MY FEELING OF CAMPUS LIFE

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.

Do Thi Hanh – 09E23

STUDENTS’ LIFE MAY BE HARD

On receipt of my university entrance exam results, I was so happy that I spent a lot of time daydreaming with excitement
about how my life would be. However, after seven months living in the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, caught in the endless
circle of assignment, I realize that the reality of college life is really different from what I had expected. More specifically,
student life, especially for freshmen can be full of hardships.
Leaving hometown and their familiar environment, first-year students miss their families, their relatives and their friends a
lot. They may also realize that real life is not simply what they thought it is but much harder and more complicated. Besides,
they can encounter many difficulties in building a strong relationship with others. What they need is time.
Another big problem is that they themselves have to be fully responsible for their life, for example being attentive to their
study, catering to their own needs and taking care of themselves. No one wakes them up in the morning, prepares breakfast
for them or helps them do the housework. Doing these chores by themselves will certainly cost them a lot of time. In
general, it is not easy to become an adult immediately.
Sometimes, they have to waver between two choices, for instance suddenly falling in love with someone or wanting to do a
part-time job but still having some hesitation. It may distract freshmen from their most important duty - learning.
Besides these hardships, they also have many opportunities to express themselves and adjust
to the new social life. This helps them not only to develop their social skills but also to pursue
their own interests. They will benefit a lot from activities held by organizations on or off campus.
We can see that students’ life, especially freshmen’s has both drawbacks and benefits. A 4-year
period is not long, but enough for first-year students to be more mature and equipped with
essential knowledge skills to go out into the world. That is to say, it is advisable for them not to
under-estimate the obstacles they may face, but at the same time to take any opportunities that
come their way.

Duong Thu Van – 09E18

I took up learning English when I heard the English song “Proud of
you” for the first time. Since then, English and music have played
an important role in my life. After graduating from high school, I
decided to apply for ULIS but I failed. I had to choose another
university. It was such a boring and disappointing time to me. I
almost couldn’t find any friends who shared the same hobbies with
me. I didn’t find any interesting things in every lesson. I became
more and more quiet, more and more depressed. I was not me
anymore. Fortunately, I succeeded to score a place at ULIS in the
second chance.
On the first day at the university, I felt like I had found my old self
again. I easily found out a friend who loved English songs. Lan Anh
was a really amazing discovery to me. She also loved Shayne Ward,
and was interested in Super Junior. We had many things in
common. Gradually, I found out that all of the friends in E 23 were so
friendly and humorous. Every day at ULIS was such a perfect day to
me. I loved writing lessons because I could express myself in every
essay. Every topic was not only a new challenge but also a joy. I
was especially impressed by the topic: “Writing postcard”. I had
never written any postcard to anyone. After learning this lesson, I
thought that I should write postcards to everyone I loved because
love should be expressed.
I also loved Speaking lessons – when I had chances to speak about
interesting topics: Couples, Fit, Shop, Job, etc… - the chances to
show my idea about an issue openly, the chances to work together
with all classmates. I liked the preparation for the role play. This
activity was so exciting. I lived in an authentic English environment.
There was no distance between teachers and students. We were
very close to each other because we had a same passion: English. I
still remembered the comment of Ms. Huyen Ngoc for my assignment
when I said that I wanted to be a translator, the biggest dream in my
life is writing my own book and translate it into English. She wrote: “I
like this idea of yours, stick to your dream, dear!” I was greatly

However, the thing I like best here is the friendly environment. We

worked together, we helped each other and sometimes shared some
stupid sentences. Dictionary means: “ ch c n làm gì” in Vietnamese,
the word “Các b n tr ” of Lan Anh, many many funny things. I love this
university. It made me feel alive. I became more and more easygoing,
more and more active, more and more confident. I love my classmates
and my teachers. ULIS – you changed my life!

Bui Thi Phuong Thao – 09E23

 Life at university

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

I am Linh, a first year student of the University of Languages

and International Studies. I was born in Thanh Hoa but I am
now living with my cousin in a flat in Hanoi. Since the day I
went to study in Hanoi, my life’s been fullfilled with a lot of
new things including both the good and the bad ones.

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.

The second new thing happens to me when I entered the

university is my student life which is totally different from my
life in the hometown. Firstly, since I didn’t have to cook
meals for my family, I had to face with lots of challenges in
cooking for myself. Therefore, I had to take part in a cooking
class to better my cooking skills. Secondly, I also had to
experienced many periods of stress, pressure and illness
alone. I have been missing my family so much. Yet, I just
thought to myself that I had to thank those stressful time for
making me more mature and confident. Moreover, the bad
periods also brought to me many kind and reliable friends
who always stood by me, supported me and helped me to
stand tall and stay strong.

