Tag: Academic Year Program

Mastering English Classes in San Diego

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The Graduating Class of Friday, March 18, 2016 celebrated the completion of their EC English classes in San Diego.  After marching in, the graduates walked up one-by-one to receive their certificates from EC San Diego’s Center Director, Martha Delgadillo. Once everyone received their certificates, Assistant Academic Director, Nick DiZinno, announced them official Graduates and they threw their caps in the air in celebration! Afterwards, they mingled, congratulated each other, and took photos with the friends they made while studying English at EC San Diego! We are proud of how far you’ve come, and we will miss you all! Congratulations on completing your English Classes in San Diego!

Student Testimonial – Joe from Korea

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  “When I first visited EC San Diego, I was relatively nervous compared to other journeys. Although I decided to speak English without any shy emotion, it wasn’t easy to speak in front of the people who I met first. A few months later, I passed the level test to the upper intermediate class. Every time that I moved up to a higher class, I felt my English skills were improving faster and faster. I met many different teachers. Some of them were funny and energetic and others were so knowledgeable. While I stayed in San Diego, my grammar has improved so much. Every time I use English, all the remarkable memories from EC San Diego touch my heart. If anyone ask me to go abroad, I’ll tell them ‘go to San Diego’.” -Wonjin (Joe), Student Ambassador “Wonjin (Joe) not only excelled in his studies, but also in his role as a student ambassador at EC.  Staff, teachers, and students could always count on Joe to help out when assistance was needed.  His passion for helping new students every Monday showed as he greeted new students and answered their questions about the school and also living in San Diego.  Joe’s real love is for cooking and he was always very generous with sharing his delicious dishes and treats at EC.  Joe’s leadership will be missed here at EC, but we are proud of his success and are confident that he will thrive in his future endeavors.  Also, we hope to see him back in San Diego someday soon.” -Autumn Garrett, Assistant Academic Director English Language Courses in the USA

EC San Diego Student Presentations

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This past week, students were able to give presentations about their home country in order to inform others about their culture and lifestyle. The students also gave detailed explanations of the popular tourist attractions and what you can expect to see when you visit their country.   Student Luis Vargas, is from Venezuela and said that he really enjoyed speaking to other students about what it is like to live in his country. “Venezuela is a very diverse country because we have many different biomes such as the desert, beaches, jungle and mountains. Depending on where you are staying can influence the type of food you will eat. For example, if you are on the coast, you can find some of the freshest foods to eat. Alto, is a restaurant located in the country’s capital of Caracas, and is a favorite among the locals because they serve gourmet meals there. A traditional meal in Venezuela would be Arepa’s, which are similar to hamburgers in the United States. Arepa’s, however, are made with a type of cornbread and you can stuff different foods in it such as chicken or cheese. In Venezuela, a very popular sport is baseball. In the United States, players like Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Lions and former San Francisco Giants player Pablo Sandoval, are natives to Venezuela. My country is also known for Miss Venezuela winning the title of Miss Universe seven times. Venezuela is home to the tallest waterfall in the world: Angel Falls.” Student Julianna Correal Velez, presented on her home country of Colombia: “Colombia is a Spanish country and we Colombians are dreamers. One of our country’s motto is, “Colombia is patient”. There are many tourist attractions in Colombia. A few of the main cities are Bogota, Cartagena, and Medellin. Bogota is Colombia’s … Read more

Learning English at EC to Become a Global Citizen!

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We are all here at EC San Diego to learn or teach English. But in a world of global citizenship, which other languages could be considered as significant? In December a panel of international researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) published a study mapping the worlds languages as they are used by bilinguals. Consequently, they discovered a strong predictor of a language’s global influence. What’s so innovative about this study? It uncovered the connectivity between the world’s languages in the digital age. The team at MIT created the below “infographic” explaining this connectivity of language. The following explains the basic images used in the network: The “nodes” (colored circles) represent different groups of language The node colors represent each language’s family (ex: Indo-European (blue) = Romance languages, English; Sino-Tibetan (orange) = Chinese, Burmese) Nodes’ sizes match their predominance in both native and second language speakers The “links” (black lines) represent the languages that are often spoken together by bilingual people The thicker each link the more people that speak those two languages together! What’s a valuable conclusion from the above?  English is front and center in how our world interacts in the 21st century. Learning English can help non-native speakers achieve their personal and profession goals on an international scale. Where is your primary language and with whom is it likely to be co-spoken? Check out the interactive Global Language Network  and find out for yourself!     Citation: “Links that speak: The global language network and its association with global fame,” by Shahar Ronen, Bruno Gonçalves, Kevin Z. Hu, Allesandro Vespignani, Steven Pinker and César Hidalgo, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,December 2014

