UNIVERSITY OF DE LA SALLE BAJIO
SMART POLYGLOTS A journey into knowing the Language Center and how it works
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This interview was conducted with Miriam Abugaber, a nineteen years old who is currently studying Environmental Design. She´s going to tells us about her experience as well as if she likes or what she dislikes about the Language Center. Even though she´s in the second semester she has a lot of opinions about it! So, after a presentation we started with an essential question. I asked what she liked the most about the Language Center and Miriam admitted that it gave you a lot of opportunities to learn different languages, such as Business English, Italian and so on. She also said that La Salle has a lot of opportunities that other colleges don't have!
MIRIAM ABUGABER Environmental Design student By Caro Ramos
ARE ENGLISH CLASSES GOOD AT THE LANGUAGE CENTER?
I think that if you want to enjoy and have an interactive class of English (or any class at all!), it´s quite necessary to know your teacher better. So, in that moment, I asked her if she knew where her teacher was from. She admitted not knowing where exactly her teacher was from because she only had two weeks of classes with her, but that she thought that her professor was from here, León Guanajuato.
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"I´M CURRENTLY LEARNING ITALIAN AND I LOVE IT!" A quite necessary question was if her English classes were good, she said that right now she´s learning a new language, Italian, but that in the last semester she was taking English and she considered it a really good class and she had learned a lot of new things she hadn't known before. Also she admitted her teacher was absolutely good at her job. Later on, I asked who her favorite teacher was. A great question that all professors would love to know! She said that it was so difficult to answer that question because she only has had two different teachers in the Language Center but both of them were really good, very kind to the students and that they made their classes truly interesting and dynamic. She admitted she liked them both the same! On the other hand, the next question asked was what she hated the most about the Language Center. She admitted she didn't dislike anything (at the moment). Then, I asked Miriam how many languages she spoke and she said she obviously knew Spanish because it's her native language, she knew really well English and that she was in the process of learning Italian. Can you imagine? It´s great!
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"I LOOK FORWARD TO LEARNING HOW TO HAVE A CONVERSATION IN ITALY" But… you think teachers teach enough to have a conversation with other people in different countries? That was the question I asked Miriam, and she admitted she really couldn´t answer that question because in her first semester she was in level eight so she already knew how to have a conversation with someone who spoke English and right now she´s in her first level of Italian but she was hoping to learn a lot so that she could have a conversation with someone in Italy!
A question I was so interested in asking what she thought her teacher did in their free time. She assumed her teacher did research in their free time, she really considered her teacher very intelligent and a reason for that is that her professor knows a lot of languages like Italian, English, French, Spanish also she said she thought her teacher spent time with their family. 02.2018
The Language Center is commonly known that in their classes, you share it with other majors, but do all the people like being mixed with other majors? Miriam admitted loving it! She said it was a great opportunity to learn new things and make new friends. Something really important, besides learning is to enjoy your classes so I asked Miriam if she really enjoyed her previous English classes and the ones she had at that moment, that was Italian, and she said she really enjoyed her English classes, and a reason for that was her professor because she had had a unique way to teach their students like playing videos, interactive games and all that stuff. She also said that she enjoyed her Italian classes because it was always good to learn new things. And we´re done with the interview! I really had had a great time with her, knowing more about the opinion of the students on the Language Center.
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NOW KNOWING A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT IT, WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A STUDENT OF THE LANGUAGE CENTER? I HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOYED IT! CARO RAMOS 02.2018
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English: an important language at Universidad De La Salle Bajío By Alejandro Godinez Ponce
How much do you know about the English center? Are they good at teaching? These are important questions that we all should think about and for that we have interviewed Cristina Alcantara, a design student who is studying English at the language center at Universidad De La salle Bajio. We asked her if she likes to study English at LaSalle so she answered that English was so difficult for her when she was in primary school but when she passed to junior high school she started to be interested in English, so she started to studying English in a private school called Quick Learning. Due to her private English classes she is very good at it now.
