DATE: 12/01/2009 01:23:28 / MOOD: about language

CELI Experience of Kenji Mukai By: Kenji Mukai I have improved my English skills for 2 months. When I arrived in CELI, I couldn’t speak, listen, write or read well. But now, I can though there’s still a lot of improvement needed. My purpose in coming here is to study English, so I think it’s more or less achieved. Although I must continue to study English in Japan, choosing CELI was correct. I think so. While staying in CELI I also enjoyed doing other activities like going to the beach. I haven’t been to a very clear sea before. The discovery was unexpected. Thus I have enjoyed.

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DATE: 11/26/2009 23:16:45 / MOOD: about language

The Art of Englishby: Teacher Dave GarrisonBefore you begin studying English, you should ask yourself a few questions.• Why do I want to study English?• What are my objectives in life?• What do I hope to achieve by improving my English communication skills?There could be many reasons why people choose to improve their English language skills. Is it because you want to improve your scores at school? Maybe you just want to improve your speech to make your holidays abroad more enjoyable. Or better yet, it could be because you want to improve your communication skills at work with your foreign colleagues or customers. Maybe your parents are pressuring you to study English.Many students try to study English as if it were a science subject like mathematics or biology. In my view, they are making a big mistake. English is an art. As such, it needs to be practiced. Doctors practice medicine. Lawyers practice law. They are always practicing to improve their skills. That’s why, at CELI, classes are focused on giving students the maximum opportunity to practice using their skills in individual and small group settings. Studying grammar will give you the basic rules of how to express yourself in any language, but only practice will give you the vocabulary and confidence to improve how you use it to communicate.Like every decision in life, practicing English must be something you want to do. If you don’t make a strong commitment to constantly practice your English then it just won’t happen.After you have made up your mind that practicing English is something you really want to do then setting goals is easy. As an example, maybe you want to travel to an English-speaking country to study in a university. That would be great right? To achieve your goal, you should list all of the steps you need to reach your goal. The steps should be progressive from the easiest to the most difficult. Keep a record of your goals and which ones you have already achieved. For example, all students know that if you want to study at a university in America, you will need to take a TOEIC or TOEFL test and also pass an oral interview at the embassy to get your student visa. All three of these tests combine the four basic language skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students have so much stress about these tests.To best achieve your long term goal, I recommend you practice English the natural way. The natural way would be to focus on listening, speaking, reading and writing in exactly that sequence. That is the natural way people have learnt their own native language. If you can remember back to your childhood, you will know you learnt to listen before you could speak. As a small baby, you always looked up at your mother and wondered why she was making all those strange noises. Then, when you were about 1 year old, you suddenly realized some of those sounds your mother was making actually meant something. So, you began to listen more intently to determine which sounds were related to the things you wanted until you could eventually copy those sounds and make your mother understand what you wanted.Unfortunately, many school systems in Asia adopt a different point of view because they prefer the native language of the student to be firmly in place before teaching the child a new language.

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DATE: 11/19/2009 00:50:46 / MOOD: about language

My HobbyBy: Yuichiro Sawai My hobby that I enjoy the most is playing in a band. I have a band in Japan and I play the bass guitar in this band. This band is composed of four members. Two of us are from Paraguay and the other are from Japan. We all live in Japan. The vocalist is “Gaby” who is from Paraguay. The guitarist is “Ivan.” He is also from Paraguay. Ivan is the husband of Gaby’s sister. They are brothers in-law. The drummer is “Masa” who is from Japan. He has been my friend since we were in the university. We play our original songs. It’s hard core music. Ivan, the guitarist, makes the songs. Sometimes Gaby writes lyrics. They can speak English well so they write lyrics in English. We started this band six months ago. We have five songs now. And we will make one or two more songs, then take a gig. We also play some copy songs. It’s fun, but playing our original songs is different kind of fun. I like either. I’m looking forward to our gig. And someday, we want to play in Paraguay. It sounds so exciting. I need to study Spanish. Chao!

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DATE: 11/17/2009 21:46:09 / MOOD: about language

Smelly TripBy: Yuichi KatsumataSeashells which were given by the tour guide as souvenirs smelled. I’ve been to Olango Island last week. This island is famous for the sanctuary for birds and fish. I did have two exciting experiences. First one was climbing a coconut tree. I tried to catch coconuts but to no avail. I managed to get to one-third as high as whole height. And the other one was visiting graves. The graves were so different from those of Japan in sizes and shapes. Actually, I was not a typical tourist which the guide gets interested in me. I asked him if I could go to his house and see the inside of it. He was surprised but after a few seconds allowed me to go there. When we arrived at the house, his family members welcomed me and served dishes. I talked to them about Detective Conan and Dragonball Z. In addition, the neighbor told me that he would like to sell a cock for derby. But I denied his offer because I had a small bag. Finally, another neighbor said to me pointing out his daughter, “This girl is the most beautiful girl in this island.” I couldn’t understand what it really meant but in an instant I found out that it was the suggestion of marrying with her.The time to leave had come and then the tour guide gave me souvenirs; ten seashells. They were not as beautiful as those in the souvenir shops, and what was worse, those were smelling. They reason why they smelled was, he said, that he caught them for me a few minutes ago and scooped out the substances inside for souvenirs which made me deeply moved. Now, the seashells still smell in my room but the smell includes a number of good memories. I will never wash them but instead, I’ll keep them for my entire life.

