by Phoebe Zhang

Which team sport is the fastest as

well as the most exciting one in the

world? Bingo, hockey is. Because a

hockey game has speed, skills and

dashes, thousands of people are fasci-

nated by it.

Last Thursday, February 16, the

Language Academy organized an ex-

citing trip for students to watch the

hockey game of the Los Angeles

Kings vs. the Phoenix Coyotes at the

Staples Center.

It was the first time for most of us to

watch a hockey game. When we ar-

rived there, we had more than one and

a half hours to have dinner and enjoy

the night view around there.

At 7:30 pm, the game started on

time. When I entered the court, a stream

of cold air blew on me, just like I had

stepped into winter. Coincidentally at

that time, I met an acquaintance. I

See Hockey on p. 3

Disneyland Saturday, February 25th 9:00am—Midnight Come with the USC Language Academy to the happiest place on earth! This is the trip you've been waiting for, so don't miss out! There will be a $40 cash payment for this ac-tivity, and you must take the provided trans-portation to attend. Students may only sign up for themselves - one ticket per student. Please bring your USC ID for identification when you sign up. The last day to sign up for this activity is Wednesday, February 22nd.

USC Basketball Game Thursday, March 1st 6:30pm—10:00pm Ready to Fight On for USC? Come cheer the Men of Troy on at the Galen Center for one of the last basketball games of the regular season! See the Trojans beat the Washing-ton Huskies for FREE! Just sign up on Tues-day, February 21st after class. To get in to the game for free, you MUST bring your USC ID card. Remember to wear cardinal & gold!

Exciting Hockey in Staples Center

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

Language

Labs

2

Announce-

ments

3

Kuwaiti

Independence

4

Spring

Getaway

5

Ronaldo,

soccer star

5

Whitney

Houston

6

Events

Calendar

8

UP C O M I N G AC T I V I T I E S

The Academy News F E B R U A R Y 2 4 , 2 0 1 2 V O L U M E 5 3 , I S S U E 6 Leap Year adds

an extra day.

Find out why on

p. 4.

Adele is the big

winner at the

Grammies, p. 6.

What do you

know about the

Academy

Awards? Take

the quiz on p. 7.

Language Academy students outside the Staples Center

P A G E 2

Tuesday, February 28th

Time Location Description Facilitator Levels

12:00—1:00 VKC 101 IELTS Test Preparation James Hutzell All Levels (Recommended

for 3-6)

12:00—1:00 VKC 111 Building English Skills

Diana Hiciu Levels Beginner, 1 & 2

12:00—1:00 VKC 160 Writing Skills

Jimenah Espinoza Levels 3, 4, 5, & 6

12:00—1:00 VKC 209 American Culture Natalie Reyes Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4

11:00—12:00

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1 Bella Narvaez Level 1

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 2 Justin Chang Level 2

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 3 Micala Mendoza Level 3

JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 5, 6 & 7 Dorothy Chang Levels 5, 6 & 7

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 4

Jemal Williams Level 4

JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 2 Hannah Yoo Level 2 12:00—1:00

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 3 Jemal Williams Level 3

Thursday, March 1st

Time Location Description Facilitator Levels

11:00—12:00

THH 113 Statement of Purpose Prep Heather Robertson

Levels 3, 4, 5, & 6

12:00—1:00 VKC 111 Building English Skills

Diana Hiciu Levels Beginner, 1 & 2

12:00—1:00 VKC 101 GRE/GMAT Test Prep

James Hutzell All Levels (Recommended

for 3-6)

12:00—1:00 VKC 209 Life Skills Natalie Reyes Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4

11:00—12:00

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1 Bella Narvaez Level 1

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 2 Jemal Williams Level 2

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 3 Micala Mendoza Level 3

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 4 Dorothy Chang Level 4

12:00—1:00 JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 5, 6 & 7 Hannah Yoo Levels 5, 6 & 7

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 4 Jemal Williams Level 3

Please remember to sign up for Language Labs starting TODAY at NOON until MONDAY at 8:00am. If you have questions or problems signing up, please email Sky at

schuyles@usc.edu.

