e-magazine issue 4 - september 2010 by english division i

8/8/2019 E-Magazine Issue 4 - September 2010 by English Division I

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MYFEELINGOFCAMPUSLIFE

Becoming a student of University of Language and International Studies is one of the most

important turning-points in my life. I believe that this university will equip me with many necessary

skills and lessons to achieve my ambition. I felt elated on the first day I went to ULIS, which

remind me of my feelings on the first day of primary school where I met new friends, new

teachers, and encountered new hardships and challenges. Particularly, I had to leave my beloved

family, my kind-hearted ex-friends and start an independent life in which ii have total control over

my life and my study. The happiness is gradually changed into anxiety. The failure in the entranceexam into CLC class helped me realize that my knowledge is inadequate and my speaking skill is

weak. In addition, the listening lessons made me shocked because I couldnt hear what the

speaker was saying. What I was studying in university was so different from what I had studied at

high school. Sometimes I feel I do not belong to this place, Im tired of my feebleness but I wonder

whether I tried my best or not. I shared my feeling with my friend s and my uncle, they all advised

me to keep trying and never to quit. My friends told me that she also had difficulties like me but

she didnt feel disappointed, she did always try and try. She shared with me her studying method,

which proved to be effective for me. My uncle also encouraged me a lot. He told me that I couldnt

achieve anything without dealing with difficulties. The thing I should do now was try and the

success would smile with me. Now I always push myself to be better. Although I only make a little

progress, I will never give up my effort and my ambition. It is because I have good friends andgood teachers who are by my side and are willing to help me. I believe one day I will win.

Do Thi Hanh 09E23

STUDENTS LIFE MAY BE HARD

On receipt of my university entrance exam results, I was so happy that I spent a lot of time daydreaming with excitement

about how my life would be. However, after seven months living in the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, caught in the endless

circle of assignment, I realize that the reality of college life is really different from what I had expected. More specifically,student life, especially for freshmen can be full of hardships.

Leaving hometown and their familiar environment, first-year students miss their families, their relatives and their friends a

lot. They may also realize that real life is not simply what they thought it is but much harder and more complicated. Besides,

they can encounter many difficulties in building a strong relationship with others. What they need is time.

Another big problem is that they themselves have to be fully responsible for their life, for example being attentive to their

study, catering to their own needs and taking care of themselves. No one wakes them up in the morning, prepares breakfast

for them or helps them do the housework. Doing these chores by themselves will certainly cost them a lot of time. In

general, it is not easy to become an adult immediately.

Sometimes, they have to waver between two choices, for instance suddenly falling in love with someone or wanting to do a

part-time job but still having some hesitation. It may distract freshmen from their most important duty - learning.

Besides these hardships, they also have many opportunities to express themselves and adjust

to the new social life. This helps them not only to develop their social skills but also to pursue

their own interests. They will benefit a lot from activities held by organizations on or off campus.

We can see that students life, especially freshmens has both drawbacks and benefits. A 4-year

period is not long, but enough for first-year students to be more mature and equipped with

essential knowledge skills to go out into the world. That is to say, it is advisable for them not to

under-estimate the obstacles they may face, but at the same time to take any opportunities that

come their way.

Duong Thu Van 09E18


8/18

I took up learning English when I heard the English song Proud of

you for the first time. Since then, English and music have played

an important role in my life. After graduating from high school, I

decided to apply for ULIS but I failed. I had to choose another

university. It was such a boring and disappointing time to me. I

almost couldnt find any friends who shared the same hobbies with

me. I didnt find any interesting things in every lesson. I became

more and more quiet, more and more depressed. I was not me

anymore. Fortunately, I succeeded to score a place at ULIS in the

second chance.On the first day at the university, I felt like I had found my old self

again. I easily found out a friend who loved English songs. Lan Anh

was a really amazing discovery to me. She also loved Shayne Ward,

and was interested in Super Junior. We had many things in

common. Gradually, I found out that all of the friends in E 23 were so

friendly and humorous. Every day at ULIS was such a perfect day to

me. I loved writing lessons because I could express myself in every

essay. Every topic was not only a new challenge but also a joy. I

was especially impressed by the topic: Writing postcard. I had

never written any postcard to anyone. After learning this lesson, I

thought that I should write postcards to everyone I loved because

love should be expressed.

I also loved Speaking lessons when I had chances to speak about

interesting topics: Couples, Fit, Shop, Job, etc - the chances to

show my idea about an issue openly, the chances to work together

with all classmates. I liked the preparation for the role play. This

activity was so exciting. I lived in an authentic English environment.

