The ESL TIMES - March 2016

MARCH 2016

HAGGERTY ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM

VOLUME XIV ISSUE I

LA QUINCEANERA: THE BEST BIRTHDAY PAGE 3-4

ESL BUSINESS SOCIAL PAGE 5

“ASSISTANCE” FOR FOODIES PAGE 6-7

THE ESL TIMES

The Rocks

by Jennifer Kaon Cheng Lu

O

ne of the most wonderful things in life is to be helped by someone. When one person does

something for another, most of the time it is an act of kindness. Although helping is a noble practice and !1

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the one who has been assisted may feel glad about that, in some situations, it can make this person feel guilty. I have experienced an unusual event that fits this condition.

In my second year of architecture in college, I had a complex project to do. Every student should develop and present it by multiple technical drawings, diagrams, a model and a text, defending the project and explaining the thoughts, intentions and functions of the elements used, convincing the professors it would work if built for real. I had spent days working on it, but one day before the presentation I still had many things to do. It was not finished.

My mother and brother were the ones who literally lent me their hands. They are two responsible, calm, patient, and kind people, who care about others. Everybody that knows them likes and admires them. She is smooth and pleasant. He is cheery and good-tempered. However, both are gracious.

That day, they realized that I was pretty tense and worried about the project. So they started to assist me by cutting model supplies and glueing elements on the final model according to my directions, while I was making the technical drawings. My mother kept helping me until 2 AM, and my brother until 6 AM. I felt extremely relieved because of the assistance they generously gave to me. It seemed that they took a huge rock off of my back. However, I felt guilty and the reason was they had to wake up early and work the next day. So, it seemed that the huge rock returned to my back again. At first, the project was the rock.

Then, my guilty feeling for inconveniencing them became the rock.

That was the first time I got help that had practically saved me in terms of my grade, however, I felt very bad at the same time. I have never imagined a situation when it could happen because it sounds contradictory: relief and and guilt simultaneously. I had though they would be too tired at their jobs and the fault was mine. In fact, they were tired at work yet they recovered over the next few days. I didn’t sleep for almost 48 hours, cried a lot after the presentation, and one month later I quit the course. I am glad I never had to carry the first rock again and my guilt has gotten lighted as I have had the opportunity to help other and appreciate the kindness my mother and brother showed to me.

ESL Spring Party

by Thien Tran

A

ctually, I’m not really like party

much. However, I have felt interesting with the ESL Spring Party that I joined on March 15th. Besides the benefits such as the lunch, play ping pong, etc. We had a chance to practice t a l k i n g E n g l i s h w i t h f r i e n d s, conversations partners. Especially, with the game paints and finds eggs I knew about Easter, which celebrates Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead, is Christianity’s most important holiday. It is just a small party, but extremely meaning. I like it so much!

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La Quinceanera: The Best Birthday for Girls

by Bethi Velasco

B

irthday parties are always special. La

Quinceanera (the fifteenth) is the most special, it is the birthday party in my culture from Ecuador for girls that are turning fifteen years old. The celebration for my daughter was very significant for me because I made it with love, so that she could enjoy it. To make a party is a lot of work, but it is exciting. The excitement of making the invitations, searching for the perfect dress, flowers, and selecting the food starts before the party, continues during the party and lingers after the party.

The preparation of the details of the party was started two months before its date. My daughter and I were very excited. We started looking for the invitations and all the ones we saw were awful. We decided to make them ourselves. We bought the material at Michael’s, a craft store. They offered to teach us how to make the invitations, and we took a couple of good ideas from them and brought tools to cut and glue paper. We made lovely invitations by hand. The invitations were an attractive pink color like an orchid and they looked elegant and formal.

We had a hard time looking for a special pink dress. We could not find it in her skinny size and in the elegant and unique style that she wanted. After that, my daughter was looking and she finally found one in the style that she liked, but the company that made that dress was in China. We contacted the company and they offered to make the dress and send it in one week. She was delighted knowing that in a short time she would have a gorgeous dress. When the dress came, we were disappointed because they sent another dress, not the one that she had asked for. When we first saw the dress we saw that it was rougher material than the dress we wanted. It also had rhinestones that she did not want, and it was brighter than the dress we saw online. They apologized because they did not have the materials ready to make it. They gave us two options; we could send back the dress and they would give back the money or they could send the right dress in two weeks, but that was too late because we would not get the dress in time for the party. We sent it to the dry cleaners even though it still had rhinestones, the dress was completely changed, it looked puffier and nicer. When my daughter tried on the dress, she said “It’s ok, it’s not too bad and we don’t have enough time.” She decided to keep the dress.

