In EAP

I talked with my friends Becky and Megan in their apartment, which located in the upstairs of my apartment, for an hour and a half about the knowledge we have learned from EAP program. All of us agreed that what we have learned is useful in our future in university. However, there were some problems. Although we heard fluent English from other students and native speakers, it was difficult to recognize which words are academic vocabularies and which word is slang. As a result, we had to pay more attention to avoid using informal words when doing writing assignments. Also, we still met another serious problem in the process of learning grammar, which was some definition and information in the textbook were too general. For example, when we need to tell about the structures and the usages of phrases, the simple introduction caused puzzles to us because sometimes we could not distinguish which part of a complex sentence should be a phrase. Therefore, I had to point out the subjects and objects and find how they were used. While discussing the varied sentence structures in the book, I found that it was a process of recombining my knowledge about this part of grammar. After this speaking experience, I believe that all of us benefited from exchanging learning experiences. For me, I have learned how to express my opinions in English much better than before. I need this kind of activity to get more practice and build more confidence. It also helps me find out my defects, and then, I will find solutions to correct them.

In Subway

I have already worked in Subway for almost one year. During the working time, I should listen to customers and talk with them. We often only talked about what they wanted to buy; however, when I sometimes met some customers who were very interesting and friendly, I might talk some other things with them. For example, we talked about what faculty we were in or interesting things. Actually, most time, I just listened to the conversation that they were talking about in order to practice my listening. In my working place, I always talked with my colleagues. Although some of them always scared me in order to have fun, they were not out of spite and they are all funny guys. I felt I improved my listening when I listened to their conversations. Even though I still couldn’t understand all of conversations when they speak so fast, I could understand half of them. That’s a large step for me.

During these days, my friends and I were preparing furniture for our new home. We wanted to buy some second-hand furniture such as the bookcase, sofa and so on. We found an organization which helped international students to find the free furniture. The old man from the organization was very kind and helped us a lot. He never requested us for the requital. We talked about the styles of furniture. Someone from the church helped us deliver the furniture. At first, I didn’t know the academic words of some furniture and hardware. After that, I learned many words and uses about furniture such as mattresses, frames, and nails. I had a good chance to practice my speaking with other local people.

flim

Today I watched the film,called underdog, which was shown on PPS. PPS is a Chinese program that can watch some movies, TV shows, cartoons and some other programma by Internet. I just search movies and found underdog which was shown by English voice and Chinese subtitle.
The movie begins in City Hall in Capitol City, where the mayor is giving a speech about how crime in the city has skyrocketed. As he talked a lonely abandoned canine was walking in the street. Cad sees the dog and takes him into a lab. After he gets put into a cage surrounded by other caged dogs, The dog asks the dog next to him what this place is; all the dog says is that BAD stuff goes on in here. In the lab lobby, Cad watches the door with another security guard, Dan Unger. Dan stops a man trying to walk in saying the lab is closed for the night. The man shows his pass, and Cad identifies him as Dr. Simon Barsinister. Simon and Cad go into the lab, where they retrieve the dog and plan to perform an experiment on him. Simon tells Underdog that it’s going to hurt a lot, which causes the dog to sneeze into Simon’s mouth then jump out of his hands. As he runs around, Underdog damages a bunch of damage to the lab and knocks a bunch of chemicals onto himself. The chemicals change his body around and make him able to run out of the lab by busting through a few walls.

study hard

I met with Bryant who is my friend’s roommate in the Student Center to discuss something about writing. Bryant came from Vancouver, and we knew each other when I went to my friend’s apartment. I found that I couldn’t clarify citing and copying clearly, so I wanted to know how to avoid the plagiarism in our writing. I thought that the local students might know how to avoid it. During the discussion, he showed me some articles and told me how to distinguish the quotation and reference. He told me that the best way to avoid plagiarism is to use the reference which could prove that you were citing from other information. Also, it is a good way to support your opinion in your writing. Then, he taught me how to write reference in a right way. After the meeting, I felt I studied a lot about writing. I knew citing and copying more clearly than before. Communicating with native speaker is good for me to study more things about English.

Cold Day

Today is so cold!! Although it is just a little snow, I have to say it is really cold that I do not want to go outside. My friend and I go to buy some gifts to our family members who are in China; we have to wait for the No. 10 bus. We remember the time when the bus came in order to save time and decrease the time which we are waiting. Although we just wait around 10 minutes I realize I do not want to be outside any more if the weather likes today.

Before I came to Canada, my favorite season was winter; however, after I arrived here, I felt I could not tolerate the weather here because I am almost freezing. I love winter in the past because it was very beautiful. Everywhere is white and everything is clean and pure. I have never been in a place like Canada where is so cold liked North Pole.

X'mas gift

Charles bought an iPod Touch yesterday for me as my Christmas gift. Actually, I don’t like listen to music when I am in the bus or C-train, so by the time I got it, I did not be excited. I think if he bought a NDS or PS3, I would be happier. Ha… he wants to have an mp3 for a long time; I think he also wishes to use it when he has nothing to do in his way to school. Also, he said he wanted me to give him the gift which as the same value as he iPod, and he told me maybe I could buy an earphone that used with this iPod. I said that I would buy a very big one that he could use the earphone warm his ears when it is snow outside. Ha…. I used this iPod two days and it still has charge...so fantastic..

game

Yesterday I met my friend Rebecca who was my roommate in the residence of University of Calgary last semester in the food corner of Mac Hall when I was having my dinner, and I talked to her about forty minutes until I went to home. I asked her to talk with me because she is a native English speaker. This was a good practice for my English speaking. At the beginning we talked about games because she and I were interested in playing games. She told me that she had a new PS2 game and had played with her brother and it was really interesting; however, I didn’t have a PS2 and I could just asked some questions about this game and was not able to play it. Also, I told her about the online game which I played now and it was just allowed in Chinese servers. I described how to play this game and what the background was.That was really interesting.