There was no distance between teachers and students. We were

very close to each other because we had a same passion: English. I

still remembered the comment of Ms. Huyen Ngoc for my assignmentwhen I said that I wanted to be a translator, the biggest dream in my

life is writing my own book and translate it into English. She wrote: I

like this idea of yours, stick to your dream, dear! I was greatly

However, the thing I like best here is the friendly environment. We

worked together, we helped each other and sometimes shared some

stupid sentences. Dictionary means: ch cn lm g in Vietnamese,

the word Cc bn tr of Lan Anh, many many funny things. I love this

university. It made me feel alive. I became more and more easygoing,

more and more active, more and more confident. I love my classmates

and my teachers. ULIS you changed my life!

Bui Thi Phuong Thao 09E23


9/18

Life at university

Since the first time going to university, I have found that it has many different things

compared with high school. First, the university buildings are very big and beautiful. The

campus is large and is crowded with people. I meet many new friends from different provinces,

but I do not see anyone from Bac Giang like me. Everybody looks intelligent, active, and

confident. I am a quiet person, so I think I will not do something as well as they do. My

classmates are friendly, confident, and hard working. We study and take part in many activities

together.

Second, studying at university is a little difficult for me to follow, because all students have to use

Computer and the Internet. Since I didnt use them in the past, they have caused me quite a a few

troubles. Yet, with the help of my friends, my computer skills have been better.Now I can type

without needing any help. However, I still do not know how to send an email. That is a problem,

which needs solving as soon as possible.

Third, at university the activeness of students is very important. Because the time we are in

class is not very much, we often do the self-study on the textbooks. It is different from

studying at high school when we attended class most of the time, and our lessons were not

too long and our teachers often checked the homework after each lesson. Now our

university teachers do not give us much homework and they do not always check them. We

have to find our-self exercises to do to improve ourselves; we can buy new books or borrow

some from library or search for the materials from other sources.

Fourth, I find it difficult for students like me to go in for some credit classes because I cannot use

the computer for registering. My friends often help me do that. However, I have to follow the

classes, which are not very convenient for me. When I was at high school, I did not have to do the

things like that by myself.

Fifth, since entering the university, Ive coped with a lot of problems concerning the new skills like speaking & listening.

When I was at high school, I mainly learnt about grammar and reading skills. We rarely had listening lessons. Therefore, it

the first semester, my listening and speaking marks were rather bad. However, I gradually feel more confident. The lifeand study at university has helped me become more and more confident. When I was at high school, I never spoke

confidently in front of the crowd, but now I can do. Thanks to the business at university, my quietness is broken. Living far

from hometown, I miss each member in my family, especially my mother, because she is busy every day doing the

housework and the farm work. I really want to help her but I cannot. I remember when I was small, my mother told me to

study hard, and she did not let me do these works. I obeyed her and tried to learn by heart so that one day I could enter

the university I dreamed. Finding that I was keen on learning English, my parents advised me to take the exam to

University of Foreign Languages and International Studies. Now, I am studying at this university, which makes my parents

very happy. I always want to make them happy and not have to be too worried about me.

Nevertheless, I am not familiar with the environment of a big city. The noise from vehicles and the polluted air make me

feel uncomfortable. In addition, I find the people here not as friendly as people in my hometown. Therefore, I want to

come back to my hometown whenever I am free for studying to visit my love people and to enjoy the fresh air there.


10/18

I am Linh, a first year student of the University of Languagesand International Studies. I was born in Thanh Hoa but I amnow living with my cousin in a flat in Hanoi. Since the day Iwent to study in Hanoi, my lifes been fullfilled with a lot ofnew things including both the good and the bad ones.

The first thing that surprised me much was the learning style

at the college where I wont be fully equipped with all thenecessary skills and knowledege if I just passively wait forthe teachers to give me exercises, finish all and do nothingfurther. Initially, I had to face with a lot of troubles of self-studying though I believed that I was really hard-working.Yet, later, thanks to the help of my teachers, I couldovercome these and found the materials to self-study.However, as I expected to enjoy a great time studying at thecollege, I had to cope with an other difficulty, that is, I wasreally disappointed with some boring subjects like philosophy,logic, etc. Moreover, it also appeared to be under myexpectation when my results of the first term was not verygood. Nonetheless, my wonderful teachers, again, help me to

evaluate myself and help me improve. Therefore, I have beenable to identify my strengths and weaknesses, my source ofmotivation and my targets to study more effectively. I amnow making great progress after the first term at theuniversity.

The second new thing happens to me when I entered theuniversity is my student life which is totally different from mylife in the hometown. Firstly, since I didnt have to cookmeals for my family, I had to face with lots of challenges incooking for myself. Therefore, I had to take part in a cookingclass to better my cooking skills. Secondly, I also had toexperienced many periods of stress, pressure and illness

alone. I have been missing my family so much. Yet, I justthought to myself that I had to thank those stressful time formaking me more mature and confident. Moreover, the badperiods also brought to me many kind and reliable friendswho always stood by me, supported me and helped me tostand tall and stay strong.