She reported that she likes English because she is good at it. On the other hand, she confessed that she would like to learn a different language apart from English. She loves Germany and its culture and history, therefore she would love to study German at LaSalle but she doesn’t like that it has an extra cost.
Another thing she doesn’t like from the Language Center is that they don’t allow studdents to bring copies of the book, she confessed that she would like to bring copies because the book is very expensive. Moreover, she would like to have the chance to choose the classroom where she would be studying English because she dislikes the fact that there is no one from her major in her English classroom, and she feels very uncomfortable and insecure. Even though she does not agree with this, she sees a good opportunity to make new friends and good relationships. Although she really likes to have a teacher that does not speak Spanish, because that way she can improve her listening and her speaking. Despite all the difficulties she considered that English is a very important language because she would use it to communicate with some people and she could read books of design that are written in English. 02.2018
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Impact of the language center on your life How important is for you to learn a new language? Have you ever asked yourself how useful is learning a new language? Or how helpful is going to be for you in the future? We asked an English student about this, Montserrat Gonzalez helped us with an interview about the language center. She thinks that the interest of the students to learn a new language is really important, although it is a little bit difficult because of all the other classes that we have and we lose focus. It's important to now how learning another language can help you even to get a job, especially if you are going to talk with people from another country that don’t use the same language. Knowing this, you have more opportunities to get a better job. The conditions of the classroom are a really important thing too; she thinks that if you study in a good environment you get more interested in learning. It would be a good idea to add a projector to the classrooms to make them faster and easier. As an international business student, she obviously has to know as many languages as possible, so the language center is something that she is interested in.
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"We have to recognize that the classrooms are appropriate, they are relatively big because there are not too many students in each one," she said. She thinks that the program is very organized and good, and all the languages that they have are basic, they should add more and increase the opportunities to study more than one. It is also important if you want to go on an exchange program to know the language that they offer the country where you want to go, because the university gives you the opportunity to do it. In conclusion, if you think about it, the language center is really doing a good job, the teachers do what we need, they make us feel comfortable to ask when we don’t know something. She is planning on learning as many languages as possible because that is going to help her to get a really good job and have more opportunities. Learning languages helps us have better opportunities in the future, so if you are not learning one it is the perfect time to start, this school offers us all the opportunities to do it.
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HOW DOES THE LANGUAGE CENTER WORKS AT LA By Miriam Muñoz SALLE
Jose
Andrés
Vet School student
The language center offers the opportunity to study a new language or continue studying an old one. The building is almost in the middle of the university so it is easy to find it and is not far from the other major's buildings. The language center building is not big, but it is large enough to have a lot of students in the different classrooms. Also, the classrooms are small and have equipment to do different activities during the semester. There is a lot of teacher diversity, in the places they are from, it makes the classes more interesting because it is not only an English class, it could be a kind of cultural class. And maybe the teachers could recommend a place where the students could go on an exchange program.
We asked some students what they thought about the language center and they said that they were satisfied with their classes. They said that it was dynamic and complete, and the teacher was trying to fulfill the expectations. In addition, they said the teachers were prepared to do their jobs. Moreover, the personality of the teachers has an influence in the way the students learn, because if they are not willing to teach properly it doesn´t mater how much the student tries to learn because it is kind of an awkward environment in classroom. Even though students have been assigned to a level of English, not everyone can support the workload because it is still difficult for them. Not all areas of English have been reinforced properly, such as grammar and oral expression.
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On the other hand, there is a situation that compromised learning a different language: the only place where the students can practice is in their classes in the language center, for languages such as English, Italian, French, they only have 50 minutes to learn something new and improve areas like grammar or oral expression. It is not enough time, at the end of the class they return to their routine and speak their mother tongue again.
According to the interview, AndrÊs said that the most challenging thing about learning a new language was speaking properly with rules of each language and pronunciation. Students are an important part and should be heard so that the language center provides a better service. According to the second interview Angeles said she didn´t like to buy the book because they didn’t use it in the whole semester and maybe it was a waste of resources and money. In conclusion, in the language center you can learn and enjoy a new language, with diverse staff who are qualified to teach different students of the university. There is always constant change and they are concerned for the well-being and learning of students.
