This is not a goodbye, this is just THE BEGINNING

TGIF! (Thank god it's Friday)

something random- did you know there is a restaurant chain called TGI Friday?

What a beautiful weather we have here today. What a way to end the week! Plus a holiday coming up for the students as well as saying goodbye to 8 students who completed their course today

We have an assembly that is held in the school every second Friday.  The more I am at the school, the more I also get to know the students more. They are all just so lovely!  

This is what our students will be doing next!

3 of our students are going to Weltec to pursue their further studies in the field of hospitality, tourism and business administration.
1 student is going to Queenstown to work there
1 student is going to work in Wellington- Courtenay Place
1 student wishes to pursue a course in Accounting
1 Student going to look for volunteer opportunity in New Zealand
1 student going to study at Victoria University

However, this is just the beginning of their new and exciting road that lies ahead of them. The best of luck in your future- Well done to you all! Hip Hip Hooray!

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To top it all off for my friday, I had an 'International Lunch' at the school today. As a celebration for the end of the term, students bring in lunches to share with the rest of the school. Food were Japanese, Chinese, Malaysia, Columbian, Greek.....and many more that I don't even know what they are or where they come from. All I know is that they taste super DELICIOUS! I had a Greek salad, sushi, malaysian curry, columbian pastry(?), springrolls and some others pastry with a stuffing that I could not identiy.

Food from around the world in 10 minutes, seriously, you can't get that anywhere else.

This is just, awesome :)

5 ways to learning English faster

Learning a new language is an on going learning process for anyone.

There are numbers of ways which I believe people can learn English faster. Of course this also depends largely on the person competency, skills, willingness and so on. I would like to share a list with you on what I think personally worked for me

1) Listen to English Music...lots and lots of them.
2) Practice speaking in front of the mirror (make sure you are by yourself or people may think you are mad!)
3) Watch TV series (without subtitle)
4) Read teen fictions (Sweet Valley Girl was my favourite)
5) Make lots of new foreign friends!

What really worked for me was Number 4. I became so addicted to reading them that I ended up buying every single book (about 40 books of their series). The book series was addictive and I ended up learning a lot of new words, phrases and slang which was useful for having basic conversations.

one step at a time

It has been 12 years since I moved away from home, Thailand. I was living in Malaysia for 5 years before I came to New Zealand in 2005.

When I arrived, it was near the end of winter. Coming from the temperature of 30 degree something to 15 degree was a HUGE difference for me. I arrived at Auckland International Airport in the afternoon and was waiting for my flight to Palmerston North, where I will be spending the next 3 years studying towards my degree. When I arrived in Palmerston North, it was alot quiter and smaller than I imagined. Everything shuts after 5:30pm and it was like an empty town. I was not used to the style of living and I started to resent with the lifestyle here. As a result of that, I felt home sick and wanted to go home.

A few weeks later, I came to my realization that being home sick is not going to help me feel any better about my new life. What I need was a change of attitude. What did I mean by that?
Well I stop comparing lifestyles between Asia and Nz. Instead, I started to embrace and appreciate the difference in culture and lifestyle of the New Zealanders. Slowly, I learned to adapt to their lifestyle and seek more opportunities to gain experience as much as I can while living here. That said, the more I learned and live here, the more I fall in love with New Zealand that I now intend to become a citizen of this country :)

If you are feeling home sick or feeling that you can't adapt to the new environment? We all have been there where at times we feel lost. The important thing is we don't give up and give yourself a chance to try. By moving to another country, you have already step out of your comfort zone to another level of challenge so give yourself a big round of applause for that.

Life is unpredictable and random events that we go through. There is no pattern to life where we can predict how we would feel or do in the future therefore we should embrace as much as we can, as long as we live.

First final exam

Last Friday, I took a day off work for my final exam which was worth 60% of the total grade.

Weeks before the exam, I studied every night for at least 2 hours every day. The last exam I had was about 4 years ago and that was when I graduated in 2008. This was nerve wrecking, I said to myself.

Then the D-day came. My exam was at 9:30am. I woke up at 6.00am, in the hope to add in some more studies in. Took the bus and arrived at University 8:00 am. Obviously, I was the only one there. Other students started arriving at 9.00am and not long after that, we were called into the exam room.

The time given was 3 hours and to answer 3 questions. Before the exam, I thought....3 hours, THAT IS A LONG TIME, really long. But I was wrong. In fact, 3 hours was not enough!