Although I certainly had many difficulties with the new life at

the university, I think I am now getting used to it. I am
feeling more and more pleasant and happy with this life and I
hope that I will equip myself with necessary skills and
knowledge to prepare for the future after the four year at this
college.
As far as I am concerned when we learn any
foreign language, vocabulary plays a very
important part. The more vocabulary we have,
the more we can communicate with other
people. However, many English learners have
difficulties in learning the new words by heart.
Therefore, I want to share with you some tips
in studying new words.
First, some people learn from 15 to 20 words a
day, but I’m sure that after a short time, they
can’t remember all of them. Therefore, instead
of studying so many new words a day, you only
should study 5 words. At weekends, you
review and check your mind how many words
you can remember correctly. If you practice
regularly, after one week you will learn 35
words and after one month the number of
words you study will reach140. This is the not
small figure, isn’t it?
Second, I take pleasure in studying new words
by writing them on many pieces of colorful
paper. After that, I stick them at places where I
usually see such as: my computer, TV,
refrigerator, my bed, etc. This way makes me
see new words many times, so it’s easy for me
to remember them.
Next, when I learn new words, I often learn the
examples or make sentences containing the
target words. In this way, I know not only their
meaning but also their usage. This also helps
me improve my speaking skills.
Finally, my dictionary is colorful because when
I look up vocabulary in the dictionary, I often
use highlighter to circle them. The next time,
when I open my dictionary, I am impressed by
them immediately. Therefore, I can store new
words in my mind more easily. Many people
only learn the meaning of the new words. This
is a fault. Remember that when you study
vocabulary, it’s vital that you learn how to
pronounce them. Because this affects directly
your listening and speaking skills. If you don’t
have correct pronunciation, your
communication will be bad.
These are my experience in learning new
words. I hope that they are useful for you.
I am very happy if you can share your
experience with me!!!
Le Thi Thu Hang – 09E23
Like many 1st – year students, I find listening skills is very difficult. I didn’t
practice and study carefully before. Now, I realize listening is an important
skill. If I have a good listening skill, I also improve others such as
speaking, writing, communication skills etc. I made many mistakes when
practiced skill but I am very happy. Now I want to share with you some
experiences. I hope that they can help you improve your listening skills.
Do you know why listening skills are more difficult than others skills? You
should agree with me that listening is a passive skill. Unlike writing skills,
you cannot produce information with listening skills. With listening skills,
you can’t see what words people are saying like when you write a letter.
Listening and reading have the same characteristic, namely receiving
information. Listeners have to receive information from others but can not
see what are said, while readers can see what are written on paper. It
means that you have to try your best to catch all information.
I have tried to do many ways to improve listening skills. I always try to
hear all what people saying before. However, that way is not useful
because native speakers speak very quickly as a result I can’t catch all
the words. Then I find that the previous way is unnecessary. I only need
to understand what the main idea of the conservation is so I only need to
catch the key words. This new way is easier than the way before because
speakers always put stress on the main idea that they want to express.
I think that you often have the same view-point as the more you do
exercises, the more you practice listening skills. However, I think it only
has one advantage of its aspect. You should have effective ways not only
to do many exercises. You know that every listening exercise always has
a tape script. It has many advantages. You can design some useful
exercises for yourself. You shouldn’t look at them immediately after
listening to the recording. You can listen again and again to guess the
main idea. I am interested in how they are speaking. I often listen to a
long piece like a magazine program or a news digest. I always choose an
essay, in which I am familiar with the basic stories (in my language
perhaps) so I can concentrate on the detail. You also can think about my
way. I usually break them into many small sentences so I can listen
carefully the sections. I often imitate speaker’s intonation. Sometimes I
find it so funny but it helps me have a break time. I think you should do
this because you are acquainted with the intonation of native speakers.
Song is a good source. Listening to English songs is an effective way to
improve your listening skills. Let listen and then check lyrics were you
right in your understand. You also should listen to many kinds of
conservations. It helps you have a great variety of different voices,
idiomatic languages and accents
Finally, I advise you to have a good confident to face
all mistakes you have. Always smiling is the best way
to help you reduce stress. In addition, you have to
have a strict rule for strategy improving your listening
skills. If you obey your rule seriously,
I think you can not only improve your listening
skills but also others skills. I hope that my
experiences are useful for you.
Lai Thi Lan Anh – 09E23
Information Box

Some useful websites for learning English

In correspondence with the explosive growth of the Internet, we can easily get
accessed to an enormous amount of websites for various purposes: study,
entertainment, or communication. It would be meaningful if we could share with one
another amusing and helpful websites to better our English because the Internet is a
huge mine of information that sometimes makes me get lost. In the limited scope of
this article, some websites, which from my personal point of view might be useful and
appropriate for you to study English, are introduced.

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

In my opinion, this website is wonderfully tailor-made for studying English with a

variety of information and user-friendly format. You can easily find the field which
you want to focus on by looking in the left margin of the web page.

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.

‘Grammar, Vocabulary & Pronunciation’, as suggested by its name, is such an

informative resource. You can make clear any confusing grammar items by reading
Q&A sessions or by asking questions yourself. You do not have to doubt the quality
and reliability of the answers because they are consulted by experienced native
English teachers and editors. As regards vocabulary, you can learn new words in
context because they are all in English news. It means that you are able to triple-
utilize this resource for improving reading skills, learning vocabulary, and enhancing
background knowledge as well. Moreover, contemporarily-new words and
expressions are presented to “keep your English up to date”. In terms of
Pronunciation, you have chance to watch videos about pronunciation tips and practice
exercises followed.
Information Box

‘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/

This is one of the first websites I have experienced as recommended by my teacher.

It consists of a variety of listening exercises ranging from easy to difficult level. All of
them are designed in the form of multiple-choice questions to help you check your
comprehension. Moreover, the scripts are enclosed with further explanation of some
phrases and idioms used by the speakers. As for me, those phrases are very useful
and close to real life because they are put in the daily contexts like answering
machine or going shopping.
Apart from those four websites presented above, podcast is a good listening material.
You can easily find and explore podcasts more on the Internet by using Google
searching tool or by visiting the website http://podcast.com/. I hope you enjoy and can
exploit them.

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