the academy news - week of 11/21
DESCRIPTION
In this week's issue: Thanksgiving on the Queen Mary, the Marvelous Dubai, and In N' Out French Fries...Animal StyleTRANSCRIPT
Sky Smith
On Friday, students, faculty
and staff celebrated the
American holiday of Thanks-
giving at the Queen Mary in
Long Beach.
Over 200 people partici-
pated in this activity, and we
all got to share the things that
we are thankful for in life.
Natalie Reyes, a Language
Academy student worker, said
that this was her favorite
Thanksgiving ever and also
that she is very thankful for
Language Academy students
and the wonderful experience
she has had getting to know
them.
Students were treated to a
traditional Thanksgiving
meal of turkey, stuffing,
mashed potatoes, yams and See Thanksgiving on p. 4
Thanksgiving Break 11/23—11/25 This week, there will be NO classes on Wednesday, November 23rd through Friday, November 25th for the Thanks-giving Holiday. The USC Language Academy and the University will also be closed during this time. If you need to see a staff member, please make arrangements to do so before or after the break.
Group Picture & SCavenger Hunt Friday, December 2nd Come be a part of the USC Language Academy Group Picture right after Oral Skills on Friday, December 2nd in front of Doheny Library at NOON. Right after, students who sign up for our last activity, the Scavenger Hunt, will begin the big hunt and could win fun prizes at the Closing Ceremony! Sign up on Monday, November 28th.
Thanksgiving on Queen Mary
I N S I D E T H I S
I S S U E :
Language
Labs
2
Course
Evaluations
3
Dubai 4
Interview
with Todd
5
American
Music Awards
6
In-N-Out
Burgers
7
Photo
Album
8
UP C O M I N G AC T I V I T I E S
The Academy News N O V E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 1 V O L U M E 5 2 , I S S U E 1 2 Students share
Thanksgiving
Reflections, p. 4
Profile of Lan-
guage Academy
teacher Todd
Kolberg , p. 5
A special trip to
Yellowstone
National Park,
p. 6
What is the
Unhate Foun-
dation? See p.7
IELTS Test Preparation—In this lab, you will have the opportunity to learn tips and tricks on how to ace the IELTS test.
Writing Skills——In this lab, you will have the opportunity to work on improving your writing skills. You’ll get tips and tricks that will make you a better English writer. BOTH Writing Skills labs will cover the same topic on Tuesday.
Please only sign up for one section of Writing Skills.
Building English Skills: Levels 1-2—Do you want to pronounce words better when you read aloud in class? Do you want to have beautiful handwriting? Do you want to improve your spelling and basic grammar? This lab will focus on
handwriting, spelling, reading aloud and sentence grammar. It is strongly recommended for students in Beginning Level to Level 2.
Tuesday, November 29th
Time Location Description Facilitator Levels
11:00—12:00 KAP 113 IELTS Test Preparation James Hutzell All Levels (Recommended
for 3-6)
11:00—12:00 SOS B45 Building English Skills
Diana Hiciu Levels Beginner, 1 & 2
11:00—12:00 JEF 124 Writing Skills
Nevena Fairclough
Levels 3, 4, 5, & 6
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1 & 2 Jackie Kim Levels 1 & 2
11:00—12:00
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 3 Annie Lin Level 3
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 4 Diana Echeverria Level 4
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 5 Matt Shin Level 5
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 6 & 7
Isabelle Feldhaus Level 6 & 7
12:30—1:30 DRB 265 Writing Skills
Marisa Garcia-Crocker
Levels 3, 4, 5, & 6
Thursday, December 1st
Time Location Description Facilitator Levels
11:00—12:00 KAP 113 IELTS Test Preparation James Hutzell All Levels (Recommended
for 3-6)
11:00—12:00 SOS B38 Building English Skills
Diana Hiciu Levels Beginner, 1 & 2
11:00—12:00 JEF 124 Writing Skills
Nevena Fairclough
Levels 3, 4, 5, & 6
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1 & 2 Jackie Kim Levels 1 & 2
11:00—12:00
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 3 Annie Lin Level 3
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 4 Diana Echeverria Level 4
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 5 Matt Shin Level 5
JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 6 & 7
Isabelle Feldhaus Level 6 & 7
12:30—1:30 JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 3 & 4 Matt Shin Levels 3, & 4
P A G E 3
END OF SESSION
Course and Program Evaluation Schedule
Monday, December 5
All students will complete the course and program evaluations on Monday, Decem-
ber 5 according to their elective classes. Please go to the computer lab at the time
indicated in the table below. IPPAM and CMGT students who are not in elective
course will be given the link to use to complete the evaluations.
Do you have your USC email account set up? If not, make
sure to set it up!