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DATE: 11/16/2009 21:43:16 / MOOD: about language

My Memorable ExperienceBy: Min Su Kang (Matt) I arrived here on 28 December 2008. When I came here in Philippines, I was afraid because that time I’m not sure if I can study English or not. I made some friends during vacation. We went to beach and restaurant together. On the first of January, I met someone. His name is Bob and he is from Vietnam. We became best friends. We were together when we go somewhere and drink beer. We are still very good friends but now he is not in the Philippines. Anyway, I met one teacher. Her name is Mae. She is my 1 on 4 teacher class teacher. And I met Teacher Jocel and Teacher Lady. We became good friends. Anyway, I had a friend. His name is Josh. He was an Australian. We became good friends and usually together when we were going to disco club. But unfortunately, he went to Australia. That’s why he is not here right now. By the way I had so many friends before.But now almost all people went back to their country. I’m not used to parting time. It is my least favorite situation. But I think, I can’t avoid these kinds of situations. Now I have 1 month left. My goal is to improve my English as much as possible during my stay in Cebu. And another one is going to another island in the Philippines. I won’t regret my stay when I go back to Korea. Now I’m satisfied in my life in Cebu. Because even though my friends left Cebu but I still have so many good friends aside me. That’s why I’m so happy and I love them and I love Philippines.

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DATE: 11/15/2009 22:49:31 / MOOD: other

Here Without YouBy: Le Tat Thang (Romeo)Day by day for a long time, I haven’t seen you so I want to write my feelings about you just to let you know: How much I miss you!The first time I arrived here in the Philippines, I didn’t know what to do. Everything is very difficult to me. My days would be so empty and the nights so long. I usually wish you can stay here with me. But after all I make friends. I enjoyed each moment with them. Now everything with me is ok but still you are bothering me. I am thinking of you each moment I am awake and you’re always in my dreams everytime I am asleep.I can’t stop myself thinking of you and one thing is for sure even if we’re miles apart, you’re always in my heart.

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DATE: 11/10/2009 20:52:19 / MOOD: other

Story of Shoji SatoIn CELI, there are many great experiences. First, you can have a lot of chances to speak English. In my case, I wanted to improve my speaking ability and vocabulary. So I told these things to my teacher. In the class, my teacher gives me a lot of activities to practice speaking English and learn new vocabularies. I can talk about anything I want. Teachers here are very good listeners. You can use English not only inside but also outside the class. Here in CELI, everyone is your English teacher. You can talk with school staff, receptionist, security, housekeeper attendants and so on. Through the conversation, you will understand a lot of things, you can talk with your friends from other countries. In CELI there are many nationalities. This is the second good experience for me. I could make friends from Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Russia. Through talking with each other or playing, you can notice some differences between cultures. Finally, you can do a lot of things in Cebu island. There are many kinds of restaurants, shopping malls, beautiful beaches and other islands on weekends. I often go scuba diving, island hopping, visiting tourist attractions or traditional places like tops and others. Tops is a place where we can view all over Cebu City. I went there with my friends, enjoying the views and star gazing which was a great experience for me.In CELI, you can experience a lot of things that you can do only in the Philippines and not in other countries, so if you want to have the same experiences that I had, come to CELI.Thank you.

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DATE: 11/09/2009 21:12:38 / MOOD: other

Story of Nguyen PhiOn 13th June 2009, my mother and I arrived at Mactan Cebu International Airport and then went out of the airport. We could easily find CELI driver with a big board among the flock.It was about 9p.m. We got our room from one front office staff with a smile. He gave us the keys, some “house rules” and some advice for our stay. That was kind and hearty.In the next few days, my mom and I decided to go to “Save More” and I lost my ID card there. I was very surprised that I couldn’t explain to the customer service staff. She said she couldn’t understand me. I used to think that I had good English speaking skill because I was the best in my class before. I told all my teachers about that experience. And they helped me a lot. I received the pronunciation lessons, speaking and other skills. Now, that I have been here in CELI for 3months, there are many things that have changed. A lot of teachers and students left. New students and new friends came and the biggest change is my English improvement. But there is one thing that has never changed -- that is the kindness, sincerity and the cheerfulness of each teacher and staff here. I think this is what I will never forget.

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DATE: 11/08/2009 21:07:46 / MOOD: other

Diary of Park Sung Jun

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