P A G E 3

Hockey Continued from p. 1

asked her if she liked

hockey. She told me that

the only reason she came

here was to watch the

players fight. I was so

confused.

However, ten minutes

later, I thought I under-

stood what she meant. In a

hockey game, it is very

easy for players to have

physical contact with each

other. Every time a player

crashed his opponent into

the fence, all of the audi-

ence uttered a boo. It

seemed that they were

waiting for something ex-

tremely exciting. A

hockey game is always

full of action; players

fighting with each other is

not news any more. In the

North America Profes-

sional League, fighting is

very common. It seems

like a part of the game—it

is even defined as a tacti-

cal strategy. The final

score of the game was 0 to

1, and the Kings lost.

We were excited to be

there to have a relaxing

evening. Thanks, Lan-

guage Academy, for giv-

ing us an opportunity to

watch the wonderful

game, especially since we

just spent $5 for a $73

ticket. This was a memo-

rable event of this spring.

DO YOU LIKE TO PLAY SOCCER?

Howard Wen is organizing a soccer

team and would like to hear from you.

Please email Howard at

haoyanghoward@yahoo.com

and let him know if you are interested.

Check out the Language

Academy Blog

Student stories and lots of other

information are available on our

Blog—World of Mouth!

Here is the link: http://www.uscrossier.org/langacad/

Current stories

Why I Chose USC by Lexie Wei

How to tip in America by Sky Smith

Go to the Current Student page of the

Language Academy website and click

on ‘blog.’ You can also contribute to

the blog. Ask Jessica how you can

send a story at Jessica.stern@usc.edu

MIDTERM EXAMS

Midterms are just around the corner.

Your teachers will be announcing mid-

terms this coming week.

Let’s hit the books!

Pick-up

basketball?

Intramural sports

are open to eve-

rybody. Sign up

at http://

sait.usc.edu/

Recsports/sports/

intramurals

P A G E 4

BY YARA HADI

February 25 and 26 are the

two most important holidays

in Kuwait. They mark Ku-

wait’s national and liberation

days. These two days are tre-

mendously significant to us

because we celebrate Kuwait

being an independent country

and we celebrate the day Ku-

wait got liberated from the

Iraqi invasion.

Before becoming an inde-

pendent country, Kuwait be-

longed to the British. On

January 23, 1899, Kuwait

became an independent coun-

try under British protection.

After having some govern-

ment changes, Sheikh Abdul-

lah Al-Sabah realized that

Kuwait no longer needed to

be under the British protec-

tion. Sheikh Abdullah died on

February 25. In his honor, in

the year 1961 February 25

was designated as Kuwait’s

national day.

On August 2 1990, Kuwait

was attacked and invaded by

the Iraqi forces. This war was

known as the Gulf War.

About 1,000 citizens died

fighting for their country and

about 300,000 left the coun-

try.

Iraqi forces burned about

five to six million barrels of

oil in a single day. Then the

United States came along to

help Kuwait. The United

States and Kuwaiti forces

tried to free Kuwait on the

same day as the national day,

but they couldn’t. They freed

Kuwait on February 26, 1991,

which is still a blessing.

February 26 is a really

important day for me because

my dad was actually a pris-

oner of war because he was in

the Kuwait’s military air

force, and my uncle, who was

living in the States, joined the

U.S. Army to help free Ku-

wait. On this day, I thank God

for keeping my family mem-

bers healthy and alive. Every

year, on February 26t we

honor the martyrs who fought

for their country and we

honor the prisoners of war

who passed away.

Many citizens in Kuwait

celebrate these days in differ-

ent ways. My family members

gather in my grandmother’s

house, and we celebrate by

having some food, and shar-

ing some stories from the

past. Then we all go out by

car, and wave the Kuwaiti

flag.