Go to http://bit.ly/uabgjl for step-by-step
instructions on how to set it up! You’ll need your USC email
username to complete your program evaluations—don’t
wait until it’s too late.
KOH 208 KOH 208
100:00-10:30 Film 472 Marisa Garcia-Crocker 10:30-11:00 Bus 470 Todd Kolberg
11:00-11:30 LS TOEFL Barbara Holmes 11:30-12:00 LS TOEFL James Hutzell
WPH B 36 WPH B 36
100:00-10:30 Film 471 Diana Hiciu
Drama 360 Priscilla Taylor
10:30-11:00 Vocab 120 Ilana Melmed
TOEFL 301 Michael Cannon
11:00-11:30 SPKENFL 241 Nathan Crandall
Journal 370 Sonja Lovelace
11:30-12:00 SPKENFL 242 Maggie Calafano
Pro 470 Priscilla Caraveo
12:00-12:30 LisNote 20 Katie FitzSimons 12:30-1:00 TOEFL 302 Jeminah Espinoza
PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS OF YOUR ELECTIVE TEACHER
P A G E 4
delicious vegetables, but the
best part was the pumpkin pie!
After the luncheon, many stu-
dents took the opportunity to
look around the giant ship and
take a tour of the Queen Mary.
This was a fun activity for all
of the students who attended.
With only a few weeks left in
the fall semester, it was great
to spend time together and be
thankful for each other. Happy
Thanksgiving from the USC
Language Academy!
Thanksgiving
Lexie Wei
What are your feelings about
Thanksgiving Dinner on the
Queen Mary?
The legend of Queen Mary
makes it full of mysterious
atmosphere. After the lunch, I
went to the deck with friends.
I got lost and walked around
in the cabin alone. There was
a moment that I felt I was
back in the nineteenth cen-
tury. And this feeling sud-
denly brought a fearful emo-
tion. I couldn’t help turning
back to see whether there was
something behind me. I was
so eager to find the exit to step
out of the old cabin. The
Queen Mary looks peaceful.
But I can feel the loneliness. If
you have never been on a
cruise, the Queen Mary will
be a nice choice.
-----Chenny (China)
Thanksgiving is one of the
most important festivals in
America, which symbolizes
our thankful hearts for things
we have already got in our
lives. The Academy asked
several students to video tape
their feelings of “what are you
thankful for.” The majority
mentioned family, friends and
all the precious moments that
happened to them in the past
two years. I was impressed
and realized the significance
of this festival that we should
all perceive a thankful heart so
that we can be confident and
determined the future.
-----Cloudy (China)
The experience on the Queen
Mary on last Friday gave me
enough experience to enjoy
American Thanksgiving Day.
Even though it was my first
time to have pumpkin pie, I
was addicted to that taste.
Moreover, I could fully enjoy
myself with many interna-
tional friends in a large ship,
taking many pictures with
them.
-----Junu (Korea)
Who do you want to thank the
most?
It was an amazing experience
for me. I am very thankful for
the Language Academy be-
cause it gave me so much,
including this dinner on the
Queen Mary. I will go back to
Japan this winter, and I will
tell my friends how exciting
this experience was. I love
Thanksgiving Dinner, and I
am very thankful for the Lan-
guage Academy.
-----Motoka (Japan)
I want to thank Azziz, who
invited me to go to Miami,
and Ahmed , who shared a
good time with me in Las Ve-
gas. I want to thank Gil for
being very helpful all the
time,and Juno, who called me
his best friend.
-----Bo Sheng (China)
I want to thank my house-
mates, especially Lexie. She
always cooks for me and teach
me many things. She is very
generous. I like her very
much. Besides, I also want to
thank Bowei. He is very nice
and often helps me clean our
house. We have a lot of com-
mon interests.
has an amazing Thanksgiving
holiday.
-----Hugo (China)
Dubai: A place where
everyone would be
amazed
Camille Houphouet-Boigny
Where would you see an island
called the world? Houses built in the
desert? The most luxurious hotel in the
world?
I can feel that the desert is nearby,
but at the same time, I see the ocean,
smell oriental smells, and hear a foreign
language…
These things make me think of Du-
bai, a place where tradition mixes with
superficiality: I can see men and
women wearing traditional clothes and
driving fancy cars, carrying fancy
purses and wearing shoes, sunglasses,
and amazing pieces of jewelry.
In Dubai, a lot of things are contra-
dictory: even though it is in the Middle
East and it is a Muslim city, you don’t
feel the restrictions that you would feel
in other very religious countries. You
can’t see anything that reminds you that
you are in a Muslim country, except for
the call the Imam makes to pray.
