MFWI Extension Writing Class

The Extension students visited Washington State University (WSU), and had a great time at the IALC (Intensive American Language Center) on September 22. This is where international students study English before entering the university. We met and talked with international students who came from around the world, and are learning English at the IALC to enter the undergraduate program at WSU. Two things were interesting to me.  Eating ice cream with my fantastic friends First, I learned a lot about the personalities and language of the students by talking with them. I talked with 4 international students who came from Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and China. They were cheerful and welcomed me. We enjoyed talking and communicating in English. I was surprised they speak English naturally even though they came to the US just a few months ago. I felt they don't hesitate to speak English, or make mistakes. They are very eager to learn English, and happy to live in the US and surround them...

I have had some interesting experiences here at MFWI which I have never experienced in Japan. One of my most favorite things is the beauty of nature in Spokane. I'm sure that the number of times I take pictures here is much more than in Japan, because of that reason. It often reminds me of my childhood in Japan. I really enjoy especially seeing different animals here. First, while I walk the streets, I can see many squirrels. There are many squirrels from big to small one. They always look busy and doing something nimbly. I have never seen wild squirrels in my country, and they always look cute so it is one of the most cheerful things here. Second, we also can see deer on our campus. We can see them especially in the early morning or around the sunset. They are often with their group, sometimes not. They usually move slowly and aren't friendly. I really like seeing a herd of deer because they look peaceful when they eating plants. Third, there are some anther animal...

The extension student visited Washington State University  (WSU) last Tuesday, and we had a wonderful time with the students of Intensive American Language Center (IALC). This center teaches English to international students who wants to enter WSU. There are many students who came from various countries. This was my first time to meet international students, so I was impressed a lot by them. I learned many surprising or awesome points during the great exchange. First, they were very talkative and kind to me. We talked a lot about ourselves, for example, our dreams, family or opportunities to come to the America. However, I couldn't explain what I wanted to say well, but they tried to understand me many times. Their talking was very amusing and I was very happy to talk with the students who came from different countries. I talked to four students...

Y esterday, 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". ...

Today, the extension students went to  Washington State University and had a wonderful opportunity with IALC (Intensive American Language Center) students.They are students who study English to prepare for successful study at Washington State University or other universities and colleges in the United States. During my time there I enjoyed getting to know the students and learning about the WSU international program. My Stunning International Friends First, I had a good time talking with a Chinese man and a Saudi Arabian man in my group. They were very talkative and friendly. I asked them about their class and their way of studying English. There are 16 students in their class and they basically speak English always in the class because the class has people come from various countries. They said that when they get some new vocabulary in the class, they try to use the word in their conversation. I realized that I was satisfied only to write my ne...

Today, I had a wonderful experience at Washington State University . I visited the Intensive American Language Center (IALC). It is a school where international students study English before entering the university. I met many international students there. They were from Saudi Arabia, China, Japan and Brazil. I learned two interesting things while talking and spending time with them.  New Fabulous Friends  First, I was very surprised that the students from different countries are different each other both in their culture and their personality. My group has Chinese, Japanese, Saudi Arabian and Brazilian students. They are different ages and have different customs. For example, one of the students who is from Saudi Arabia was wearing traditional Middle Eastern clothes. She has to hide their body except her face and hands because of her religion. It was my first time to see a person who is wearing traditional Middle Eastern clothes so I was really surprised. Also, one of t...

Our Extension class went to Washington State University on September 23 in Pullment. We visited the Intensive America Language Center on campus. This is the school where not native speakers learn English before entering university. I talked with many international students at the IALC. They were really kind and we had a good time so I felt comfortable. We shared our cultures. I learned two things from international students. Beautiful football field  First, I noticed that their pronunciation was not like native English speakers. Actually there were students from Brazil, China and Saudi Arabia in my table, and their English had strong accent. I could understand their words but often I couldn’t understand it. Surprisingly, the fact was reassuring because sometimes they seemed to have the same problems which I have. For example, they couldn’t say sure “R” and “L” sound and don’t like “TH” sound. Meeting them was impressive and stimulated me to study English. Second, I le...

The Extension students visited Washington State University on September 22, and we had wonderful time. We went to the Intensive American Language Center . At this center, there are many students who study English from various countries. We made some small groups and had conversations. My group members were Chinese, Brazilian and Arabian. They were very kind and they taught me a lot of things. I learned a lot about language. An Arabian showed me Arabic letters, they looked very difficult for me. He also said English is easier than Arabic. I couldn't believe that. I have never thought English is easier than Japanese. Next, I asked the question "How long have you studied English?" One of them answered "just one year." I was surprised because he can speak English better than me!! I have studied English for about 7 years. When I was a junior high and high school student, I studied grammar. I hardly speak English, and my teacher taught me English in Japanese. I ...