It’s Officially (US) Football Season!

Category: Academic, EC San Diego Profiles, Student Services / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

      (Left) Teacher Wes giving his AY Presentation, (right) Wes takes an American Football player photo! Last week EC San Diego Teacher Wes gave a presentation about the game of American Football to our Academic Year students! In the US, football is not only a sport but also a tradition. Teacher Wes’ presentation focused on how “football” is common throughout the US, and for all age groups. There are teams for young children all the way to the NFL. It is played at every school, every college, and every university. A large part of our students’ full immersion US English program in the US is to learn about these types of tradition, and also to become part of them! So – not really certain how the game of “American Football” works? Then read the following introduction to the game, courtesy of Teacher Wes! RULES:  11 players from each team play at one time The offense has 4 downs (plays) to move the ball forward 10 yards The team must throw or run the ball from the ball from the line of scrimmage The line of scrimmage extends the width of the field from the location the ball is placed The defense can not go past the line of scrimmage until the offense begins the play At each end, there is an ‘End Zone’ and Field Goal Post – this is where you score points SCORING SYSTEM (POINTS) A touchdown is worth 6 points After a touchdown, the team can either kick a very short field goal worth 1 point or try and score again from 2 yards away for 2 points A field goal is worth 3 points regardless of the distance Ready to watch a Football game!?  

Student Testimonial: Mustafa Felimban!

Category: EC San Diego Profiles, Student Services / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Mustafa with his California State Flag Mustafa has been a student at EC San Diego for 2 years! Friday October 10th was his last day at school, and we were very sad to see him go. Read below to see what he has to say about his experience as a student with EC English Language Centers in San Diego: “Hi, my name is Mustafa. I am 19 years old, from Saudi Arabia, and have been at EC San Diego for almost 2 years! I came to EC as a Beginner student, and I am leaving as a High Intermediate level student! “I chose EC San Diego first because [of] the weather, the beaches, and stayed in my EC San Diego English course because the people here. They are so friendly! My favorite part of EC were the classes and teachers – they are great! I also made a lot of friends from different countries, who I will keep in touch with for a long time. “Obviously, I will miss my second family here at EC. I grew up here, I came here when I was 18 years old. I will miss everything. “To all you thinking of coming to EC…EC San Diego is the best. You will make a lot of friends and you will improve your English.  And you will enjoy it!” Mustafa returned to Saudi Arabia, and hopes to come back to attend an American university in California. Thank you, Mustafa! We hope to see you soon!!

English Elective Courses at EC San Diego

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Elective courses are offered to those students who have enrolled in an semi-intensive or intensive program. An elective course focuses one fewer aspects of English learning, compared to those covered in the core classes. The EC English Language Center in San Diego offers many different electives that are based upon level. For Beginners the courses we offer are: Survival English: Survival English is focused on learning enough basic English to be able to communicate with Americans and express ones basic needs. In this elective students will learn community rules, regulations and costumes. This course is taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11:35 and 1:05 by teachers: Danica, Gina, JJ, Karen and Andrea. Basic Writing: In this course students will learn how to create basic paragraphs, topic sentences, compound sentences, and pronouns. They will do assignments such as writing letters, creating poems, and writing a dialogue out of a scene that a classmate has acted out. Pre-Intermediate: World of words: This course is focused on getting students to expand their vocabulary, and learn words that will help enhance their conversations. This class is mostly for students who are only here for a short period of time. This course is taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11:35 and 1:05 by teachers: Adolf, John V, and Bill. Living in English: Living in English is a more advanced class of Survival English. This class is focused on a lot of vocabulary and conversation. This class was created to help students feel comfortable expressing themselves while here in America. Intermediate: Academic Skills: This course focuses on practicing different techniques to improve skills and strengthen writing. This class is also taught for Upper Intermediate students, and teaches them how to write at the University level. Academic Skills is taught on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 11:35 … Read more

