in the former Soviet Union and all the schools and universities open their doors to their students with lots of ceremony and pomp and speeches and so on! The streets are full of young men in dark suits and women in long skirts and white bows in their hair! In America we don't have a single opening day for all schools--in fact many schools are already open and new campus freshmen are already going through orientation programs, signing up for classes, and enjoying social activities to get to know each other a little better. But that first day of school for some of you is coming up and you're wondering what you need to pack with you. And even if you're already safely at school in the US, maybe you have some input here--what did you bring? What do you wish you had brought? Some of my suggestions are below and then a quick sample list of things to bring:Clothes: You are going to want to buy some clothes in the US, so that you fit in with the style...
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Blogging Can Be Profitable
2007-09-01 04:49:00
This is another article of potential interest to fellow bloggers, particularly any interested in making some money. I recently signed up for Payperpost, which is a service that offers paid blog reviews. Basically, you are paid to review websites, products and services and you get paid for it. I like that I can pick and choose which assignments I want to take so I can refer you guys to products and services that are of use to you. While I am not adverse to making a little money, I do want to keep this blog focused on international education. I also like that there are assignments for a sad little loser blog like mine that gets no traffic. Some of the ad services I looked at expected blogs to have pretty high Google ranking and daily traffic. With Payperpost, I'm hoping to pick up an average of $5 a day. Not enough to be rich but enough to keep investing back into my tutoring business. I could really use a bookcase right now! I'm also secretly hoping that diversifying my topics a bi...
More About: Blogging , Profitable

School Slang
2007-09-01 04:38:00
I just came back from Kyrgyzstan teaching at a Pre-Departure Orientation for Afghanistan students on the FLEX program. One of the classes I most enjoyed teaching and that the kids most enjoyed was American Slang class. So from time to time I thought I would post some American slang here.To start with, it might be useful to talk about school slang and informal terms. So let's talk about terms for people you might find in an American high school:First, students are either freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors. Students in their first year of high school (9th grade) are freshmen because they are fresh and new. Sometimes to avoid the sexist implication of the suffix "-man" they are called 'first years' or even 'frosh'. Sophomore, or second-year student (10th grade), comes from two Greek roots: "sophia" or wise and "moron" or fool. So sophomores are wise fools. They know a little more than freshmen, but they still don't know as much as they think they do! In your third or junior...
More About: School

Online Storage for the Student with Too Many Files
2007-08-30 10:06:00
Nowadays student life is impossible without a computer. You use your computer for all your homework, plus you download research off the Internet. Your professors post everything online from 10 page lecture notes to giant Powerpoint presentations. Then there's all the downloaded music and videos, plus backups of your favorite DVDs. Face it, you're going to use up your memory pretty quick.You could buy lots of Flash drives and then lose them. Or you could sign up at IBackup for online storage. iBackup provides a secure and reliable place to store data on the internet. And on your computer it looks and acts just like an extra memory device so you don't have to learn a whole new interface. It's available for Windows, Linux, and Mac and a range of other server systems I've never heard of, so chances are it'll be compatible with your computer.As for security, the IBackup website promises that your data is monitored 24/7 to ensure no one can hack into it, and the company follows stan...
More About: Student , Storage , Online , Online storage , Files

Bolashak Scholarship
2007-08-30 09:59:00
While the desire to study abroad in the US or England is growing, especially here in Kazakhstan, where job advertisements often specifically require "Western Education", paying for it is another question. Not many people know the different scholarships and programs that will pay for education abroad, or all the details. So I thought I would cover some of the scholarships available to you in a series of articles. English Advantage is also happy to advise on which scholarships you can apply for, and to handle all applications for you, as well as consulting on which university is best for you to study in. So call us at +7 7172 92 55 56 or walton@english.zendurl.com to take advantage of our services.Enough self-advertising! What scholarships and money is available to students who want to study in the US or other Western countries? Let's start with one of the most prestigious, although one only avaliable to Kazakhstan citizens.The International Bolashak Scholar ship of the President of t...

