A Day at an ESL Class

I had a nice time at school today.

I learned about the four periods of the year in the United States. I learned new words. And I learned to appreciate more on my country's English teaching.

Jen was still in her bed trembling with a heater in front of her and Jun was at the corner of his room curled up himself when I went to school. They said they would attend the evening class.

I did not take shower. I just washed up. It was toooooooo cold this morning so I wore under warmers, pair of gloves and a thick sweater with hood going to school. When hubby dropped me off, one of the teachers, Ms. Sally Schumacher, saw me and teased me because of my outfit. I did not give a care, hehehehe!

When I entered the classroom, I read this sentence on the board "Today is the fall equinox: the first day of autumn! Equinox. New word to me! Equinox according to Mr. Webster is the time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day of approximately equal length all over the earth and occurring about March 21-September 22. So fall or autumn is when the equinox takes place. Fall and autumn are the same. I was confused of this before and I learned that after summer, fall/autumn follows, and then wintertime, spring comes afterwards then vice versa.

When Brenda and I were walking this morning, I was really dressed up. Aside from the under warmers and pair of gloves I wore, I also wore ear band, for the first time. And I noticed that I could see my breath when I talked! Gees. I remember one of my fave movies; a James Bond sequel entitled "For Your Eyes Only". There is a part in the film that shows wintertime and there is a kind of vapor or steam comes out from their mouth when the characters speak. I experienced the same this morning and it is only autumn yet! I think I would freeze to death this coming winter! Huhuhuhu!

Anyways, aside from the word equinox, I also learned another new word today. Stucco. We discussed about parts of the house and one of my classmates mentioned this word. So I asked what is it all about. And I learned that it is an exterior finish for masonry or frame walls usually composed of cement, sand and hydrated lime mixed with water and laid on wet. Hmmm. While the teacher explained it, I was imagining "hardiflex" in the Philippines, hehehehe! Maybe. It is kind of, as I understand it.

During our Phonics class, the teacher, Ms. Patricia Meldrum, taught us how to pronounce the consonants. She let us pronounced them one by one. For example, letter "S" is pronounced as "sssssss...” I have classmates from Mexico, from Dominican Republic and from Peru. All of them speak Spanish. When we were pronouncing the letter "V", one of my classmates couldn't pronounce it correctly, so he was told to repeat more or less 10 times and he hardly made it. Ms. Pat told him to put his lower lip inside his upper teeth to pronounce it correctly, he tried once more but failed again and then he blurted out desperately, "Oh My GOD!” Everyone was silent. None of us laughed. I guessed, we wanted to but we did not want him to feel embarrassed. He is already in his mid 50's and it is peculiar to tease him in his age. But suddenly, one of the students asked Ms. Pat, "What if a person has no teeth at all?" Ms. Pat answered, "then there is no need to pronounce it!” Everyone laughed out too loud. That was funny! Bwahahahaha!

I am happy that I learned English from home and from school in the Philippines. I admit I am not very good at it but I could say that I am good at it.

When a Mexican classmate asked me how did I learn it, I proudly told her that we are taught by our parents or any family members and that English is one of our subjects during our kindergarten days until our college days. I even boasted that we have had our Spanish subject also way back in the early 80's but the government abolished it because it is no longer needed in our daily undertakings anymore. I told her I could even speak and understand some of the Spanish words because we are still using some of them these days. She was really impressed! She said she learned English by self-study and it was very difficult for her. She said that I am very lucky! I said, yes I am!

Well, I am a Filipino.

And I am very proud to be one.

Mabuhay ang Pinoy!

I am Back to School Again!

Last Tuesday, September 2, my teeners and I have registered/enrolled in an ESL (English as a Second Language) Class in a Community College here. It is absolutely free. This program is run by the College School but is funded by the government.


Hubby was at work so Jen drove the car going to school. We were all scared because her driving was illegal since she only has an Instruction Permit- no Driver's License. We were hoping no police car in the vicinity! We thanked God that we got to the parking lot safely.

Nathalie waited for us outside trembling and shaking because of the cold wind blowing in her skin. We hurriedly went inside the school to get rid of the cold air outside, brrrr!

Anyways, when we got inside the classroom, there were already 3 people ahead of us and I thought they were Mexicans. Teachers were inside too. They were very nice and accommodating. One of them gave us forms to be filled out and she helped us in doing it. We kept on grinning because we felt like we were 1st graders J we were asked on our educational attainment, on how did we learn English words (from home or school?) and how did we know about ESL programs, etc.

Afterwards, one of the teachers gave us information on the whole ESL Program through Power Point presentation and we liked her because she was funny and enthusiastic.

I have learned that the ESL program is open to all, not only for foreigners like us but also for native Americans who want to improve their English, who wants to learn about Basic Computer, Mathematics, Key Boarding, Grammar, Phonics, etc. Woow. I was impressed! This is one thing that I like being here in the US. Hmmm.

And I forgot to mention, they also have subject about Immigration and Citizenship and even DMV Written Test Review!

We were given series of tests for them to know our level of knowledge and they were impressed on the result of the tests. We passed the tests with flying colors, yeheey! :)

They had coffee and cake for FREE inside the classroom. I was wondering why they are free. I heard that one of the teachers baked the cake. We did not eat our breakfast so we took a slice of cake and tried the mocha-flavored coffee. The room is "air-conditioned" and we ran outside and exposed ourselves under the heat of the sun to keep us warm, while eating the cake and sipping the coffee, hehehehe!

Everything was done before 12:00 noon and they allowed us to go home and told us to come back on Monday.

Jun drove the car going back home and Nath was with us that time. When we finally got back home safely, we felt relieved, whew!

The regular class will start on Monday and we are already excited about it. Hubby would have his 7-day off so he would drive us to and fro. And we would be safe by then!