Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Becoming a student of University of Language and International Studies is one of the most
important turning-points in my life. I believe that this university will equip me with many necessary
skills and lessons to achieve my ambition. I felt elated on the first day I went to ULIS, which
remind me of my feelings on the first day of primary school where I met new friends, new
teachers, and encountered new hardships and challenges. Particularly, I had to leave my beloved
family, my kind-hearted ex-friends and start an independent life in which ii have total control over
my life and my study. The happiness is gradually changed into anxiety. The failure in the entrance
exam into CLC class helped me realize that my knowledge is inadequate and my speaking skill is
weak. In addition, the listening lessons made me shocked because I couldn’t hear what the
speaker was saying. What I was studying in university was so different from what I had studied at
high school. Sometimes I feel I do not belong to this place, I’m tired of my feebleness but I wonder
“whether I tried my best or not”. I shared my feeling with my friend s and my uncle, they all advised
me to keep trying and never to quit. My friends told me that she also had difficulties like me but
she didn’t feel disappointed, she did always try and try. She shared with me her studying method,
which proved to be effective for me. My uncle also encouraged me a lot. He told me that I couldn’t
achieve anything without dealing with difficulties. The thing I should do now was try and the
success would smile with me. Now I always push myself to be better. Although I only make a little
progress, I will never give up my effort and my ambition. It is because I have good friends and
good teachers who are by my side and are willing to help me. I believe one day I will win.
Since the first time going to university, I have found that it has many different things
compared with high school. First, the university buildings are very big and beautiful. The
campus is large and is crowded with people. I meet many new friends from different provinces,
but I do not see anyone from Bac Giang like me. Everybody looks intelligent, active, and
confident. I am a quiet person, so I think I will not do something as well as they do. My
classmates are friendly, confident, and hard working. We study and take part in many activities
together.
Second, studying at university is a little difficult for me to follow, because all students have to use
Computer and the Internet. Since I didn’t use them in the past, they have caused me quite a a few
troubles. Yet, with the help of my friends, my computer skills have been better.Now I can type
without needing any help. However, I still do not know how to send an email. That is a problem,
which needs solving as soon as possible.
Third, at university the activeness of students is very important. Because the time we are in
class is not very much, we often do the self-study on the textbooks. It is different from
studying at high school when we attended class most of the time, and our lessons were not
too long and our teachers often checked the homework after each lesson. Now our
university teachers do not give us much homework and they do not always check them. We
have to find our-self exercises to do to improve ourselves; we can buy new books or borrow
some from library or search for the materials from other sources.
Fourth, I find it difficult for students like me to go in for some credit classes because I cannot use
the computer for registering. My friends often help me do that. However, I have to follow the
classes, which are not very convenient for me. When I was at high school, I did not have to do the
things like that by myself.
Fifth, since entering the university, I’ve coped with a lot of problems concerning the new skills like speaking & listening.
When I was at high school, I mainly learnt about grammar and reading skills. We rarely had listening lessons. Therefore, it
the first semester, my listening and speaking marks were rather bad. However, I gradually feel more confident. The life
and study at university has helped me become more and more confident. When I was at high school, I never spoke
confidently in front of the crowd, but now I can do. Thanks to the business at university, my quietness is broken. Living far
from hometown, I miss each member in my family, especially my mother, because she is busy every day doing the
housework and the farm work. I really want to help her but I cannot. I remember when I was small, my mother told me to
study hard, and she did not let me do these works. I obeyed her and tried to learn by heart so that one day I could enter
the university I dreamed. Finding that I was keen on learning English, my parents advised me to take the exam to
University of Foreign Languages and International Studies. Now, I am studying at this university, which makes my parents
very happy. I always want to make them happy and not have to be too worried about me.
Nevertheless, I am not familiar with the environment of a big city. The noise from vehicles and the polluted air make me
feel uncomfortable. In addition, I find the people here not as friendly as people in my hometown. Therefore, I want to
come back to my hometown whenever I am free for studying to visit my love people and to enjoy the fresh air there.
