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Issue

13Issue

Win t e r E d i t i o n

Mystery Teacher – Who is it? Figure out!

Letter to the Queen – ESOL students heard back!

Deaf Awareness – ESOL students sign.

“A man who never made mistakes, never made anything”

~Jeff Kinney in “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”

Famous Quotations from all over the World...

ESOL Oasis

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8-9 Where am I now? An inspirational interview with a former ESOL student con-ducted by a current ESOL student.

10-11 Quotations from all over the world and... their interpretations byESOL students. Get to know some famous sayings and words of well-known people. What is their meaning?

11 Postcrossing. What is that?

12 Announcement Board. Everything you should know to keep up to date.

Contents

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3 Mystery Teacher. It is time for some serious investigation. Feel like a detective even if just for a while, follow the tips and identify the teacher!

4-5 What students are involved in? Letter to the Queen. Insight into amazing practical activity that one of ESOL classes implemented

with their teacher. They wrote a letter... but not just any letter!

6 Movie/book reviews by ESOL students.What is worth reading, will improve your

English and is a good fun? Find out.

7 Students’ achievements: Deaf aware-ness. What other language have ESOL students

learnt?

Dear students,

It feels wonderful to see you again after the holidays! I hope you enjoyed your sweet little time off college. As they say, break could always be just a bit longer… but now it’s time to get to work, as time is flying by unbelievably quickly!

“We have a beautiful autumn this winter..” – one could say. Do you miss snow? In Scotland, there always has to be something falling from the sky! Since I can-not wish for chocolate balls… wouldn’t it be better to get some fluffy snow in-stead of the rain all the time? Well, even if the snow doesn’t arrive on time, we still want you to feel a magic touch of this season and see some dream-white scenery . Look at the front cover! Main photo presents snowy Glasgow from few years back.

Since the evenings are cold and sleepy, we have some stuff to keep you awake and amused. Get a “cuppa” tea or coffee and enjoy your read. This issue is most-ly about literature and prose. Inside, you’ll find a review of the series of book entitled “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, famous citations from all over the world and students’ interpretations of them, and stories written by students. What is more, you’ll get to now another former student who proves it is worth to study English and when you do – study it hard. You will also find out what one of the classes has to do with Queen of England and what other language another class has learnt to use!Can you see our magazine’s butterfly on the front page? It’s all blue and frosty but it doesn’t mind cold at all. Life is too short to hibernate! If it doesn’t do that so should not you. Enjoy this time to the limit, the journey continues.

OASIS editor

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fjkfhsdjhfjdsjbgfndfmbgfnmhbfnbhfnmhbfmnhbnMystery Teacher

10. Would you rather speak any language fluently or be able to talk to animals? Animals. I love language and the ability to speak to anyone in the world would be fantastic; however, I have a lot of questions that I’d love to ask animals. For example, I’d like to know whether a guinea pig prefers a cucumber to a pepper. I’d also like to know if a dog likes my shoes. Even if you don’t know another person’s language, you can usually make yourself understood a little. With animals, we have no idea what they are thinking. If I translated for them, they could be represented in politics and they could share their views on issues like global warming and im-migration. Actually, now that I have thought about it, I doubt animals would be interesting to talk to - all they’d tell me is that they were hungry. They probably don’t really think about complicated things. I’ve changed my mind...I’d like to speak every language fluently so that I can understand better why my students make mistakes.

1. How would you describe yourself in three words? big-nosed teacher2. What were you like at school? I was quite shy. I was very well-behaved and polite, but a little lazy. I used to listen to everything the teacher said, but I rarely did homework. I wish I had.3. What has been your oddest/most unusual job? I worked in a call centre, but no-one ever phoned us. It was a strange job for me because all of the workers just sat about and chatted. Another experience was when I was teaching English abroad, I was the school’s Santa one Christmas time. That was a disaster! I’m probably the worst Santa in history. Some of the children cried and I wanted to join them.4. What’s your favourite place in Scotland? The islands. Either Orkney or Arran. Orkney for the big views of the sea and sky and Arran for all the pretty hills, lochs and waterfalls in one place. Actually, Orkney’s the winner because I got married there.5. What book are you currently reading? “Penguin Lost.” It’s a dark comedy by Kurkov, a Ukranian author (translated to English) about a journalist who has lost his penguin, Misha. The journalist, Viktor, is helping a local, dodgy politician become elected. It’s the sequel

