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Valuable Experience

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Yesterday, the Extension students visited Washington State University. This University has 4 campuses. These are located in Pullman, Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Vancouver. We visited Pullman campus. It is the administrative office of the university. Pullman has an interesting institution. It is called the IALC which means Intensive AmericanLanguage Center. The purpose is to help international student to improve their English before entering the university. I met international students at the IALC. I had a splendid experiences. Two things were very surprised and impressive to me.

Stunnungly Beautiful  Campus
The most surprising thing was their pronunciation. I spoke to two Saudi Arabian students. They had a strong accent. There was a great difference between native speaker's English and Saudi Arabian's English. I think Saudi Arabians can't pronounce the letter "P". For example, they said "Jaban". It means Japan. They also said "bolice". It means police. When I listened to that, I couldn't understand in spite of being easy wards. I understood from seeing the spelling on the paper for the first time then. Moreover, they said "pronunziation". It means pronunciation. I was really shocked; meanwhile I was very interested in their pronunciation. I want to learn more differences between native speaker's English and Saudi Arabian English.

Secondly, I was impressed with the number of international students and various foreigners at the WSU. When we first arrived at the university, I saw some Saudi Arabians walking. They were wearing traditional Saudi clothes. During guiding a school, I saw a women who showed only her eyes. Japanese do not have strict religion, so the sight was rare for me. Also, I have seen such women just on the TV, so I could feel the world was near me. I didn't think that I could see such a sight at this school. Next, there were a lot of Chinese. Judging from the viewpoint of the politics, Japan do not have a good relationship with China. However, to tell the truth, Chinese like Japanese! One Chinese student told me he wanted to marry Japanese. I was surprised! Many Chinese students spoke to me kindly and they were so gentle. Then I actually felt the media is not true. I could meet many foreigners on this day. I seldom can experience such a thing in Japan. I want Japanese universities to establish institution like IALC.

As you can see, I could learn not only English but also about the international situation in this university. Through this opportunity, I started to want to become an IALC's student because they look like they were having a lot of fun when I saw them. Their English skill is so high, so I have to study more and I want to visit WSU again.
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