Today, the Extension student went on a marvelous tour to WSU (Washington State University) in Pullman. We visited IALC (Intensive American Language Center) There are a lot of international students from several countries there, and they study English to enter WSU. We talked with them, ate lunch together and walked around WSU. I learned some new things such as motivation and culture while spending time with them. Marvelous Campus First, I was stimulated by my four pleasant friends. They were from Saudi Arabia, Brazil, China and Japan. I joined their grammar class and talked with them. I was surprised there are a lot of Chinese students at the school, and they were friendly. Actually at first I was a little nervous because Japan and China has some problems, but the students were kind and chatty. On the other hand, Chinese people communicated with other Chinese people, they often spoke in Chinese. Then,...

 The Cougar Statue I went to Washington State University on September 23. Before I went there, I was nervous, because it was my first time to interact with foreigner university students. Also, I was excited to know about an American university and to make new friends! When I talked to international students, I was amazed because they were very kind, friendly, talkative, and active. I talked to two Saudi Arabian men and a Chinese woman. We asked them many questions. At that time, one of them explained about Sushi. He wanted to say “raw”, but he couldn’t pronounce it very well, so the teacher didn’t understand what he said. However, he didn’t give up, and tried to use other words, such as “not cooked” and “fresh”. The teacher finally understood and taught him the correct pronunciation. He made sure that he could pronounce it correctly again and again. They have high motivation to study English. After that, they held a campus tour for us. I was very surprised at the ...

There were a lot of people from various countries at Washington State University. My group had Chinese woman and Saudi Arabian man. I was able to make many friends and I had a wonderful time with them. I was impressed by a lot of things.   First, their English was not perfect but they tried to talk to me a lot. I asked them how to study. They said, “Only practice!” I thought I have to practice English because I have a chance to talk to native speakers. Every international students were very close to each other. They looked like they were really enjoying themselves. After the WSU visit I was interested in IALC.   Second, I was surprised a Saudi Arabian could get money to study abroad from his country. They had a lot of chances to study abroad. If the people who can speak English increase in Saudi Arabia, their country will develop. Third, the campus was huge. There were many students from every state in the U.S., plus one hundred other countries. The number of Internati...

The Washington State University visit gave me opportunities to have a broader point of view and know about IALC (Intensive American Language Center). First of all, we could know why many foreign people came to WSU, what they wanted to learn. It was a great opportunity to contact with such international students. Students who were my partners were from Saudi Arabia and Brazil, and they told me that they came to the U.S to study engineering and accounting. One of a Saudi Arabia students said that he wanted to help his father who owned his own oil company, so he came here to study accounting. Each student had different reasons to come and study at WSU, but it was clear that they had their definite goals and high motivation. At lunch time, we shared our own cultures and our traditions. By chance, on September 23th was the national day of Saudi Arabia, so there were many Saudi Arabians who wore traditional clothes. “In general, most of nine to eleven years old boys have clothes as a...

To visit a university is one of my enjoyable things for this semester, so I was looking forward to visiting a WSU campus, and could learn about various things.   First, I enjoyed landscape from the window while I was on the bus. Actually, I was sleepy a little, but I didn’t want to lose this opportunity to see fascinating landscape, so I didn’t sleep. In Japan, there are a lot of mountains, so I can’t look around a landscape like here. That’s why it was really attractive and I was impressed by land. Also, I felt America is really large and Japan is really small. I thought if Japan had like this land, we could solve a lot of problems, including disposing of materials in Fukushima. Japan doesn’t have enough land. When I returned to MFWI, I thought such things.   Second, I was impressed by Japanese cartoons, because my group members learned about Japanese language from them. My group members were from Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Korea, and China. The student who...

I had a really good time with international students at Washington State University. Since I had visited the university last semester, I knew a little about the university. However, since the former visit was so short, I was looking forward to the visit this time. Actually, it was beyond my expectation. First of all, I met people from all over the world. For example, I had two Chinese and two Saudi Arabians in my group during the class. I have been studying English for a long time and I had several chances to talk with international students. However, it was almost the first time for me to talk with Saudi Arabians. Although their English was sometimes difficult for me to understand, I enjoyed talking with them and hearing about their country. Second, I enjoyed free time with Chinese and Saudi Arabian students. We ate lunch together and went to the student lounge. Kindly, one of the Chinese boys bought me Starbucks! Another Chinese boy showed us a magic performance with car...

  The WSU trip was really great. I could meet many international students and all of them were so inspirational for me. The most interesting facts about them were the people from many other countries, their English skill, and their dreams. First, I was surprised to meet many people from different countries. I met Chinese, Saudi Arabians, and Brazilians. I had never had such an opportunity to meet so many foreigners until then! I could talk with them a lot about cultures and English studying. I also exchanged Facebook accounts with a Brazilian girl, a Chinese boy, and a Saudi Arabian boy. I was really happy to become friends with them! Secondly, I was astonished by their English skill. They spoke English a lot. Of course their English was with their own language’s accents, but still their English was very high. Sometimes, they couldn’t understand my English because my English had a Japanese accent. I felt my English was very poor but it encouraged me to study English harder. I...