Being on the highway is

the best way to celebrate this

day because you get to see all

the lights and flags on the

buildings, and we also see all

the citizens just having a great

time. The feeling I get when I

am out there is the best feel-

ing because I can see all the

smiles and happiness in the all

citizens’ faces and how proud

they are to be part of our

country. I am really blessed

for my family to be together

and very proud to be a Ku-

waiti.

SISI LIN

Leap Year

When you ask people how many

days are there in one year, most peo-

ple will say 365 days. That is true

under most circumstances, but not

this year.

When you check the calendar

for February, have you noticed that

we have 29 days in this February?

Don’t think there is something

wrong with the calendar. We DO

have a day more than in other years.

We call 2012 a leap year.

An extra day is added to Febru-

ary so that the calendar year will

keep balance with the seasonal year.

Thus, we have 366 days in a leap

year.

Leap year comes every four

years. For example, 2012 is a leap

year, and 2016 will be the next leap

year. However, the exception comes

in 100 years. Years that can evenly

be divisible by both 100 and 400 are

leap years (Royal Observatory,

2002). For example, 2100 can be

evenly divisible by 100, but not 400,

so it is not a leap year. 2400 can be

evenly divisible by both 100 and

400, so it is a leap year.

Leap years bring problems for

those who were born on the leap day.

Some people may count their birth-

day a day off, and consider March 1

as the birthday. Some people may

only celebrate the birthday every

four years and make it a big event.

References

Royal Observatory, Greenwich.

(2002). Retrieved http://

www.rmg.co.uk/explore/

astronomy-and-time/time-facts/

faqs/which-years-are-leap-years.

Kuwait’s National and Liberation Day

Leap Year Traditions

Did you know that women can pro-

pose mar-

riage in Leap

Year?

Kuwaitis celebrated their Independence Day on February 25 and 26.

P A G E 5

BY HAOYANG (HOWARD) WEN

Many reasons may make people like soccer. For my generation born in the 80s’, Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima (Ronaldo) is always the best reason to love soc-cer. He is widely consid-ered by experts and fans as one of the greatest soccer players of all time.

Ronaldo was born in the slums in Rio de Ja-neiro September 22, 1976. Just like most Bra-zilian children, playing soccer was the only way Ronaldo could make a living. His life experience made him train harder

than other players. In his career, he won al-most every award that a

professional soccer player could win, and he is now the record holder of World Cup total score by making 15 goals. The most important awards he won were the FIFA World Cup two times (1994, 2002), and FIFA World Player of the Year three times (1996, 1997, 2002).

God gives him almost everything a soccer player needs. He can run 10’35 in 100-meter dash, and his legs are so fast that he can break any defense in seconds.

However, the only thing God takes away from him is time. In his 18-year-career life, Ronaldo was injured more than 30 times, and he had to stop playing for more than two years. His efforts made him overcome every in-jury, and his talent and per-spiration made him become the greatest soccer player in many peo-ple’s mind.

Finally, I want to men-tion his other talent. He can speak five dif-ferent lan-guages very well. He

speaks Portuguese, Eng-lish, Spanish, Dutch and Italian because he has played in those five countries. Now, we are in the U.S., why don’t we improve our English by doing sports with native speakers? We can do it!

Famous Athletes Series: The Best Striker Ever

Spring Get Away!

By Sara AlShehri

Get ready, everyone; spring va-

cation is on the way! Nothing will

make the spring vacation more in-

teresting, exciting, and fun than

skiing in the mountains. In Big

Bear Lake, you can enjoy and ex-

perience Mother Nature, the fresh

snow, the breathtaking view on the

lakE and more!

Big Bear Lake is located in the

Southern California

Mountains, in San Ber-

nardino County. It is

around one hundred

miles from Los Ange-

les, about two hours

drive. There are two ski

areas in Big Bear; one is

Snow Summit and the

other is Bear Mountain.

You can do all

kinds of snow sports

such as skiing, snow-

boarding, and sledding.

If you do not have skis, skates or

boards, you can easily get them by

renting them from rental shops in

town. Moreover, there are many

resorts and hotels around the lake,

so you can spend the whole break

there!