SAT Settles Regarding Errors in Scores
2007-08-30 09:56:00
Inside Higher Ed is reporting on a settlement in the SAT Errors suit. On the October 2005 test, a number of test takers claimed that their test scores were incorrect, and filed a class-action suit against ETS, the creator of the SAT and other standardized tests like the TOEFL, GRE, MCAT and GMAT as well as NCS Pearson, which scores the SAT.Last week, the lawyers representing around 4 400 test-takers and ETS and Pearson settled and the test centers have agreed to pay 285 million dollars. The victims can either receive $275, or appeal for a larger settlement individually if they can give evidence that they deserve higher damages. The 4 400 test-takers reporting errors represent about 1% of all people who took the SAT in October of 2005. Nonetheless the mistake is still creates a real credibility problem for ETS, particularly at a time when many universities are dropping the SAT or making it an optional part of university entrance requirements--as Inside Higher Ed reports. ETS is a non...
More About: Scores

Contribute to the Score Blog
2007-08-29 11:04:00
My teaching career started with Score Tutoring, the company under Kaplan, Inc.. I worked as a tutor for the SAT while paying my way through graduate school. So I was interested to see that Score Learning Centers, which provides additional tutoring for kids from 4 to 14, is looking for parents whose children have gone through the Score reading program, or are going through the program, to post to the Score blog about their children's progress with Reading Tutors. So if your child had a successful experience with Score, let others know about it. Click Reading Tutors and share how Score can benefit both students and parents. You can even post if you plan to sign up for the program.This advertisement is paid for by Score Learning Centers. However all opinions expressed here are my own and are sincere and genuine. I receive compensation only for this advertisement and not for any other services or commissions from Score. Nor am I related in anyway to the company or its employees.
More About: Blog , Contribute , The Score

Sports Slang
2007-08-29 10:58:00
Another installment of slang on English Advantage.Americans like sports and because we play lots of weird sports like baseball and American football that no one else plays it can be hard for foreigners to understand what we are talking about when we use sports terms in our everyday conversation. So here's some sports slang for you with example sentences:3 strikes and you're out! In baseball, if you miss hitting the ball 3 times, you are out--which is bad. So in America we often say this to mean, "You have 3 chances"For example: You better not make any more mistakes in your report for the boss. You know it's 3 strikes and you're out.Translation: If you make more than 3 mistakes, the boss might give the assignment to someone else.To play ball A baseball game officially opens when the umpire shouts "Play ball!" so "Play ball" can mean "Let's get started." However we also sometimes use it generally to mean "to follow the rules, to do what is expected of you, not to cheat"Example 1:...
More About: Sports , Slang , Ports

Cheap Flights to New York!
2007-08-29 10:51:00
Let's face it. As an international student one of your biggest expenses is transportation. Airplane flights are ridiculously expensive. But now Dialaflight, an independent travel agency based in the UK is offering flights to New York at very good prices. You can get a ticket from London to New York for 238 pounds, all fees included! That's a much better price than I got the last time I flew. Of course there's always the chance of a better rate or holiday offers. In fact they advertise special rates with a number of leading airlines like British Air, Delta and United. All you have to do is call them at the UK number, 0870-333-4488 from 8am to 11pm GMT.And Dialaflight offers more than just cheap flights. They can also help you with hotels, car rental, and package deals to spas or other vacation getaways. And they can book deals all over the world, including to Abu Dhabi, Indonesia, Turkey and Cyprus, so check them out no matter where you are flying.So take this chance to get a chea...
More About: Flights , Cheap , New-York

Trying to Make Some Money
2007-08-25 08:37:00
So because this blog is after all connected with my business as an English tutor and consultant, I am working hard to make it profitable. I was therefore very happy to hear about Blogvertise, a service that pays bloggers to write an publish advertisements for companies. While there are a few of these kinds of services out there, Blogvertisecaught my attention because it gives out assignments based on the content of the blog. I don't want to put ads here for vacuum cleaners or banking services in Zimbabwe. I want to put advertisements for products and services that you readers are interested in, that relate to international education. And that is what Blogvertise promises to deliver. They also promise that the blogger is free to accept or reject assignments, so even if they feel the ad is relevant, I may decide not to take it because it isn't really interesting to my readers, or I may think the product isn't very good. There is no requirement to say only good things about the adve...
More About: Money , Make , Some

