Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Third Speaking Class

In this report, I am glad to tell you about the third speaking class. That class was better than previous because my reluctance to speak disappeared and then I could discuss many issues effectively. The most interesting thing we discussed was a bout a job in the future. According to the native speakers, one hopes to become Germany teacher, but he thinks that this job may be impossible nowadays especially in America, so he has not decided yet. Another hopes to work in a Germany company because she thinks that she can improve her Germany language. In addition, she told us that when he tried to speak German with others, they could figure out that she is American because of her accents, so they spoke English with her instead of German! This story was very interesting. Moreoer, a Korean partner told us that he hopes to be a tekwondo trainer, but he must work in his father's company. Furthermore, we had different opinions about the best time to study during weekend; It was amazing that males had the same opinion and females had the same opinions; males prefered to study on Friday or Sunday only. In short, that day was fantastic and I look forward to the next class.

The Second Speaking Class

On Thursday, the weather was very nice; It was very rainy, so we sat near the main entrance of Wham Building. During this meeting, we talked about many topics that were very interesting, so I could discuss with many group members this time more than the last time; the feeling of confidence increased and the shyness decreased a little bit but no more! But I realize that my speaking and listening skills improved because I could communicate with native speakers without the needs for preparation. I am very happy because of this fantastic result. Moreover, the most interesting thing I have learned were special occasions in different countries; most of these occasions were religious. This topic was interesting because that day was was followed by Eid celebrating for Muslims marking the end of Ramadan. I told my partners what we do on that day and I told them some special traditional dishes we have. Furthermore, we talked about nonverbal communication and how it is different among countries. For example, in touching communication, Americans and Asians have approximaely the same touch communication, but in Arabic countries, there are some boundaries in touch communication between opposite gender and the same gender. All these topics we discussed about during that meeting.

Monday, September 13, 2010

The First Wonderful Speaking Class

Since I came to CESL, I hope to have a speaking class in which we can communicate with native speakers. This year my hope became real, so I was very happy and interested to have this class. The last Thursday was the first speaking class that was very interesting. During the class, there were many groups and in our group, there were nine members; two native speakers, three Saudis and three from Japan, Korea and China. At that time, we discussed many issues such as gender differences, school system, some American cities and using different ways of communication with friends. The most interesting was different school systems from a country to a country. In America, there are differences between public and private school in terms of uniform; a few public schools have the formal uniform, but students in private schools should have the same uniform. In Korea, the school system nearly is the same as American school system. But in Saudi Arabia, the system is diiferent; student should have the same uniform nevertheless the kinds of school. In addition, we had different opinions about using internet to communicate with friends; most of us said that facebook is the best and others said that skype and hotmail are the best. Moreover, I learned some American cultures, especially formality when speaking to strangers that is very different from our country. That day was wonderful, but class length was very short.