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Angeles Rocha Vet School student
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What do students think about the Language Center? By Lizbeth Zurita Suárez La Salle University knows that is necessary to improve the studen´s skills learning new languages at the same time they work on completing their university studies. The Language Center offers languages like English, French and Italian to the students five hours per week, so they can learn another languages as part of their academic development. We know languages are important in our life so , I decided to interview a student to find out his opinion about his classes. Daniela Fuentes is currently studying in the second semester of business administration.In the first semester she had taken English classes in level seven; however, for this semester she decided to take French classes. I asked her some questions and here is what she answered. Talking about the Language Center, in a general way, she said that what she liked the most was the variety of the languages. Furthermore, in class, teachers help to improve our language skills with different tasks about speaking and grammar.On the other hand she said what she hated the most was that the halls are always crowded during breaks, so she suggested having wider halls, in that case, students could arrive to class faster.
She said her English classes were good. She admitted learning pretty well since she’s taking classes at the Language Center, and actually she has had conversations with people from countries where English is spoken. Daniela would like to learn Japanese because she’s studying business, and there are many companies in León, so she could apply for a better job. Teachers are an important part of learning a new language. Daniela said she liked the way the teachers taught the class, because they take you beyond the basics, and she admitted that the teachers were well-qualified to teach.
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De La Salle Bajío
Other thing that is important is the relationship between students, Daniela thought that’s really good to share classes with different classmates from others majors. She said that she thought you could learn different things from people that is studying something completely different from yours.
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Daniela got an English Certificate months ago, she advised the new students to be patients, and if you don’t practice you would probably forget it. She said that she liked go to the Computer center to practice what she has learned in the partial. She recommend using an app called Duolingo to complement your knowledge. Finally, she said she thought the most important thing when you’re learning another languageis was really understanding the culture of the country so that could help a lot.
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Does the Language Center work? The Language Center is a place at the University of LaSalle where they teach different languages. Have you ever wondered how it works? The other day I interviewed Laura, who is a student of The University of LaSalle, asking her some things about it. As I started asking her, she said that her level of English had improved, since she started studying here, now she dominated some topics she hadn't before. In the Language Center they offer exchange programs, and she admitted not knowing the requirements to go on it, but she had some ideas of the things you may need to apply, an example is having good grades and knowing the native language of the place you want to go to. If she had the opportunity to go on an exchange program, she would choose Germany, because she thinks it is a beautiful place. She would choose German instead of English, as she already said she wanted to go to Germany. Laura told me she thought the teachers are well prepared because when they are explaining they dominate the topic, and their English is good. Also, she admitted English will help her in her major because if sometimes someone doesn’t speak Spanish, at least she could communicate. She would include Chinese in the program, she thinks that it is a language that, besides English, a lot of people know, and the orthography is kind of interesting. She also told me that the classrooms are a little bit small, but it is fine because there aren’t that many students in the class. Moreover, the classmates are good people and no one misbehaves.