Resources Online for Learning English
2007-08-24 12:11:00
I keep meaning to post links to some of the useful websites out there, for learning English and then I always forget. So you get the benefit of learning about a bunch at once.First, there's English Tips which is a great resource for textbooks and literature in English. Unfortunately, it is probably illegal to download things off of it since they violate copyright law. But if your conscience doesn't hurt you, that's the place to go.On the other hand, you could go to Project Gutenberg, which has 170 000 texts and all of it is legal because it collects texts that are not copyrighted. All the classics are there and a bunch of very interesting books as well.English Study Materials has reviews of English textbooks and looks like a pretty useful site.There's also the blog Teaching ESL to Adults by an English teacher in the US which has some great articles on grammar and vocab and lots of useful stuff. Finally, there's the Oxford English Dictionary (widely considered to be the authorit...
More About: Resources , Online , Learning , Earning

Technorati
2007-08-24 07:30:00
Technorati Profile
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Visa Limits Hurt American Research
2007-08-24 05:22:00
According to a report by the Kauffman Foundation, restrictions on visas may cause a reverse brain-drain. American research benefits from foreign researches invite to work in the US. According to the report, in 2006, foreign residents of the US were named as inventors or co-inventors on 25% of applications for international patent applications coming from the United States. And patent applications filed by some major corporations such as GE and Merck, even the government itself, showed a much higher percentage. Nevertheless, there are only 120 000 permanent resident visas available each year, in contrast to the one million scientists who wish to come to the US. If it is too difficult to come to the US, or if the waiting times for a visa becomes too long, this can seriously hurt the US economy which relies on foreign scientists(as it always has). It can also drive scientists to look for other countries such as Canada or the UK.
More About: Research , Hurt , Limits , Visa

Back in Astana
2007-08-21 06:55:00
I have returned to Astana from Kyrgyzstan. I was working with a great program, funded by the US government to sen Afghan teenagers to study for one year in the US. The kids were great: very smart, very motivated, and a lot of fun to teach. It was also fascinating to learn about life in Afghanistan and Afghan culture.I also picked up a little Dari (one of the two dominant languages in Afghanistan). The most important sentences in Dari for an English teacher are: chup: Quiet!Anglisi gap bazan: Speak English!Anyway, great to back home and now is your big chance to sign up for lessons with me because my schedule is 100% free, though I am looking to try to work in some schools, so if any of you are rectors at Astana schools and looking for a native speaker to teach kids (or I've heard it is possible to arrange classes after-school where the kids pay themselves), let me know!
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Black English
2007-07-28 05:42:00
Will Black People Bother Me?This was asked me by a worried student before she went off to study in the US. Obviously she had seen a few too many action movies or rap videos on MTV. While race relations in the US are a very touchy subject, they are also an important one, and something that international students often have misconceptions about. This article is entirely my own opinion and on a subject so controversial you will find hundreds of other opinions. If you get anything out of this, I hope you realize that: 1) African Americans (as well as Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans and other racial groups) are human beings, just like white Americans; they expect to be treated as human beings. 2) All ethnic groups are composed of diverse individuals and it is inaccurate, even rude and insulting, to stereotype, to expect that all black people are the same. To understand why a question like "Will black people bother me?" is offensive, imagine my asking a Kazakh, "Will Uighur people bot...
More About: English , Lack