to Kurkov’s previous book, “Death and the Penguin”, where it explains why Viktor has Misha.6. How do you normally spend Christmas? I do something different every year. This year, I’m going to spend Christmas morning alone with my wife, having a relaxing time. I think it’s nice to go for a walk on 25th December because it’s peaceful and quiet when every-one else is busy. In the evening, we’ll probably visit my parents.7. What is your favourite Christmas movie? Probably “It’s a Wonderful Life”. It’s an old one, but I re-member crying at the end of it when I was a kid. “Miracle on 34th Street” is another classic. I haven’t seen these movies for a long time, so I may try and watch them again this year. It’ll be interesting to see if I still like them.8. What are you doing to celebrate the New Year? I don’t know. I’m too old for big parties now. I’ll probably have a quiet one.9. Where do you do most of your shopping? For Christmas presents, I tend to get most things from the Internet. E.g. Amazon.com. If it’s something spe-cial, I go to the shops by myself. For groceries, we go to Sainsbury’s because it’s the closest to our home and we don’t drive. I don’t really like shopping.

Before Christmas break one of our teachers has been thoroughly questioned... can you guess

who it was? Maybe they’ve told you how they spent their holiday and this task is going to be easy-peasy! You may check whether you were right by turning few pages forward. Now... let the inves-tigation begin!

Who is it ?

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What ESOL students are involved in?

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One of our afternoon classes did something amazing and creative with the help of their teacher - Anna Close. They wrote a letter. Not an exercise letter, but the letter that was actually sent through real post. And not just any let-ter, but... a letter to the Queen of the United Kingdom - Elizabeth II ! How often do you get to do that? They briefly introduced themselves and told about their col-lege life and life in the UK, and how they study English. And after a while... they received a response! That must have felt wonderful, but let them tell you all about it.

1. When did you write a letter to the Queen?2. What kind of thing did you write about in your letter to the Queen?3. How did you feel when you got a letter back from the Queen?

1. 22nd October 2013.2. I hope to move to London to stay in Buckingham Palace. Just for few weeks holiday.3. I felt very surprised and excited. A sense of achievement. by Koon

1. 22nd October 2013.2. Iintroduced myself and said thanks to her.3. I felt very happy. by Zainab Gedo

1. 22nd October.2. I asked the Queen: can I get a bus pass?3. I was very happy.

by Ayelech

1. On the 22nd of October 2013.2. About my house and her house.3. Happy amd excited.

by Mayuree

1. We wrote to the Queen on the 22nd of October 2013.2. We wrote about English class and the college.3. I was very happy, because I did not think the Queen would answer us. This was very important for me.

by Esmaeel Farid

1. 22nd October 2013.2. About myself, my family, my country.3. It felt very nice to speak to Royalty. Also it was very beautiful for her to give me this time. I mean, I felt like a president !

by Mahmoud Hamid Ali Musa

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Letter to the Queen.

Movie/book reviews by ESOL students.

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One of our ESOL students, Maria Rosa from Higher class, had a go on writing a book review! She wants to recommend to all of you a series of books that she thoroughly enjoyed reading. They are approch-able enough, so there is a wonderful educatative impact and besides...

The main character is Greg Heffley, a 12-year-old boy who reflects on his diary his thoughts, anecdotes and typical worries of a teenager. We all have been teen-agers, so these kinds of situations probably would sound familiar, bringing us back memories from our adolescent period.

I have found all of them really funny and entertaining, but also undoubtedly helpful for devel-oping the English language. In addition, it is very easy to read and the plot is simple to follow, including humorous images too.

And the good news is that, up till now, there are 8 books, so, if you succumb to Greg’s adventures, you can keep on enjoying this reading for a while.

Brilliant!! Isn’t it? Check it out and learn while hav-ing a good time.

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As strange as it may sound, I would like to recom-mend any book from the collection “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, originally aimed at children and teen-agers. Born in America (1971), Jeff Kinney is the author of these books. Apart from writer, he is a producer and an actor, among other professions. Its first book of this realistic fiction series, ti-tled Diary of a Wimpy Kid, was published in 2007, becoming an absolute success. The subse-quent titles followed the same track; available recently, the last book “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck”, was soon a world-wide bestseller, as expected. M a r i a R o s a

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Students’ achievements: Deaf awareness.