The challenge I had with my exam was not the level of difficulty or something that I could not answer but it was more of...' how do I write this down in English, in academic writing style?'  That was my struggle. Although I use English everyday, it just never strike to me how hard it would be to handwrite an essay. For the past years, we have been relying on technology to do homework and essays. We are now use to the easy way of typing things up and when it comes to time like this, we realise we have not had any practice at all.

To start learning a language, I personally would advise to start writing with your hands and not with computer.

In the end, I wrote about 7 pages long of essays answering 3 questions. Fingers cross for me to pass this exam!

Have you experience anything like that? For anyone who is a multi lingual, share your thoughts :)

I'm a bookworm

I recently started reading a book called 'Thinking Fast and Slow' by D.Kahneman. The book talks about how we come to make a decision by using what Kahneman described as 'Fast thinking or System 1' and slow thinking or System 2' . According to Kahneman, System 1 makes snap judgements combining experience we had in the past to make a decision where System 2 requires more effort into analysing, checking the facts about decisions we are going to make.

For example: 2+2 = ?     That is simple mathematics, you don't need to even think about it so much and you know the answer is 4. Now, that was System 1 thinking.

Now try 24x15 = ?    That's right, you need a pen and paper or a calculator to find the answer. By the time we actually try to find out what the answer is, we are already switch into System 2 mode of thinking. Our brain is conscious and trying to find the answer.

How does this relate to a language?

Well, I imagine this is how we use our brain when we are multi lingual. For instance, I use system 1 when speaking in Thai (my native tongue), I just do not think too much into it whereas when speaking English and while writing this blog, I use system 2 thinking where this requires a more 'effort' into thinking. You feel comfortable with your mother tongue that to speak it, is not a challenge or it is somewhat easy therefore require less effort. However, when you learn another language, it really foster your brain to think about thinking.

Are you feeling the same?

 

Wind Turbine

I was standing on top of the hill where the WIND TURBINE is. It was a little windy and cold but it certainly did not stop me from enjoying the beautiful view Wellington has to offer.

Clear blue sky with 360 degrees paranoma view of Wellington, what's a better way to spend an afternoon? Well a nice glass of hot chocolate would have completed my afternoon!

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Apart from that, came into work today and met 2 NEW International students who will be starting with us next week. One from China and another one from Saudi Arabia. I learned how to say HELLO today in Arabic! Well done me. So, "MARHABA" everyone :) I have to say it was quite difficult to pronounce the word. Anyway, the student from Saudi Arabia is going to be with us for 9 weeks and he just landed in Wellington yesterday. He told me it took him more than 30 hours to get here with a stop over in Singapore! I would say he must be exhausted but he seems so enthusiastic to learn, which is great! He also mentioned that back where he is from, it was 42 Degrees when he left. I cannot imagine taking a huge temperture drop of almost 30 degrees, it must have been really cold for him.

Has anyone ever experience a big change of climate or temperature in one day?

Hello world:)

Hello world.

Forgive me as I am new to blogging, but I am trying my best.

So, my previous blog about Wellington is a little broad but I thought that I would share quickly the reason of my love for this 'Capital of Cool City'. We will get into more details about Wellington in the next couple of post so stay tune!

I am from Thailand, currently living in Wellington , New Zealand. I was a student 4 years ago and I am now a student again doing a Postgraduate. It was so difficult..in fact, VERY difficult, to get back into studying again. Late nights, assignments, anxiety for exams = NOT FUN!!!!

I mean, studying has NEVER really been fun but after a few months, you get the hang of it and when it all finally is over, you feel the sense of achievement and accomplishment. That will be me, in ONE YEAR.

So apart from studying, what else do I do? Let be not bore you with my previous job experiences as I have few to name, but I am currently working with English Teaching College (ETC), a language school in the heart of Wellington. I have only been here less than a month but I know that I am going to love it here! I have encountered there are alot of students from different countries, all so determine to learn language.

Flashing back my time when I first learned how to speak English, it wasn't easy......This was when I attended an English School in Malaysia. I remembered all I could say was 'YES' and 'NO'. I had absolutely no clue what people were saying to me. It took me awhile to understand what they were REALLY saying. And going back home to my home stay family, they did not speak English and spoke to me in Mandarin. The only language I knew at 11 years old at that stage was Thai. Inside my head I was crying, "Mummy, I want to go home!"

That was my experience in a nutshell. What's your ?

Hello Wellington!

If you ask any of the Wellingtonians why Wellington is such an awesome city, everyone will give you a different answer.

What's my reason? Well, I love Wellington even more when there is more sun and less wind (who doesn't!?). This means I can hang my washing, go out, have a cuppa with friends, walk around town shopping....and enjoying the scene of the beautiful city.

What's your reason?