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Is there enough cultural diversity at LaSalle´s Language Center? By Denisse Nuñez
Last Tuesday I had the great honor of interviewing Fernando Mora, a criminology student that takes class at the LaSalle language center. I decided to ask him some questions about the cultural diversity at this center. First of all, it is well known that the language center has many options of different language classes, that’s why I decided to ask him which of all these options he took. He told me that since he had been a little kid at elementary school until today he had been taking English classes, but that his mother tongue was Spanish. Due to all those years taking English classes, it is really easy for him to have this subject, but besides this, he enjoys to hear some music and watch Netflix series and movies in English, that’s why he frequently has the opportunity to practice English. Then I started asking him about other cultures besides the American or British one, and he admitted being interested in the Japanese culture and that he would love to learn this language and to be involved with this culture. Fortunately for him, Japanese is one of the options that the language center offers to all their students, but it´s not the only one. As Fernando told me, there are other languages that anyone can learn here in the university, some of them are French, Portuguese and Italian. Unfortunately, there is another language he would love to learn that the university doesn’t have: Nahuatl, a native Mexican language. This was because he loves archeology and anthropology, and he is also Mexican, that was
But also he had noticed that there were a lot of students from other countries, and he actually met a French one, but he knew that there are so many more students like him that decided to come study here. However, the students are not the only ones that are looking for new knowledge in this country. There are also a lot of teachers that come from other places to teach at this university, and Fernando thinks that this is a big advantage for the students because they are having more opportunities to learn about real people that actually know the culture firsthand and talk to the students about personal experiences. In the end he told us that he really recommended studying at LaSalle Bajio to all the high school students that are considering it. They should come here because this is the best option they´ll ever have.
why he is so interested in prehispanic cultures. But, as he said, this language is not available at this center, maybe because not a lot of people are interested in this kind of culture and he thought that this was really sad because the Mexican culture is really amazing. 02.2018
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WHAT THE STUDENTS THINKS OF THE LANGUAGE CENTER By Alessandra Hernandez
Hello, everyone today we are going to interview
a student called Nayely Rebolledo she is studying education here at la Salle. Here at La Salle university we always say that the language center needs to improve some things so we went outside of the classrooms and we interviewed some students about the things that they think of the language center. We need to start to know what is the main problem so we found a student and we asked her what would she change about the language center, told us that she thought that they needed to change the way of teaching because the thing that the students practice more is the grammar. Also, she thinks that they need to practice more the speaking part. However, she also thought that they have great cordination in the things they do. After that we asked her if she was taking English or another language. In this case she told us that she was studying English and she also admitted wanting to learn another language. We asked her which language she would like to learn, Nayely told us that she wanted to learn French.
Although we asked her if she liked they way her teacher was giving her class Nayely told us that she loved having her English class because she loved the way her teacher gave her class. She said that he was very funny and the way that he explained was so easy for her to understand. She thought that he was the best teacher that had given her class so far.
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EXPERIENCE AT LANGUAGE CENTEr Student point of view By emilio Ramirez First of all, let's start with a short description of what the language center is and what you can find at it. The language center is the community of teachers, coordinators and all the people that are related to everything that is related to the teaching, and getting to know everything about all the other languages that are available for all the students here at the Universidad de la Salle Bajio. Within this article you are going to find some points of view of the experience and what some students think about the Language Center. We got this opinion from an interview I have conducted with a student, Jose Manuel Orozco Gallardo, currently studying industrial engineering in his second semester.
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During the interview we could notice that the experience that the Language Center gave to the students is generally good, although we could also notice that there are several points that should be addressed. At the beginning of the interview, we heard a lot of good things about the Language Center. Jose said that he enjoyed a lot taking classes at the Langue Center, just because he liked the idea of mixing students of different majors, which allowed the students to know more and more people and at the end of the day that helped to have a complete development of the students. In addition, he also told me that even though the level, in his opinion, is a little bit too basic, if you take part in the classes and do all the things you’re supposed to do in a classroom, you will have a good idea of the language you decide to study at the language center. On the other hand, we heard some suggestions that some of the students have about the way the language center is currently working. José told us that some of his classmates think that the space inside of the classrooms is not quite enough to have a comfortable class and that’s something they would like to change. However, that’s not a big deal because the space is enough to have classes. Also, Jose said that the amount of work and activities help the students practice and improve their skills with the language. In general, we concluded that the experience that the language center gave to the students is quite good, with some details that could be fixed really 14 easily.
The bigger question is: Does the Language Center really work? I’m going to try to answer this question so I took upon myself the task of interviewing students. Monse is in first level of Italian. She told me that it was very fun to learn Italian and it even is easy. Also, Monse told me that her teacher is from Italy and I think that is very important, when the teacher helps us learn a new language, it is essential that they comprehend that language. Moreover, if the are from that country, it's better for us understand them in spite of the teachers making us buy a book that only we used a few times in the entire semester. Those were her words, and maybe I think that too.