CHANGES IN MY LIFE
By Kieu Linh – 09.E21
The first thing that surprised me much was the learning style
at the college where I won’t be fully equipped with all the
necessary skills and knowledege if I just passively wait for
the teachers to give me exercises, finish all and do nothing
further. Initially, I had to face with a lot of troubles of self-
studying though I believed that I was really hard-working.
Yet, later, thanks to the help of my teachers, I could
overcome these and found the materials to self-study.
However, as I expected to enjoy a great time studying at the
college, I had to cope with an other difficulty, that is, I was
really disappointed with some boring subjects like philosophy,
logic, etc. Moreover, it also appeared to be under my
expectation when my results of the first term was not very
good. Nonetheless, my wonderful teachers, again, help me to
evaluate myself and help me improve. Therefore, I have been
able to identify my strengths and weaknesses, my source of
motivation and my targets to study more effectively. I am
now making great progress after the first term at the
university.
1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
General & Business English’ provides a range of audio files entailed tape-script for
you to practice listening and learning new words and expressions on various topics.
‘The Flatmates’ is one of the most attracting parts to me as it leads me to the real
conversations with detailed explanation of language points.
Generally, BBC Learning English website is worth experiencing and trying to make
use in your own way.
2. http://www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/conversation.html
It sometimes happens to you when you find yourselves unable to express your ideas
clearly and fluently. This website helps you learn idiomatic and everyday expressions
to deal with daily conversational situations. Those conversations are categorized into
different topics such as communication, eating, emotions, fashion, housing, traffic or
traveling. In addition, you can simultaneously practice listening skills by doing
exercises attached in each conversation. By practicing the idioms and expressions
supplied by this website, you can help your English more natural and nativelike.
3. http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/
Information Box
This website is surprisingly helpful and convenient for me. Each lesson is designed
with both reading and listening exercises. For each of them, pre-, while-, post-
stages are presented clearly with detailed instructions. In terms of reading, the texts
are all updated news and appropriate for intermediate-level students. You can also
learn new vocabulary through interesting quiz or matching exercises. In terms of
listening, although the exercises just require you to fill in the blanks while you listen
to the script, I suggest you a way to make full use of these exercises. You should
listen to the whole recording for the first time to get the main idea, then take a piece
of paper to take notes. Taking notes is one of the key skills that I highly recommend
you to practice. You are self-studying, so be strict with yourself. You should not
pause and play repeatedly while taking notes. However, you can listen to the whole
recording as many times as you can until you feel satisfied. It is time you did the
gapped text exercises.
4. http://esl-lab.com/
All in all, resources for studying English are available for us and the matter is how we
can utilize them. As mentioned initially, I can share only some websites here, so I
expect more valuable websites as well as the way to make full use of them suggested
by you.
Hong Anh _ 06.1.E1
On the occasion of the Friendship’s day, I would like to share with you my new
recipe for a long lasting friendship.
Ingredients: smiles, laughter, warmth, happy memories, patience, sense of
humor, trust, compliments.
How to make it:
Start with smiles, a generous share, then blend in warmth and
laughter. Add lots of happy memories that will last forever after.
Don’t forget the patience for the days when the things go wrong.
Add a sense of humor and a trust that is deep and strong.
Garnished with some compliments that are lovely expressed.
And there you have a recipe for friendship at its best. Hope that you will
have fun and be successful!
Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong – 06E1
All members of my class, E18, were very excited and happy because the first speaking class
would be taught by a New Zealand teacher.
He is over 50. He introduced us many things about his country especially their language.
The lesson was incredibly interesting. At the end of the lesson, our monitor, Hien, stepped
on the dais to thank him for the lecture. Immediately, he smiled and moved towards her. He
bent and the scene looked like that he was going to kiss her which surprised us very much.
Hien was very embarrassed. It’s easy to understand because we were not familiar with this
custom for the first time, even if we knew that it was a common Western custom. However,
to our surprise, only his nose touched Hien’s nose. It was New Zealand’s greeting.
In the end, Hien had her heart in her mouth and said what she thought in that
amazing moment. “Oh! My first kiss…..” said her.
Dao Thi Bich Ngoc – 09E18