July 1 (Thursday)

Today is Canada Day (but I'm an American!).

Today
Good answers to questions about favorite meals, but we want to make this "live" - not me asking someone to ask a question, but you doing this fast, on your own.

Tomorrow (Friday)

• Pets
• Smartphones (3G, Touchscreen phone, iPhone III, iPhone4, Samsung Galaxy, etc)

June 30

Good conversations today -- of course the Chicken and Beer helped!

Today
Today I was the center of many of the talks, but I was very happy to see Mr. Goh (고) talking with others, encouraging and helping them, in English.

We walked near the Sydney Street Pub, which is owned by an Australian. Many native-speakers of English visit there, and lots of Koreans who want to speak in English. The beer is good, the food is a little expensive and service is very, very slow, but it's a nice place.

Tomorrow (Thursday)

• Food & Culture - what do you eat where (example, on a picnic or at a baseball game), what else would you like to say about food?
• Disagreements - lets talk about "fights"! - you can tell stories about your arguments with friends, ex-girlfriends, parents, etc. How do you argue? What do you argue about? How do you make-up after?

Tuesday June 29

Not such a successful class, but perhaps it will lead to better things? We will restructure a litle bit, but the most important part of conversation is CONFIDENCE!

Today
Discussion on grading in university and pricacy (Kim Yuna's Fs) failed. Talking about clothing fashions was not very successful. Then we talked about why the conversations are not going very well.

Tomorrow (Wednesday)
Meet at the classroom and then we go to the Frypan for Chicken & Beer (Robert's treat!) Topics:

• What I like (presentations, 5 minutes with questions)
• Drinking (drinking culture, the alcohol I like or don't, etc)

Monday, June 28

Welcome back from the weekend. Nice to discover that you, like me, are not "early birds"!

Today
Good job talking about your hobbies. To talk about something for five minutes takes work! Do think about the topic before class, and write little notes. It's a chance to look up vocabulary you don't know, before class, and make a note.

Not so good talking about the newspaper. You do need to read before class!

Tomorrow (Tuesday)

• Kim Yuna got two 'F's? Why is this important, and why is the university talking about her grades? http://www.koreaherald.com/englishcafe/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100618000815
• Clothes & Fashion -- what you like, dislike, when you wear whatever, and why?

Friday June 25

This is not an "English-only" class, but "English as much as possible." Don't throw away a nice 8 word sentence because you don't know one word in English... 7 words English and one word Korean is OK, let your friends help you!

You really want to practice English every day, reading, listening, and writing too. Remember, 4 days per week is not

4/7 (57%)
but instead...
4-3 = 1/7 (15%)

Today
Hobby =/= 취미. (does not equal equal)

5 minutes talking time is difficult! These oral paragraphs and oral essays deserve some preparation, think about what you want to say, how you will put it together (in what order, how to connect ideas, etc)

Do look for other articles online (English or Korean) to give you more ideas on what to talk about. The point is not the details, but the overall ideas (the main point).

Tomorrow (Monday)

• Corporate Culture and Flex Time. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/06/123_68236.html
• My hobby (be ready to talk for 5 minutes, and answer questions)

Listening in English (radio)

There is radio, internet-radio, and other listening. Plus video, of course!

Of course there are many radio programs about English in Korea, such as Good Morning Pops. Many of these are available online, such as "on demand", from the broadcasting company website.

Busan eFM. http://www.befm.or.kr/

Seoul eTBS http://tbsefm.seoul.kr/

Arirang Radio

http://www.arirang.co.kr/Radio/Radio_Index.asp?sys_lang=Eng

Internet radio includes two types, regular "over-the airwaves" radio stations that also have internet listening, and internet-only radio programs.

You can listen to English radio from many countries. Some choices include

1. Find radio stations through a search listing like Yahoo.

• To find by region (country) http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Radio/By_Region/
• To find by type of music http://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/Internet_Broadcasts/ (many in this second section are internet-only, some charge a fee).

2. Find radio stations through online audio providers.

• Radiotime provides live feed to many local radio stations in USA. http://radiotime.com/
• AOL has both live radio stations (type 1, above) and shoutcast (type 3, below). http://music.aol.com/

3. Find online music by type of music for online-only.

• Yahoo Music http://music.yahoo.com/

Hopefully, you listen at least 30 minutes every day. Not just music, but the talk (and commercials) between songs! Or "talk radio".

Thursday, June 24

good job so far! day by day things will get easier, you will relax more. I'll get some listening choices up on another page soon.

Today
We talked about hometown places to see, and how to improve the university.

Be specific in your answers, be clear and exact.

Hometown is not the same as neighborhood, hometown is where YOU feel comfortable, often where you went to middle school and high school, where you can find friends, even if your family doesn't live there anymore. We often think our neighborhood is small enough that we can walk around and know many people, hometown can be huge, like "all of Daegu" or, in my case, San Diego, which is about 100km north-south and 100km east-west.

Tomorrow

• Read this article on current issues, and be ready to talk about the issue (not just the newspaper article). You might want to read other places about this. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/06/116_68149.html


• Talk about your family -- can be the "nuclear" family (parents and children only) or the "extended" family (cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, all the folks you meet)