There are some things you

need to bring before going to the

Big Bear Lake. First, you need to

check the weather and see if there

is any construction on the road.

Second, if there is ice on the road,

it is important to install chains on

the tires to prevent them from slip-

ping. Finally, don’t forget to wear

snow jackets, boots, and gloves.

There is a chance of snow in

the Big Bear Lake until the end of

April, so this spring vacation may

be a great escape to experience this

amazing adventure.

P A G E 6

Obituary

ADELE SWEEPS GRAMMIES BY Vidayla (Lilly) Sabajan

Whitney Houston by Yvoon Wei

Whitney Elizabeth Houston

(August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded fe-male act of all-time.

Houston was also one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. She released seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certifi-cation.

Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know", influenced several African-American female artists to follow in her footsteps.

Top Hit Singles:

1. "I Will Always Love You" – 1992 2. "Greatest Love Of All" – 1986 3. "How Will I Know" – 1985

4. "All the Man That I Need" – 1990 5. "I Wanna Dance With Some-body (Who Loves Me)" – 1987 6. "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" – 1988 7. "Didn't We Almost Have It All" – 1987 8. "Saving All My Love for You" – 1985 9. "I'm Your Baby Tonight" – 1990 10. "So Emotional" - 1987

In the early 1990's, Whitney

Houston branched out beyond mu-sic into acting. Her first role was co-starring with Kevin Costner in 1992's The Bodyguard. She recorded six songs for the soundtrack of the film, and one of these, a cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," became the biggest hit of her career and one of the biggest pop hits of all time staying at No.1 for 14 weeks.

I loved Whitney Houston's voice and I will never forget it ei-ther. If you are a singer and you love to do what you do, there is always someone greater than you, and you hold to that. You look up to that. You admire that. I didn't know Whitney Houston at all personally and never met her, but as much as many of her songs touched my heart, I felt like I knew her. I am very sad about losing her, but one day we are all going to leave this world. Ready or not we all have a price to pay. My heart goes out to the Whitney Houston family and friends. God Bless!

Adele Laurie Bleu Adkins was born 5 May 1988. She is better known as Adele. She is an English artist and songwriter.

In 2006, a good friend posted her demonstra-tion on MySpace, and after that, she received a contract from XL Re-cordings.

The next year she received the Brit Awards and won the BBC Sound of 2008. Her debut al-bum 19, came out in

2008 and was certified four times Platinum in UK.

Her career in the US grew while she was making the show Satur-day Night Live in 2008.

In 2009 Adele re-ceived the Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vo-cal Performance.

Adele released her second album 21, in 2011 . The album sold even more than her de-but 21 The album held

the top position longer than any other since 1993.

She won the Grammy

for Album of the Year 2011. She is the first artist to sell more than 3 See Adele on p. 7

Academy

Awards Quiz

This Sunday the Academy Awards

will be broadcast Sunday, February

26 at 4 p.m. on ABC, Channel 7.

The TAN Staff prepared a quiz to

test your knowledge of these awards.

1. Where is the Academy Awards held?

A. USC

B. Kodak Theatre C. Nokia Theater

D. Staples Center

2. What are the Academy Awards? A. The Grammies B. The Nobel Prize

C. The Oscars D. The Golden Globes

3. How many Academy Awards have

been held?

A. 83 B. 60 C. 55

D. 100

4. Who was the first African American to win an Academy Award for best actor?

A. Obama B. Denzel Washington C. Eddie Murphy

D. Sidney Poitier

5. Who won for best actress last year?

A. Natalie Portman B. Jennifer Aniston

C. Anne Hathaway D. Sandra Bullock

6. Which movie did NOT win best movie award?

A. Momma Mia B. Titanic C. Gone with the Wind

D. Slumdog Millionaire

7. Which movie won the most

awards?

A. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

B. The King’s Speech

C. Harry Potter: The Sor-cerer’s Stone

D. Avatar Send your answers to Yara, and you have a

chance to wina Starbuck’s coffee card. Her email is yarahadi93@gmail.com

Welcome Velkommen

Bienvenue Bienvenidos

Benvenuti Bem-vindo 歡迎 환영

ようこそ

ยนิดต้ีอนรับ Қош келдіңіз!

