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).
Replies
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).
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!
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! ;-)
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...! ;-)
I'm not sure that that is correct that the four girls lived together with the same family, Zhang Tianjiao. But I agree with you that Britain is a good choice for studying abroad. I would rather go to study in the UK that the US where there is so much crime and shootings. Britain is known as a very safe country. And I think the British culture is probably the most advanced culture in the world today. So, it must be nice to experience a little of British culture. If you'd like to study abroad ... start dreaming about it! If your dream is not big enough, it is not worth pursuing! ;-)
I agree with you that it might not be easy for Chinese students to do homestays, Zhu Quanfeng, because the cultures have many differences. But I do believe that, "where there is a will, there is a way"! So, if a student is adamant that she/he wants to make a success of this, they may have success. It would however be a great effort and much sacrifice. And of course, much also depends on the homestay families; good families may make the homestay experience a memorable one, but bad families may make it unpleasant (though they have good selection methods to illuminate the undesirable families). But I think you are correct also that studying abroad must be an exciting experience.
Thanks for remembering to bring your computer, Long Yuan; but have you remembered to read through the worksheet?! And have you remembered to listen to Tara's News?! I read that London doesn't have much sunshine - only about four months in total every year. But you are right about the culture. My brother's one daughter lived there for a year or more, and I know other South Africans too who'd been in London. It sounds like it's a great place to visit, much to see and experience, good food, etc. It is my dream to see Europe (including the UK, of course) one day before I am too old!
One may feel lonely, Wu Ting, but one of the advantages of such a homestay, is that the student become part of that family who'd taken her/him in. Yes, one would obviously still miss one's own family, but if the homestay family is committed to help the student they've taken in, they can make life very comfortable for the student. So, this has proven to be a very popular way of studying abroad.
Thank you for doing the Preview Quiz also, Men Yaqiong; it would surely give you a good overview of the lesson content. And I noticed that you have already learned a new term, "complete immersion"! I am sure not many students would know what that means! Of course, that wouldn't work in China if one wants to learn English as there are no English communities here where one has to speak only English! So, you have to go abroad to experience complete immersion! But, rest assured, it is not easy in the beginning. Some students don't make it and return, completely disillusioned. Studying a second language is never easy. I think by doing that through complete immersion, may have the best results, but in the beginning it may be the most difficult way.
Have you read the worksheet, Yao Zengjun? Well, I hope with you that watching the video today and doing the discussion questions, would open up your mind to this way of mastering the language. It is not easy, I think, but if one has a goal to succeed and persists, one would have success.
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