The flowers for decorating the house. We found styles of bouquets on the Internet and a florist that was close to our house that made the beautiful bouquet with the style that we showed them. We got gorgeous pink roses and orchids. They had a sweet smell that greeted everyone at the door. We wanted to put a big bouquet by the entrance of the door. In the corners of the house we wanted to put the small bouquets of orchids.

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Choosing the food was also easy. We thought about what kind of food we wanted to serve. The guests were American people and Hispanic people. I was thinking that maybe American people would not like Spanish food, so we decided to have Italian food. So I got parmesan chicken and pasta. I made Spanish food too because I thought that maybe Spanish people would not like Italian food too much, like me. A friend made Brazilian food, her special delicious Brazilian chicken salad.On the day of the party, we were very excited. It was a rollercoaster of emotions in the morning because everything had made it on time. In the morning, we made ornaments of balloons, one for the table where the cake was, others for the corners behind the flowers, and more for the railing of the stairs. The flowers came exactly at the time when they were supposed to, at noon. In the main room, I placed the pink chair where the princess sits, the small table where the tiara was and the high-heeled shoes that she had to change into for the ceremony. The place was ready by 1pm. The next step was to pick up the cake, pick up the food at 4 pm, and pick my daughter up at the beauty salon. I thought, “That is a lot of things to do in a short time,” so I called my friends for help. My friend Elizabeth brought the cake, and Elvia brought the food. I went to the beauty salon to fix my hair and nails, and pick up my daughter.

Finally, we were home at 5 pm and the DJ came at the same time; he was setting up the equipment by the time we were getting dressed. I remember it as if it was yesterday, helping my daughter getting dressed. The dress had a corset and so I had tied in her body and around her tiny waist. The guests started coming at 6 pm, and soon the house was full. Then a sweet and soft melody played and the man with the microphone announced the entrance of the “Quinceanera” birthday girl. My beautiful girl came down the stairs accompanied by a little girl and a court of her friends behind her, and a gentleman was waiting at the bottom and everyone applauded. When she was in the living room, I did the toast. I expressed how proud and happy I had been for 15 years being her mother and watching how she had been changing from a little girl to a gorgeous princess. After that was the dance and a special song for Quinceaneras sung by Chayanne, a wonderful Puertorican singer. After the ceremony with soft music, everyone enjoyed the food. Then, after a while, the dancing music started but the boys and girls were shy.

One of them started dancing, and little by little they were encouraged to dance and they had a good time.

When the time for the cake came, we had a nice surprise. The husband of the one of my friends brought an accordion and he played beautiful songs dedicated to the birthday girl.

The next day after the party we were exhausted, but we woke up early. My daughter was excited and she went to check the presents and talked about how amazing the party was. She said to me, “Mom, do you remember the dress that I didn’t like too much? After I ironed it, the dress was fluffy and looked beautiful, I felt comfortable with it. All my friends liked the Spanish and Brazilian food; they didn’t eat so much Italian food. All my friends danced and they asked me to make more parties like this.” The next day, Monday, when she came back from school, she said, “Mom, Mom, guess what, everybody in the school was talking about my party. They were saying my party was wonderful.”

Our friends and family had a good time at the Quinceanera party. They enjoyed planning and helping too, because the love for the birthday girl made us work together. She was happy and had a good experience with her friends enjoying a good party. She will have that memory for the rest of her life. For me, it was gratifying to see good feelings and emotions; I reached my goal of doing our traditional fifteenth party successfully. My encouragement to everybody is, whatever you do, if you do things with love, everything will come out great.

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ESL Business Social

by Fall 2015 Business English Class

R

ecently, our Business English class has held an event named Business Culture Event (BCE) on

November 12th in VH 210. It was our great pleasure to have most of professors from the School of Business to attend. We were happy to have the Dean of the School of Business to participate. All of us have had a great opportunity to meet and talk with them. Besides, we also did not forget to share four different countries’ business cultures. At first, this assignment made us very nervous, however, we knew that we would succeed once we understood the academic environment and presented to the professors our Asian business culture. After becoming intimate with the environment in America, we recognized that hosting an event is a great occasion for ESL students, who are not only in Business English class but also in other majors, to get familiar with their professors and academic atmosphere in our school. This is also a great preparation for us to become more confident before “stepping into the academic world.” To be more specific, it is a great experience for everyone of our peer students that we successfully hosted this event, and we are sure it will be tremendously helpful in our future academic study and professional life.