Student Testimonial: Myungchul Choi

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Myungchul came to EC USA from Korea. His goal? To greatly improve his English in just 6 months! Myungchul Choi has been a student at EC San Diego since August of this year. He is currently enrolled in our Academic Year program for 24 weeks, and is excited to have the chance to really improve his English skills over the next few months! Read below to find out what Myungchul has to say about his full immersion English course experience with EC San Diego!! “When I arrived at EC San Diego my first day, I didn’t know anything. But my teachers and my friends taught me to speak more English, and they taught me about San Diego. I like my teachers a lot – they are very nice. “I really like La Jolla, where school is everyday. I am here every day, and I m always speak[ing] English! “Best part of my experience here? I think the best part is the EC education. When I studied English in Korea I just studied grammar. No speaking. “But now I can practice speaking all the time, and learn grammar and pronunciation!” Myungchul is planning to go to our EC Los Angeles English Language Center next month to continue his Academic Year English studies – and maybe check out Hollywood, too! Thank you, Myunchul, for being such an amazing student – we can’t wait to see where you’ll go next!  

Student Testimonial: Ayano Wakabayashi

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“I don’t want to leave tomorrow, I wish I could stay in San Diego forever,” stated Ayano Wakabayashi, twenty-seven year old student, who is originally from Japan. Ayano has been at EC San Diego for a year now, and has been enrolled in the Semi-Intensive program. While Ayano attended College in Japan, she studied English as her major. While in college she always wanted to study abroad in America, and really emerge her self into the culture. After she graduated College, she decided she wanted to start her own  tourism company. Discovering this, she realized she would need to know more English. This is what drove her to enroll in English Courses at EC San Diego. Ayano went on to say that “San Diego is the best city in the world, the people here are awesome and are very kind. I like that it’s not just the people at EC that are nice but everyone in the city.” While in San Diego Ayano enjoyed it’s many beautiful beaches, ventured the theme parks such as Seaworld, and met a lot of new friends. She went on to say how much she loved the diversity at EC San Diego, and how it has given her the desire to study all the different types of cultures and histories. When asked what Ayano liked about EC she replied, ” I liked that there are different levels and that the teachers are always willing to help. For a while I couldn’t move up to the next level, it was very frustrating. I showed the teachers that I did want to learn and progress. So many teachers, some who weren’t even my own began helping me, and giving me extra work so I could move up to the next level. With their help I was finally able … Read more

EC San Diego Teacher Profile: Autumn Garrett!

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“Hi! My name is Autumn Garrett and I am an ESL teacher at EC San Diego! A little about me: “I’m originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (located in the center of the USA), but I have been living here in beautiful San Diego for almost a year. “On the weekends I love to explore San Diego and the surrounding areas, and venture up the coast for the incredible beaches and wine tasting at local vineyards. I’m also a big movie buff and love sitting in the theater with a big bucket of popcorn watching action movies and comedies. “My favorite spots in San Diego are…the beaches!!  Each beach on SD’s coast has a different type of energy, and they are all worth checking out. A little about my teaching background with ESL: “I became a teacher because ever since I was a child, I just knew it’s what I should be. I am a native English speaker and have been an ESL teacher for 4 years; I spent two years teaching English in South Korea. “I have an undergraduate degree in English and a Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). I love teaching ESL!” A little about my classes at EC San Diego: “How would I describe my General English classes at EC San Diego? Amazing, of course! Beyond making learning English fun and effective, I really like to emphasize class participation in the classroom. My style of teaching is very interactive! I try to make my classroom as comfortable as possible so that my students feel free to express their ideas. “I do not want them to ever feel afraid to make mistakes. Making mistakes is a part of learning! I like to use everything I have learned from all my teaching to create interesting, challenging and fun lessons … Read more