Although I certainly had many difficulties with the new life atthe university, I think I am now getting used to it. I amfeeling more and more pleasant and happy with this life and Ihope that I will equip myself with necessary skills andknowledge to prepare for the future after the four year at this

college.

CHANGES IN MY LIFE

B Kieu Linh 09.E21


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As far as I am concerned when we learn any

foreign language, vocabulary plays a very

important part. The more vocabulary we have,the more we can communicate with other

people. However, many English learners have

difficulties in learning the new words by heart.

Therefore, I want to share with you some tips

in studying new words.

First, some people learn from 15 to 20 words a

day, but Im sure that after a short time, they

cant remember all of them. Therefore, instead

of studying so many new words a day, you only

should study 5 words. At weekends, you

review and check your mind how many wordsyou can remember correctly. If you practice

regularly, after one week you will learn 35

words and after one month the number of

words you study will reach140. This is the not

small figure, isnt it?

Second, I take pleasure in studying new words

by writing them on many pieces of colorful

paper. After that, I stick them at places where I

usually see such as: my computer, TV,

refrigerator, my bed, etc. This way makes me

see new words many times, so its easy for meto remember them.

Next, when I learn new words, I often learn the

examples or make sentences containing the

target words. In this way, I know not only their

meaning but also their usage. This also helps

me improve my speaking skills.

Finally, my dictionary is colorful because when

I look up vocabulary in the dictionary, I often

use highlighter to circle them. The next time,

when I open my dictionary, I am impressed bythem immediately. Therefore, I can store new

words in my mind more easily. Many people

only learn the meaning of the new words. This

is a fault. Remember that when you study

vocabulary, its vital that you learn how to

pronounce them. Because this affects directly

your listening and speaking skills. If you dont

have correct pronunciation, your

communication will be bad.

These are my experience in learning new

words. I hope that they are useful for you.I am very happy if you can share your

experience with me!!!

Le Thi Thu Hang 09E23

Like many 1st

year students, I find listening skills is very difficult. I didnt

practice and study carefully before. Now, I realize listening is an important

skill. If I have a good listening skill, I also improve others such asspeaking, writing, communication skills etc. I made many mistakes when

practiced skill but I am very happy. Now I want to share with you some

experiences. I hope that they can help you improve your listening skills.

Do you know why listening skills are more difficult than others skills? You

should agree with me that listening is a passive skill. Unlike writing skills,

you cannot produce information with listening skills. With listening skills,

you cant see what words people are saying like when you write a letter.

Listening and reading have the same characteristic, namely receiving

information. Listeners have to receive information from others but can not

see what are said, while readers can see what are written on paper. It

means that you have to try your best to catch all information.

I have tried to do many ways to improve listening skills. I always try to

hear all what people saying before. However, that way is not useful

because native speakers speak very quickly as a result I cant catch all

the words. Then I find that the previous way is unnecessary. I only need

to understand what the main idea of the conservation is so I only need to

catch the key words. This new way is easier than the way before because

speakers always put stress on the main idea that they want to express.

I think that you often have the same view-point as the more you do

exercises, the more you practice listening skills. However, I think it only

has one advantage of its aspect. You should have effective ways not onlyto do many exercises. You know that every listening exercise always has

a tape script. It has many advantages. You can design some useful

exercises for yourself. You shouldnt look at them immediately after

listening to the recording. You can listen again and again to guess the

main idea. I am interested in how they are speaking. I often listen to a

long piece like a magazine program or a news digest. I always choose an

essay, in which I am familiar with the basic stories (in my language

perhaps) so I can concentrate on the detail. You also can think about my

way. I usually break them into many small sentences so I can listen

carefully the sections. I often imitate speakers intonation. Sometimes I

find it so funny but it helps me have a break time. I think you should do

this because you are acquainted with the intonation of native speakers.

Song is a good source. Listening to English songs is an effective way to

improve your listening skills. Let listen and then check lyrics were you

right in your understand. You also should listen to many kinds of

conservations. It helps you have a great variety of different voices,

idiomatic languages and accents

Finally, I advise you to have a good confident to face

all mistakes you have. Always smiling is the best way

to help you reduce stress. In addition, you have to

have a strict rule for strategy improving your listening

skills. If you obey your rule seriously,

I think you can not only improve your listening

skills but also others skills. I hope that my

experiences are useful for you.

Lai Thi Lan Anh 09E23


15/18

Some useful websites for learning EnglishIn correspondence with the explosive growth of the Internet, we can easily getaccessed to an enormous amount of websites for various purposes: study,entertainment, or communication. It would be meaningful if we could share with oneanother amusing and helpful websites to better our English because the Internet is ahuge mine of information that sometimes makes me get lost. In the limited scope ofthis article, some websites, which from my personal point of view might be useful andappropriate for you to study English, are introduced.1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/In my opinion, this website is wonderfully tailor-made for studying English with avariety of information and user-friendly format. You can easily find the field whichyou want to focus on by looking in the left margin of the web page.