She said that the computer center is so equipped to receive us and the classroom sometimes is too crowded, but only in levels like the first, second, third, fourth and even fifth. Monse thought that she was better for her continuous studies in English, but Business English because it’s a very important part for opportunities for work. Furthermore, because she’s a future veterinarian where all the time the information is changing and she had to bring herself up to date. Monse also told me about the attitude of her teacher, and she said that she was so kind, funny and made the class very comfortable though her classmates are a comple-???? She told me that the language center was working well, like any other system, it has some problems, but it’s ok. It has achieved its goals.
Monse said that “It has achieved its goals."
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What The Students Think About Learning in the Language Center
Nowadays it is very important to learn more about different languages to increase the knowledge about culture and have more opportunities in the major. That’s why the language center is fundamental in the university and can offer more than just English. Nowadays, the Language center has a lot of teachers that can help you to know three different languages, which are: English, French and Italian. The classes are given everyday in different schedules and for different majors that you can study at the university.
To know how it works, it is necessary to listen to the opiniĂłn of the students and what kind of experiences they have had during their classes. For this reason we decided to interview Jessica Aranda, who is a student from the School of Veterinary Medicine in the university of De La Salle Bajio.
She thinks that the English classes are a little bit difficult in her level, because the exams are too long and in the part of the listenigs she almost does not hear very well the conversation; maybe because the CD is badly recorded. However, the classes are very interesting and the themes are well organized. Jessica said that she had learned idioms and phrasal verbs that could help to have a better conversation. 02.2018
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We know that it is necessary to have a book to complement the practice and the gra-mar, but what does Jessica think about that? Fortunately, she got more knowledge using this material in the semesters, but the problem is that they are very expensive and the disadvantage is that it doesn´t include the workbook.
If the students want to choose another option of language; they can try to learn more about the options that the center offers in the pro-gram, which are: Italian, fFrench and the most popular - English. Jessica thinks that if she had the opportunity to choose another language, she could study French, but the accent is almost difficult to pronounce.
The language center has a lot of classrooms of diffe-rent levels and obviously there are a lot of teachers that can help you to understand the lessons. Jessica's teacher is very funny, teaches differents topics in the day, and it is easier to learn with the activities she does with her classmates.
In spite of all the programs that the university has, Jessica is interested to travel to Europe, specifically to England, because she wants to experience the culture of another country and to perfect the language. In the language center you have a lot of opportunities to be a better student and in the future be a great student. 02.2018
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The importance of the language center and the languages for the student interview with Aylin Paola
by Jaziel Lopez
First at all, I hope that this article can help yours to understand the important of the languages in the professional life, because are many carriers that think that the languages its not important one example is the carrier of laws, this is the reason that our interviewed is a student of laws. Her name is Aylin Paola Lopez Hernandez he told me that she was a girl with 21 years old, she said that was a student of laws and she this semester started in the level 8 in English Although the carrier of laws has many specialties to study Aylin said that his favorite was penal, so she decided work in this area as well as she told me that her father and uncle said to him that she had to study penal.
One of the hobbies that she had is the tennis, she told me that was in the university academy of tennis and she was excited because she would one of the members of the principal team. However, its time to tell what is the opinion of Aylin of the language center and the language About the question that what is her opinion about the language she told us that for her it’s a good idea that the students could learn other language because in the actuality with the globalization and all the competition that exist in the work world know other languages it’s an important stool and this could be the difference between a good job or a great job. One of bad point that she said was that the classroom was very small and the students was many so its difficult to learn well, and the classroom don`t have windows and the classroom turns to hot and smell bad.
One point that Aylin said us, was that she its agree with the idea of the language center to had many languages to learn in the personality Aylin would study Chinese and Russian, she took this decision because one of her favorite teacher that was Delia told her that Chinese its one of the languages that had many possibilities for jobs.