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“Assistance” for Foodies

by Wenqian Fang

I

am an experienced Foodie from China. When I first came to America, I was so confused about the

restaurant rules, such as tip, menu and tax. However as an “elder” Foodie, how could I give up without trying? No way! Therefore, this article will talk about how to order and check out in a restaurant in America, In addition, I will recommend some restaurants which I think are delicious and economical in New Paltz.

Ordering in American restaurants is not a simple matter. I’m just joking, actually ordering in an American restaurant is very easy and clear. The firs step is to choose a restaurant that you are interested in and push or pull the door open. If you complete this step, you are almost close to success. The following step is really simple. A waiter or waitress will greet you and will probably ask you “How many people?” which is just a question for how many people will be sitting at the table. Then, they may guide you to a desk and give you the menus. Finally, you can choose the meals that you prefer. During the time that you are eating, waiter/waitress will ask “How is everything?” which is my favorite part. You can respond “Good!” or something like that.

Sometimes you can’t understand what the meal is because you are just learning English. There are 3 ways to go about this you can get help from your waiter/waitress, take a gamble, or consult the !6

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dictionary. Taking a gamble will be really easy and will rely on fortune. If you want to ask for help you can just say “What do you recommend?” or “What is this?” or “What is today’s special?” Basically, there are lunch or dinner specials in restaurants, which are really cheap and delicious. It is worth noting that the quantity is different. The lunch special may be bigger than the dinner special and the price is different too.

Checking out is a bit complex. When you finish your meals, the waiter/waitress will ask you whether you want your check. Then, they will give you a receipt. You can choose to check out by cash or card, both are okay. When you complete this step, the waiter/waitress will take your cash/card. Next, they will give you another receipt and change or your card back. If they give you back cash you should leave cash on the table for tip. If they give you a credit card then, you should write the tip and total price (the meal price + tip) on that receipt. The price on the receipt includes tax. At the very beginning it was hard for me to decide how much tip I should give the waiter/waitress. It is customary to leave between 18-20%. Now, there is an easy way to count tip, you can just double the tax because in New York State the tax is 8% and when you double it, it is 16% which is close to an appropriate tip for your waiter/ waitress. Just give a little bit more and you will be fine. Finally, please don’t waste food. It is common to ask for a “doggy bag” at the end of your meal for all the food you did not finish. A “doggy bag” is just the food that you didn’t finish packed up in to go containers.

Now that you know how to order and check out in an American restaurant, I will recommend some delicious restaurants in New Paltz!

Tokyo Sushi

Tokyo Sushi is a Japanese restaurant but it also provides a little bit of Korean food. The taste is a little bit strong if you compare it to a pure Japanese restaurant. The environment is quiet and fragrant. The Box, which is in the lunch special, is really good and plentiful. The service is fine as well. Tokyo Sushi is my favorite restaurant in New Paltz. If you want to try this restaurant, the work day is the best choice, because on weekends, it is really popular and you will wait a long time for a table.

B-Side

This restaurant is popular too. It provides American food, such as burgers and steak. For me, I really like the Graceland Burger (Fries, pickle, and a bacon beef burger) which is really good taste. Also, the cheeseburger and B-Side burger are enjoyable as well. If you want to try American taste this restaurant is a great choice. In addition, the ice cream in B-Side is delicious and diverse.

China House

China House is an old restaurant in New Paltz. The owner is Chinese so the taste is really a Chinese taste.

As a Chinese who lives in America, I really miss Chinese food and this restaurant satisfies my wishes. I can’t believe that I can eat pure Chinese tasting food in America. If you want to try Asian food, this will be a great place.

A l s o, G o m e n - K u d a s a i , P&G’s, the Baker y and Gourmet Pizza are all good as well. This article mentioned the rules in ordering and checking out in America and famous restaurants in New Paltz. I am pleased to share my experience.

If you are a foodie too, lets eat together!

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The ESL Times Edited by Glenda Gregorio

The Haggerty English Language Program delivers high quality English language instruction to speakers of other languages.

Our student-centered curriculum is designed to educate international students both linguistically and culturally to be successful in an American university. By promoting crossc u l t u r a l e n c o u n t e r s, o u t r e a ch , a n d participation, we contribute to the diverse multicultural character of the campus and community.

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