General & Business English provides a range of audio files entailed tape-script foryou to practice listening and learning new words and expressions on various topics.Grammar, Vocabulary & Pronunciation, as suggested by its name, is such aninformative resource. You can make clear any confusing grammar items by readingQ&A sessions or by asking questions yourself. You do not have to doubt the qualityand reliability of the answers because they are consulted by experienced nativeEnglish teachers and editors. As regards vocabulary, you can learn new words incontext because they are all in English news. It means that you are able to triple-utilize this resource for improving reading skills, learning vocabulary, and enhancingbackground knowledge as well . Moreover, contemporarily-new words andexpressions are presented to keep your English up to date. In terms ofPronunciation, you have chance to watch videos about pronunciation tips and practiceexercises followed.

Information Box
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/


16/18

The Flatmates is one of the most attracting parts to me as it leads me to the realconversations with detailed explanation of language points.Generally, BBC Learning English website is worth experiencing and trying to makeuse in your own way.2. http://www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/conversation.html

It sometimes happens to you w hen you find yourselves unable to express your ideasclearly and fluently. This website helps you learn idiomatic and everyday expressionsto deal with daily conversational situations. Those conversations are categorized intodifferent topics such as communication, eating, emotions, fashion, housing, traffic ortraveling. In addition, you can simultaneously practice listening skills by doingexercises attached in each conversation. By practicing the idioms and expressionssupplied by this website, you can help your English more natural and nativelike.3. http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

Information Box
http://www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/conversation.htmlhttp://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/http://www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/conversation.html


17/18

This website is surprisingly helpful and convenient for me. Each lesson is designedwith both reading and listening exercises. For each of them, pre-, while-, post-stages are presented clearly w ith detailed instructions. In terms of reading, the textsare all updated news and appropriate for intermediate-level students. You can alsolearn new vocabulary through interesting quiz or matching exercises. In terms oflistening, although the exercises just require you to fill in the blanks while you listento the script, I suggest you a way to make full use of these exercises. You shouldlisten to the whole recording for the first time to get the main idea, then take a pieceof paper to take notes. Taking notes is one of the key skills that I highly recommendyou to practice. You are self-studying, so be strict with yourself. You should notpause and play repeatedly while taking notes. However, you can listen to the wholerecording as many times as you can until you feel satisfied. It is time you did thegapped text exercises.4. http://esl-lab.com/

This is one of the first websites I have experienced as recommended by my teacher.It consists of a variety of listening exercises ranging from easy to difficult level. All ofthem are designed in the form of multiple-choice questions to help you check yourcomprehension. Moreover, the scripts are enclosed with further explanation of somephrases and idioms used by the speakers. As for me, those phrases are very usefuland close to real life because they are put in the daily contexts like answeringmachine or going shopping.Apart from those four websites presented above, podcast is a good listening material.You can easily find and explore podcasts more on the Internet by using Googlesearching tool or by visiting the website http://podcast.com/. I hope you enjoy and canexploit them.All in all, resources for studying English are available for us and the matter is how wecan utilize them. As mentioned initially, I can share only some websites here, so Iexpect more valuable websites as well as the way to make full use of them suggestedby you.

Hong Anh _ 06.1.E1

Information Box
http://esl-lab.com/http://podcast.com/http://podcast.com/http://esl-lab.com/


18/18

All members of my class, E18, were very excited and happy because the first speaking class

would be taught by a New Zealand teacher.

He is over 50. He introduced us many things about his country especially their language.

The lesson was incredibly interesting. At the end of the lesson, our monitor, Hien, stepped

on the dais to thank him for the lecture. Immediately, he smiled and moved towards her. He

bent and the scene looked like that he was going to kiss her which surprised us very much.

Hien was very embarrassed. Its easy to understand because we were not familiar with this

custom for the first time, even if we knew that it was a common Western custom. However,

to our surprise, only his nose touched Hiens nose. It was New Zealands greeting.

In the end, Hien had her heart in her mouth and said what she thought in that

amazing moment. Oh! My first kiss.. said her.

Dao Thi Bich Ngoc 09E18

On the occasion of the Friendships day, I would like to share with you my newrecipe for a long lasting friendship.

Ingredients: smiles, laughter, warmth, happy memories, patience, sense of

humor, trust, compliments.

How to make it:

Start with smiles, a generous share, then blend in warmth and

laughter. Add lots of happy memories that will last forever after.

Dont forget the patience for the days when the things go wrong.

Add a sense of humor and a trust that is deep and strong.

Garnished with some compliments that are lovely expressed.And there you have a recipe for friendship at its best. Hope that you will

have fun and be successful!

Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong 06E1

e-magazine issue 4 - september 2010 by english division i

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