So I hope that Aylin learn all the languages that she wishes and other studies after read this article can be more interested in learn other languages, and change the idea of “learn other language its not important”.
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ENTER
As a student from The University of La Salle I have heard how students complain about the L.C some of them hate the system, others the strategies of teaching and the others the fact of sharing classes with different classmates. But there are also some students who really enjoy and they take advantage of the English classes, that is why I have interviewed a student, so let’s see a little bit more about the L.C and what his opinion is.
LANGUAGES As we know everybody must learn a new language besides their native language, it may help a lot for any job in the future, that is why University of La Salle offers to the students many different languages.
Jesus said that there were four different languages but he didn’t know what they were. When I asked him I realized that most of the students don’t know what languages they may be able to learn in their school. On the other hand La Salle offers: English, France, Italy, German, Japanese and even Pre-Hispanic languages.
NEW CLASSMATES Jesus agreed toshare classes with new classmates, not only to make new friends but also to help each other in any topic so we learn new things from them. Although sometimes it’s hard to get involved with them because some of them already know each other. As an own opinion being with students from different majors is not too bad, because of that we get more knowledge which is not related to our major or even the basic vocabulary. For example, last semester I had classmates from architecture, law and industrial engineering, which means I got new words for my vocabulary.
IMPROVED SKILLS Jesus admitted learning English at school has been kind of difficult because he didn’t dedicate enough time to learning it, though most of his English knowledge has been obtained from school. He insisted on having English classes for more than just 1 hour, for example in contrast to the semester classes, in the English summer and winter courses many students felt that they had learned more and it was because they studied in the same context for many hours so it was more useful. Sometimes it is difficult to pay attention in classes and more when the teachers don’t use good techniques for teaching. Jesus advised us to ask the teachers whatever we didn’t understand in the classes.
Jesus denied saying any of his teachers' names but he mentioned a teacher who
JESUS RICARDO SALCEDO
used to use attractive strategies for the student like: reading an English book, having improvised presentations, speaking about any topic which can be interesting for us and even sometimes going out from the classroom. Also, he suggested to others teachers going past the basic activities.
IS IT IMPORTANT? For the University of la Salle it’s really important that each student gets knowledge of English, that is why it is considered the most spoken language and it doesn’t matter how useful it can be for your major, everybody must take it.
I asked Jesus to tell me what he thinks about it and how useful it is for him.
He admitted having English language in his future CV would be perfect, as he studies business management he will do business with people from other countries so they must find a common language, which is English.
On the other hand, he persuaded himself to learn not only English but also a new language which will help him a lot in his future successful job. BY: FRIDA PADILLA TOLEDO 02.2018
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Mariel vs. the Language Center By Giordana Jimenez Sahuaya
Have you ever asked yourself how much you know about the language center? Many of the students don’t really know how the language center works, what opportunities you have to go on an exchange program or the exams you can do to get a certificate. We asked Mariel Bahena, a 7th level student at La Salle what she knows about the language center and this is what she told us. First of all, we asked her if she knew what requirements you need to go on an exchange program and she admitted knowing a few. She said that you need to have good grades and be in 4th semester. Also we wanted to know where she would go if she had de opportunity to go on an exchange and she said she would go to the USA or Germany because she is studying Industrial Design and those countries have good school programs.
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After finding out this information, we asked if she knew what other languages La Salle offers, what languages she would include and what language she would like to study instead of English. Mariel said she knows the language center offers Italian, French, German and Japanese, and she also suggested including Portuguese in the program because she thinks it´s an easy language to learn. In addition, she said that she would like to learn German because she wants to got to Germany and have a job there. Moreover, we wanted to know what she thought about the teachers and the level of English that La Salle has. Mariel thought that the teachers weren’t well prepared to teach all the levels because some of them just knew the basics. Also she admitted having a better level of English in high school than the level of English she has now. Because of this, Mariel suggested including Cambridge certification in the program so the students can improve their level while studying at La Salle.
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