This place is like Disneyland—
everything is magical, from the fact that
you can spend your morning at the beach
and your afternoon in the desert; the fact
that you can have a traditional and sim-
ple meal, but also the fanciest meal; and
most especially, that you can go into the
highest tower of the world and from
there see all kind of landscapes and ar-
chitecture.
For the first time, I felt that I wasn’t
in a real place, like if I had gone on an-
other planet on holidays!
Program Highlights
Left: A man-made island in the shape of the world. Top: Dubai’s famous tower, Burj Al-
Arab is the most luxurious hotel in the world.
Thanksgiving continued from p. 1
z
P A G E 5
Michelle Chen
Do you know there’s such a teacher in Language Academy? He has lots of fans. He used to be an actor. He loves teaching. He is always happy and energetic. He looks better than Brad Pitt and forever young. His name is Todd Kolberg.
I feel honored to have this chance to interview him and I also want to thank my gossip classmates who gave me many ideas during my question collection. Here’s the inter-view. What’was your biggest dream in your childhood? Be an actor. Did you ever think of being a teacher in the future when you were a child? I was always a teacher, When I was first grade. I taught my little sister. I also got extra copy of homework from my teacher and gave it to her. How do you keep happy and ener-getic? Just enjoy what you do. What would you do if you were not teaching here? I would teach music. I like teaching a lot of different things. I like doing things and interacting with people. I can’t imagine a job sitting in front of the desk and staying in an office the whole day. What kinds of jobs have you ever done? My first job was in a store when I was in high school. I put prices on the prod-ucts. That’s what they call stock boy. Then I was a waiter in a restaurant. After that, I worked in a wood working company. My company made things of wood, outdoor wood furniture, every outdoor wood thing. So my job was to
go out and design fancy wood things for people. Is that also the reason why you went to Mexico and built houses for poor people? Yes, I enjoy making things with my own hands, and it is good to see how things change there. There’ s a church group. Every year they build 1-2 houses for poor people. This was my 4th year. Ac-tually, it was not a real house. It was very small, with concrete floor, 12*12 foot, one door and one window, no electricity or running water. Everyday there came a water giant where people can get water. You know what, lots of your students think you are gay because you look great, interesting and well educated , but you are not married. No I am not gay, I have lots of gay friends because you know when you are actor, everybody around you seems like a gay…but I am definitely straight. And I was once married.
When do you want to get married again? If I find the right person. I think a good relationship should make you happy. I think relationships should bring happi-ness. If you don’t feel you are happy in the relationship why stay in? I didn’t date a lot before I got married in my late twenties. But when I got divorced, I felt uncomfortable because I was 32 years old and I hadn’t dated anyone for eight years, so I don’t know how to date. But I don’t worry about that any-more. So what kind of women do you like? Err…I’ve dated so many different girls, from different countries. I’ve dated woman taller than me, shorter, long hair, short hair, brown hair, golden hair, from Russia, Thailand, Taiwan… I admitted that at first you have to be physically attracted, but I think person-ality is the most important. I enjoy do-ing things together with different per-sons. But when people too much like me it gets boring. I like things new. I date different women and I learn more because they all have different inter-ests. That’s the best way to learn things, when doing them with people who are really interested in them. Do you have some suggestions for English learners? Speak more and don’t worry about making mistakes. It is by physical be-cause you hear yourself speaking sound. People who speak more, even they make mistakes, they learn English better. It is a little bit difficult for interna-tional students to fit in American soci-ety especially during the first months after they come here. Do you have any advice on this problem? Well, it is natural when people get into a new environment they try to find some similar ones. And LA is not the See Todd on p. 8
Interview with “Brad Pitt” in Language Academy
Yellowstone National Park by Danting Li
P A G E 6
Bovard Auditorium is the
venue for many concerts dur-
ing the academic year.
Ayman Sultan
The American Music
Awards ceremony, which
occurs once every year,
was held on Sunday, No-
vember 20, in the Nokia
Theatre in L.A. Live, and
it was full of amazing
performances by amazing
musicians. This event had
15 different awards given
out to fifteen different
artists.
The event started at 5
p.m. with great perform-
ances by fa-
mous artists,
like Jennifer
Lopez, Drake,
Rihanna, and
many others.
The best per-
formance was “Party
Rock Anthem,” which
made the whole crowd
stand up on their feet and
dance.
Taylor Swift, who won
the best Female Country
Artist award, also won the
best artist of the year
award. More than
half of the crowd
was surprised by Taylor
Swift’s winning the best
artist of the year because
there were many other
artists who were in the
spotlight all the time this
year, like Lil Wayne and
Rihanna.
People came out of this
great event with big
smiles on their faces, and
that’s because of the
fabulous performances
that were held there.