Xush kelibsiz

مرحبا بكم

Добро пожаловать

Courtesy of Google Translate

P A G E 7

ADELE continued from p. 6

Happy Birthday!

February and March

Matthew Shin 29

Chen Shen March 1

Dohyung Kim 2

Hamad Nasser Alsajari 2

million copies. She had big hits with her two singles from 21, “Rolling in the Deep” and “Someone Like You”. With her third release from the album “Set Fire to the Rain,” she led the Billboard 200.

Adele was born in London, England, UK, to a single teen-age mother named Penny. Her father left when she was 3 years old . Adele has not for-given him.

The Spice Girls group was a major influence i. Adele and her mother lived in three different cities for better opportunities . Adele’s first record “Hometown Glory” was written when she was 16 years old.

Adele won several awards, such as 6 Grammy Awards, MOBO Awards, Urban Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Record of the Year, Best Female Vocal, Columbia Records. Adele has received 46 awards from 102 nomina-tions, so all the work and dedi-cation that she put into her ca-reer was worth it.

Entertainment

Imaginative and Sensitive

Compassionate and Kind

Selfless and Unworldly

Halle Berry

on the red

carpet at the

Academy

Awards last

February

2011.

Comedian Billy Crystal is this year’s host.

MUSIC

The Color of Sound

Friday, February 24

8:00pm

Alfred Newman Recital Hall

Free

Faculty pianist Kevin Fitz-Gerald,

joined by violinist Irina Tseitlin and

cellist Ronald Leonard, presents a

concert of Prokofiev and the music

and visual art of Michael Tseitlin.

Thornton Pop Fest

Sunday, February 26

12:00pm to 6:00pm

E.F. Hutton Park

Free

Don’t miss this outdoor festival fea-

turing original bands and songwrit-

ers from the USC Thornton Popular

Music Program.

ARTS

Celebration of the Arts

Saturday, March 3

12:00pm to 3:00pm

USC Fisher Museum of Art

Free

Join the Fisher Museum of Art for

an afternoon filled with music, live

entertainment and art-making activi-

ties, plus free food and refreshments.

USC Language

Academy

Rossier School of

Education

Phone: 213-740-0080

Fax: 213-740-0088

Web: www.usc.edu/

langacad

ATTENTION

LANGUAGE

ACADEMY

STUDENTS

Do you have a story to tell?

Do you have an inspiration?

The TAN Staff invites all

students to write stories for

the newsletter. Send your

stories to Editor Sisi Lin at

sisilin044@gmail.com or

Assistant EditorYara Hadi at

yarahadi93@gmail.com

and we’ll publish them!

Events Calendar: February 24-March 2

The Academy News is a weekly newsletter pro-duced by students in the Journalism Elective of the USC Language Academy. All students in the Lan-guage Academy Program are encouraged to send news stories and photos to Sonja Lovelace at slove-lac@usc.edu.

Check out The Academy News online at www.usc.edu/langacad.Go to “Student Informa-

tion” and then click on “The Academy News.”

P A G E 8 F E B R U A R Y 2 4 , 2 0 1 2

FREE EVENTS Many events on campus are

free. Please go to the Arts and Events Calendar for more

details at http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/

calendar/32/feature/2819

Editor

Sisi Lin

Assistant Editor

Yara Hadi

Reporters

Sara Alshehri

Tzekwan (Catherine)Cheung

Lilly Sabajan

Yining (Yvoon) Wei

Haoyang (Howard) Wen

Fengyi (Phoebe) Zhang

Advisor

Sonja Lovelace

THE TAN STAFF

Ans

wers

to

President

s’ Q

uiz

of last

week’s T

AN

1.

B

2.

C

3.

B

4.

C

5.

B

6.

A

7.

B

8.

C

No

one s

ent

any

an-

swers

, so

we c

ann

ot

ann

ounc

e a

winne

r.