Away for the Summer
2007-07-09 08:41:00
Just to let you know, I will be working with the American Councils on International Education in Kyrgyzstan from the 9th of July to the end of August, so if you don't see posts up here or I don't reply to your emails or comments, that's why.Looking forward to getting back and running in September.
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Can't Get In? Fake It
2007-07-03 14:02:00
I know how it is. You really want to go to an elite school. Your parents are pushing you to go to Harvard or MIT or Stanford. Your friend got into Duke and he thinks he's so much cooler than you. But maybe your grades aren't good enough, or you can't afford to go. That's not a problem apparently.One student just decided to show up to classes at Stanford and hope no one noticed that she wasn't actually enrolled or registered. She even lived in the dorms with a roommate, breaking in through the window since she didn't have a key. Apparently her family also believed that she had been accepted and was studying. She stayed for eight months before getting caught, and will have to pay about $42,000 for the use of the dorm, tuition and food that she "stole", which is about what it costs to study at Stanford. While her achievement is impressive, I wouldn't recommend copying her. But if your family does put too much pressure on you, show them this article and tell them to back off or ...
More About: Fake

Education in Kazakhstan
2007-07-02 07:21:00
KIMEP is considered one of the best universities in Kaza khstan , a private venture supported by the government and foreign institutions. It offers degrees in business, management, and other professional fields as well as running a consulting company. Courses are taught in English along the American system and the President is an American citizen. However, The Kimep Blog paints a different picture, with accusations of corruption, mismanagement, and mistreatment of the foreigners who teach there. Check it out for another side of the story, though obviously I cannot verify the truth of any claims there.
More About: Education , Duca

Advantages of English?
2007-07-02 06:32:00
What the heck is the English Advanta ge?Why do I have to to learn this stupid language?so, a few people have stumbled on my site by asking, "What are the advantages of studying English?" in one form or another. It's a good question and I thought I should address it.To start with, the fact is that English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It has a certain amount of dominance over other global languages like Chinese and Arabic because so much of the world was once a colony of England and these countries still retain schooling in English. It would not be a mistake to count English as one of the common languages of India or Singapore or Hong Kong for example. Also in many former of the UK which have a lot of native languages, English is maintained as a lingua franca or common language. This is true in parts of Africa and the South Pacific for example, where different villages and tribes speak different native languages, so when they speak to each other, they speak...
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IELTS versus TOEFL
2007-06-20 12:13:00
What is the difference between the IELTS and TOEFL? Which one should you take? This article will try to help you make that decision and give a brief intro to each test.AdmissionsThe IELTS test is administrated by the British Councils, the University of Cambridge, and IELTS Australia. That is to say, it is associated with the British government and traditionally was used by British universities, as well as New Zealand and Australian universities to determine the language capability of foreign students. TOEFL is administered by ETS, a US-based non-profit and is used widely by American and Canadian universities. However, these days, in order to make it easy on international students, universities all over the world take both TOEFL and IELTS. While you should check with the specific university you want to apply to, in general any school in the US, the UK, Australia or New Zealand will take either test score. So that's one worry off your mind. Pick the test you think will be easier for ...
More About: Versus