Blue sky, white clouds,
green grass, forests without
boundary, high mountains
with glacier on the top, great
canyons with water falls and
rivers. There is even a great
lake that seems as big as sea.
You can meet with many
kinds of animals when hiking
in the wild: eagle, moose, elk,
bison, and even bear some-
times. You can smell some
penetrating odor in the air. It
comes from geysers and hot
springs, which is a significant
geographic phenomenon in
this area. Here is the home of
wild animals. Here is a con-
centration of geothermal fea-
tures. Here is area of fantasy
and nature. Here is the Yel-
lowstone National Park.
Yellowstone National
Park, which is located pri-
marily in the state of Wyo-
ming, but also extends intto
Idaho and Montana. It is the
first National Park in U.S
founded in 1872. It was
inscribed by the United Na-
tions Educational Scientific
and Cultural organizations
as a World Heritage Site in
year 1978. It is famous for
its beautiful natural scenery,
and it attracts millions of
tourists every year.
Yellowstone National
Park is a perfect place to
spend your vacation. Some
friends and I visited there
this summer.
During the whole week,
we stayed there, we were
busy at sightseeing, camp-
ing, hiking, and kayaking.
Five main information cen-
ters and many facilities, such
as stores, hotels, and restau-
rants inside the park will
provide all necessities you
need. It is a great place with
attractions and memories
where you wish to plan your
next visit as soon as soon as
you leave there.
Travel Story
The American Music Awards 2011
Taylor Swift reacts to the announcement that she won the best artist of the year award.
Top: Pano-ramic view of
Yellowstone
Park; Right:
Morning
Glory Pool,
one of many hot springs in
Yellowstone.
P A G E 7
By Sharon Jung
IN-N-OUT Bur-
gers
Do you like hamburg-
ers? If your answer is
YES, then you should try
to go to IN-N-OUT Burger
if you haven’t tried it yet.
At IN-N-OUT Burger,
even though it is fast food,
quality is everything. They make
their burgers from fresh vegetable,
100% pure beef. Also they are free
of additives. There are no fillers
and preservatives of any kind, and
everything is made to order at the
same time. They focus on making a
high quality hamburger. So the
food is more delicious and fresh
than at other burger restaurants.
IN-N-OUT Burger is unfamiliar
to Koreans, but it’s a very well
known burger stand to Americans.
According to customer satisfaction
surveys in U.S.C, IN-N-OUT Bur-
ger was rated as one of the top fast
food restaurants.
The prices in this restaurant are
very cheap. A hamburger is $1.75
and double-hamburger is $3.05.
The restaurant is a regional
chain of fast food restaurants. The
nearest restaurant from U.S.C is
located at 24445 CRENSHAW
BLVD TORRANCE, CA 90505, 1-
800-786-1000. It is around 2.06
miles from U.S.C.
Cheap, Close, Delicious and
Fresh! Try to eat quickly.
I recommend eating french fries
of Animal style, which aren’t on
the menu. It is the secret menu.
Unhate foundation By Mocha Tang
Recently, Benetton (a casual wear brand) initiated a con-
troversial advertising campaign named “Unhate Founda-tion” in a bunch of cities.
Political leaders with completely different religious be-liefs in distinctive countries appeared in the posters kissing each other, which caused a big stir among consumers. “We were trying to advocate a more inclusive world to
the public,” explained a think tank in the art research cen-ter. The super hanging poster and digital projection of
“Unhate Foundation” can be found in public places in New York, Milan, Rome and Paris.
Online activities are under way at the same time. Consum-ers are able to upload their kissing picture on http://kisswall.benetton.com/ to have an intimate contact with people in another continent.
Right: More Thanksgiving Pics
USC Language
Academy
Rossier School of
Education
Phone: 213-740-0080
Fax: 213-740-0088
Web: http://
www.usc.edu/dept/education/langacad/
Thanksgiving Album 2011
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 [email protected].
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 N O V E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 1
THE TAN STAFF
Editor Ningqi (Jeannine) Jiang
Assistant Editor Camille Houphouet-Boigny
Reporters Youssef Abdat
Yuzhen (Michelle) Chen
So Hyun Jeong
Sya Ron (Sharon) Jung
Danting Li
Ayman Sultan
Qian (Mocha) Tang
Laixin (Lexie) Wei
Meng (Cassie) Wu
Cheng Zeng
Todd Continued from p. 5 easiest place. But I think univer-sity has many clubs and events, movies and concerts… those are good opportunities to meet people. You need to tie into university activities and get involved. But it also depends on how much time you have. That’s a challenge. I always joke like if you really want to learn English, find an American boy-friend. It’s the most practical thing…but…yeah, it is partially true. But it is easier for girls than boys, hahaha.