My class did this training because we wanted to learn sign language and because one of our

classmates is deaf and we wanted to be able to communicate with her. Before, I knew a little about how to communicate with deaf people but not much.We all enjoyed the training. I learned the alphabet and the most commonly used phrases in sign language. We know how to sign “good morning”, “thank you”, “I love you”, “break time”, “true or false”, “holiday” and “college” for example. The person leading the training showed and discussed with us the most important aspects of sign language. One thing I learned was that if you want to get Natalia’s attention you can turn the lights on and off.

by Raza AliAbdulla

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International Week of the Deaf took place at the end of September 2013 and I took this opportunity to come

together with deaf people from the UK because my husband, who is European, encouraged me to go along.I myself am deaf and I have learned British Sign Lan-guage (BSL). I’d like to tell you a little about myself. I come from Kiev, Ukraine. I lived and studied there until I moved to Glasgow. I have a new job here so I need to learn English, as this is what is spoken where I now live and work.Thanks to inclusive education, I am studying English here at the City of Glasgow College. There are many nice places here that I love. I am very interested in com-municating with Scottish deaf people about life, cus-toms and rituals. It has also been good to learn about other deaf people’s stories.

by Natalia B.

Where am I now?

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Interview and photos by Pawel Adamczyk

In this issue we would like to introduce you to Sarhang Haydari who came to us from Kurd-istan. An accomplished and successful Inter-mediate 2 student Sarhang is now using his in-credible talent and skills as a barber in his own barbershop.

- Could you tell us something about yourself Sarhang?I came from the most beautiful and the richest part of Asia, a place called Kurdistan. It is not yet an in-dependent country and the whole area is carved up into four between Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq.

-What is your educational background?I was a student at the University, studying Media and Journalism. I am supposed to be a journalist now but unfortunately I didn’t finish my education.

-What was your English level before you came to the UK?Honestly my English was very bad before I came here, because in Kurdistan we speak Kurdish. So it was almost a beginner level.

-When did you come to the UK?I came to this country in 2008. I spent my first month in Liverpool and then decided to come to Glasgow.

- What was your first impression of Scotland?In some ways it was really difficult to settle down in this country, especially for me. I am from Asia and the culture, language and weather is completely dif-ferent. When I arrived in Glasgow in March, it was raining heavily, it was dark and it was miserable. I thought then, God, what am I going to do now, how am I go-ing to live? But, you know, after some period of time I felt more confident and was ready to settle down. Now I think Glasgow is the most beautiful city and I love it. I love it especially when I am driving home after work at my barbershop.

“... the culture, language and weather is completely

different...

“

“

-When did you decide to take an ESOL course?Soon after I arrived here I decided I had to learn the language. If you are living in this country it is abso-lutely important to speak English. So I applied to do ESOL courses at Anniesland College, Cardonald Col-lege (now Glasgow Clyde College) and Glasgow Met-ropolitan College (now City of Glasgow College). I then had to wait for the results of the initial test.

-What did you do to learn the language apart from the course?After the initial tests I waited for about a year for a place on the course. In the meantime I used subtitles when I was watching movies. I wrote down all the new words in my notebook. I checked every word in my dictionary and then tried to memorize them and use them when I am speaking. So when my course started, my language level was better. I walked ev-erywhere with a small dictionary in my pocket. I still have it and sometimes when I do not understand a word I do not hesitate to check it. I also watched world News from the BBC. And their language can be quite difficult for beginners.

-Tell me about your work history here and what do you do now?At first when I was doing my ESOL course I had a part time job as a wall painter. Then after couple of years I found a job as a waiter doing functions. We travelled all over the UK serving food during big events like weddings and so on. After this job, one of my friends had a barbershop and he asked me if I would like to be a barber and I agreed. So I became a barber’s ap-prentice. When I became very good at my profession, I decided to move forward. At the beginning of 2012, I and my friend Tarek opened our own barbershop in Alexandria and start-ed working for ourselves. It was very difficult to find a place but at some point I found this shop on the internet and we took it. About a half year ago we ex-panded and added another room. As you can see the business is growing pretty fast.