Corruption
2007-06-12 07:44:00
Many foreign students from the former USSR and other nations have a complex that their country is extremely corrupt in the area of education. It is widely reported that in Kazakhstan, it is easy to bribe professors for good grades, and that relatives of powerful people use influence to get degrees without showing up to class. On the other side, professors often create opportunities to profit from their students--in one case I heard that a professor had a one-question oral final exam:"Would you like to buy my book?"Yes, meant a perfect score. No, meant a failure.However, in truth it is a world-wide problem according to a recent report by UNESCO and in fact the US is notorious for what are called "diploma mills", universities that basically give you a diploma for money with minimum, if any, academic requirements. (For a list of diploma mills and a list of genuinely accredited US universities, click here. In addition, there are schools like Oxford Brookes which share a name and a town ...
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What Do Your Professors Think?
2007-05-29 06:13:00
There is a site called Rate My Professor which allows students to rate their professors by university, subject and name. In principle this is not a bad idea. Before taking a class with a new professor, I always tried to find a few people who knew the prof so I had an idea of whether he/she was a good lecturer, what kind of workload was expected, how accessible the prof was outside of class. A professor makes or breaks a class, without question so knowing something about the prof. is really helpful. However RMP.com also includes rankings like "Hotness" as in sexual appeal, and many professors feel that there is a direct relation between how well they are ranked on the site, and how easy the course was or how good a grade the student got. And it must be said that the site doesn't always include much in the way of qualitative information, which is what you really need (Except for my alma mater, Sarah Lawrence, where the students give very long and detailed reviews because we're a wri...
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A Game for Learning New Words
2007-05-23 12:59:00
Some people ask me how I learned Russian so fast. First, of course I had great teachers and second, since I am immersed in a Russian (and Kazakh) speaking region, I don't have much choice--either I learn Russian or I don't eat! But there are some tricks to learning language that can be very helpful and I'll share with you here a little game I play with myself.First I pick a word or expression that I hear or read a lot but don't understand. For example, the other day I got curious about the expression "вряд ли (vryd li)." I heard it a lot but I didn't quite understand what it meant. So I looked it up in the dictionary and that gave me an idea of what it meant, but not necessarily how it was used. I also listened to people using it and tried to learn what kinds of expressions it was used in, I tried to write down expressions I heard with this phrase so I had real-life examples to focus on. I noted that it is used with predictions or beliefs, and it is never used with negati...
More About: Words , Game , Learning , Earning

Harvard's New Undergraduate Curriculum
2007-05-17 13:41:00
Unlike in Kazakhstan and many other countries, most universities do not have a set curriculum for their students. Commonly students are required to take 6-14 classes in their major (specialized field of study), which is the equivalent of one to two years. However for the past 20 years, undergraduates have almost unrestricted choices of classes to take beyond that. Although it isn't uncommon for a university to require each student to take one class in the hard sciences, one in the social sciences, one in the arts, and one in the humanities, for example, it also is common to have no restrictions. Harvard has always been a notable exception in keeping its required core curriculum. However, you might be surprised to learn that the aim of the curriculum is not to force students to specialize in their field, but to ensure that students receive a wide education in a variety of fields, alongside the specialization that comes with choosing a major. Now Harvard has revised its curriculum to...
More About: Curriculum , Under , Undergraduate

Guide to College Life and Colleges Online
2007-05-14 08:14:00
A quick note to let you know about a great resource online: Guide to College Life and Colleges Online . Good advice and information here, although the blog is written with American students in mind, not international ones. Still, a lot of the information still applies.

Theft of Student Newspaper Linked to Self-Image
2007-05-11 12:54:00
At Framingham State College, almost 1000 copies of the school newspaper were stolen. Did the paper contain obscenity? An attack on Bush or another powerful political figure? Possibly some potentially criminal information like how to build a bomb? No, a full-color, front-page picture of seven female students who attended a woman's lacrosse game and wore short-cut tank tops so they could spell the name of one of the players on their stomachs. While they obviously expected some attention, apparently they didn't expect to have their photos spread across campus. But perhaps the theft was motivated by modesty? Unfortunately, it appears some of the women felt they looked fat. Another insight into university culture brought to you by English Advantage!
More About: Student , Image , Theft , Newspaper

Everyday Manners and Customs in the United States
2007-05-10 10:45:00
A good portion of the questions I get from students are about how to act in the US, how people greet each other and interact. Often such conversations start with misconceptions--Do Americans really do that??? and I thought it would be useful to sketch out some basic manners and customs in the US. I'd love to hear your stories, corrections and questions in the comments section.Greeting People: Americans usually shake hands when they first meet someone. It is common to give your name and offer your right hand when you are introduced to someone or begin talking to someone. We don't usually shake hands with people we already know, unless it's a business meeting. In formal situations like work, with older people, people of higher rank, or people we don't know, we usually say 'Hello' or 'Good morning/day/afternoon/evening' With friends or people we see everyday (colleagues at work), we usually say "Hi." Note that we don't shake hands with our collegues or friends every day. It is...
More About: United States , United , States , The United States , Custom