“

...If you are living in this country it is

absolutely important to speak English...

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Where am I now?

““...I walked everywhere with a small dictionary in my

pocket...

- Is it difficult to open your own business?Being self-employed has advantages and disadvan-tages. For example when you are an employee you can take a day off when you want to, you do not care about the business very much because it is not yours. But when you are an employer it is really hard because you are paying bills not only on your house but for the shop as well. You are also responsible for paying your taxes to Inland Revenue and so on. To tell the truth it is hard work having your own busi-ness and it is difficult, but of course it is worth it.-You have very close daily contact with your cus-tomers. You must talk to them to understand their needs by using the English language. Looking back in time what has the ESOL course gave you?

I have to say I am very thankful to all my teachers. I am especially very grateful to Christine, Susan, Nico-la, Emily and Karen for everything they have taught me. They helped me a lot. I am using this knowledge now to serve my customers and deliver the best ser-vice. Of course I am still working on improving my language.

-Do you have any advice for our students who are trying to accomplish their goals? When you come to this country you have to work hard and learn English. If you do not know the lan-guage you cannot work, talk, or do anything. Attending college is the best way to study English. You must always do your homework. When I was a first year student I did all my assignments and I could see how fast I progressed. English language is not so hard to learn but it is not so easy as well. So you have to work hard. Hard work is the main key to reach your goals. It is the real key to success in all aspects of your life like a job, the language and so on. Do not be afraid or shy to make mistakes because we can learn from our mistakes.

As the American businessman Donald Trump once said: “Get going. Move forward. Aim High. Plan a take-off. Don’t just sit on the runway and hope someone will come along and push the airplane. It simply won’t happen. Change your attitude and gain some altitude. Believe me; you’ll love it up here.”

Quotations from all over the world and...

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“It is never too late to be what you might have been “ by the

novelist George Eliot.

This is one of my favourite quotes. I have chosen it because it encourages and motivates me and it makes me feel that I can change anything about my-self at any age, and at any point of my life. It also inspires me and makes me think in a positive way.

If we make poor decisions, does this mean it is too late to change? It is a fact that people do not always make the right decisions, as not everything is always clear to us and nobody is perfect .However, the im-portant thing is how to recognise what went wrong and fix it, or at least do something about it to make things better. Blaming ourselves and regretting the past doesn’t get us anywhere, it just makes us feel worse about ourselves. The best thing about making the wrong choices is that we learn not to repeat the same mistakes again and make sure that we try new ways of doing things and use different approaches. For these reasons, it is never too late to change our way of thinking, the way we see things or even our way of living. For instance, many people change

career after years of doing a completely different job from the one they chose initially. Most of the time they become successful in their new profession as they re-alise that this is what they like to do , not what others want them to do.Another good example is, a lot of people decide to di-vorce after a long marriage and remarry someone else, someone they love, someone they feel happy with or some people might decide to live on their own .On the other hand, people may make the same mistakes more than once because they don’t realise that they can take braver steps by doing things differently or because they are terrified of change. So if you were always dreaming about being someone different from what you are now, all you need to do is to rise to the challenge of making your dreams come true even if this means you need to change a lot of things about your life. What you will find is that you can be anyone you want, as long as you try and not fear change. To summarise, getting older does not mean you cannot change anything about your life because you have been like this for a long time but means you are wiser and more able to take big steps towards your goals. You have what it takes. Moreover, you are more developed as a person with experience.

by Alaa Ali, Int. 2/2

“It’s nice to be nice”

Everybody has a set of quotes which they repeat but sometimes they do not know their meaning or do not give it much thought to the context in which it is being used. When I was a child, I used to hear “It’s nice to be nice” from my mother and also at school. There are uncountable quotes but I am really into this quote because I have learnt a lot by using this in my life. I was very arrogant: always fighting and I did not want to be friends with anyone. When I started college life, this quotation helped me a lot.First of all, it sets a good example which means peo-ple are always remembering you, even though you are not there. Secondly, when you speak to someone using appropriate words then you will get an appro-priate response. People who speak rudely or in an arrogant way can’t have good relationships. Further-more, it’s quite helpful when dealing with strange people in strange countries. Polite behaviour can also melt a stone-hearted person. In addition, “give and take” means if you respect someone then you should be respected back. Finally, a well-mannered person wins the heart of everyone. To summarise, being a good person does not cost anything but you may achieve everything.

by Lakhwinder, Int. 2/2

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”

Education is the key to success. It is important to un-derstand and follow these words. Indeed, the meaning of these words is not that important in infancy when children are naturally curious and eager to learn a lot of new things, but very often situation changes when children turn into adolescents. Teenagers prefer to spend their time with friends rather than study. They don’t understand or, should we say, don’t want to hear that at this stage of their lives they lay the foundations for theirs future and that education in this process is crucial. Luckily, if they realize it son enough, then they continue their life’s journey at university or college and later in the professional field. Otherwise they condemn themselves to a meaningless, drear life without any challenges. Those people who strive to be successful would agree that nothing comes easily or just by itself i.e. all achievements require motivation, self-discipline and a lot of effort. What is true about young motivated and ambitious people can also be said about the peo-ple in their midlife who constantly develop themselves. Undeniably, it is worthwhile to endeavour to success even though sometimes it may be hard and tiresome.

by Vaidas, Int. 2/211

...their interpretations by ESOL students.

Students of ESOL City of Glasgow CollegeGlasgowUnited Kingdom

Dear Students,If you miss old good days when people were sending traditional mail rather than e-mail or any other kind of digital messages... I’ve got some good news for you!

Visit http://www.postcrossing.com/ How it works? You register, you send a postcard to random per-son somewhere in the world and then you wait for a postcard for you to arrive in your mail box. It’s fair deal - for each postcard you send, there’s one you’ll receive.

What’s so exciting about it? You never know when postman is going to bring you a surprise. Not only you may receive a beauti-ful postcard, but also some nice or interesting message.

It might be a fantastic way to practise your English by writing short messages. “Postcrossers” all tend to communicate through English on different levels.

It could be your substitute of travelling, you may get to know people from all over the world and maybe become penpals with somebody? Give it a go!

Best wishes,Your Editor

“Let us love people now they leave us so fast” by x. Twardowski

This quote is still very popular in Poland because nowadays people live very fast and when we lose someone close we start to think about us, life and other people. These are very important for me be-cause they remind me how short and surprising life is.Today we are very busy. Our life depends on work, money, time etc. We often fall for material goods like new car, new home, next car, expensive clothes, remarkable trips abroad etc. Actually, “rat race” is the greatest motivation for a many of us.

Generally people think: “I must be the best! Only my point of view is important.” It is very sad. This way our life gets poor and without other people. A lot of people are alone in society. Of course we live in big cities, work in corporations but we are still lonely. Our lives are empty and lack positive values. When we wake up, sometimes it is just too late and we don’t have people who love us around us anymore. The career and development are very

important for people but one day we may lose parents, siblings, friends and what then? It might be difficult time for us but very useful for our brain. The time will advantageous to start to think about our life, future and present time. Then it will be good moment for reflection about our-selves. In my opinion we really need them. Today we have a lot of different attractive material things. That’s great but we must remember that life is not eternal. In sum, this quote should remind us every day about how short life is. We have to love people because they leave us so fast. To love and be loved – it is essence of life!

by Aneta, Int. 2/2

A N N O U N C E M E N T B O A R D

What you can contribute for the next issue?□ Photo of Glasgow’s picturesque landmark or special/beautiful place in SPRING, taken by you. □ Quotation for the front cover.□ Thoughts, comments, opinions .□ Your interviewing and photographic skills. □ Movie or book review written by you. □ Continuation of the creative story. (12th issue)□ Recipe. □ Poetry. □ Graphics/sketches created by you. □…tell us!

e-mail us:esoloasis@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk

EMBRACING DIVERSITY COMPETITION 2014 WIN

£400

ALTOGETHER STRONGER

USE YOUR CREATIVITY TO EMBRACE DIVERSITY AT CITY OF GLASGOW COLLEGEThe theme is “Embracing Diversity” and the aim is to find the most effective expression and communication of this theme. Entries can be presented in any format. Closing date: Friday, 2nd May, 2014.

Please refer to the College website for further details: www.cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk/ed-competition

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Answer: It’s... Michael Orr !!