Explorations of Oceana

The lang and comm group has been reading up about Papua New Guinea and even made a 3-D bulletin board about it. It's a lot of fun and anyone in the vicinity of Ashby hall should come check it out toute de suite as the French would say. Though our Around the World Tour has been a little slow to get started, it will definitely be happening in April when the flowers are blooming and everyone is gearing for the end.
Our partnership with Skyline Literacy, however, continues to go fantastically. Our first class has graduated and gone into intermediate levels and we have a new arrival of students whose progress in these past few months has been phenomenal. Today I will be teaching them about major irregular English past participles such as "was/were, went, had, and did." So, all goes well in the world of communication

March

With Spring Break over, the Lang and Comm Group is ready to continue its events and activities. But first, to recap, our International Love Day was a success. This was a collaboration between all of the groups in Madison International and enjoyed large attendance and a lot of fun games, music and food. We should, by the end of this month, also have gone on our World Tour at the local elementary school. More on this, later this week after our first meeting of March.

Cruisin' through February

What's up Lang and Comm aficionados,
Hope life is going well for all those who appreciate the curiosity of language :)
Our committee is still in the developing sessions of our goals for the semester although by the end of this week we should have some major developments to report, such as, the date of our Around the World Tour and another program at Ashby Hall.

Be sure to catch the Valentine's Day Party chez Ashby Wednesday at 8 p.m. :O)

Gearing Up For February

What's up Bloggers and blogger affiliates?!

February is here, and it being the short month that it is, will be gone as quickly as it came.

But there are a lot of things that the Ashby Lang and Comm group has planned for the month. We will be hopefully accomplishing all of the preliminary steps to stage yet another "World Tour" at a local elementary school, this time a more expanded version. This time around we have students from Egypt, Bolivia, and Russia making the rounds. Also, we will have someone talking about culture from Los Angeles, as we all know how it is miles away from the ordinary American city.

Aside from this, all of Ashby Hall's committees will be combining forces to have an international celebration soirée on Valentines Day. The Lang and Comm committee will be in charge of the decorations, which will be festive and colorful as well as the music. Expect a good time.

Well. That being said. You should probably go ahead and come.

Till next week!

Community Service

Hey there students and faculty, or whoever decides to read this post! I have never written a blog before, but I just wanted to say how thankful I am for the opportunity to tutor at a citizenship class last semester! My roomate Alex and I were tutors on tuesday nights at the PBS station at the entrance of JMU. The class was made up of about eight adults seeking citizenship, most from Mexico with spanish being their first language. There was one other tutor aside from Alex and I, and there was a teacher and an assitant whose names I don't remember now. We didn't really need that many people to teach 8 students about the U.S. government, but the close teacher/student ratio allowed us to split up and work with the students one on one. However, before we split into small groups, I was wondering why they needed me because we just sat at a table while the teacher talked. The teacher was very long-winded and wasn't good at using class time wisely. The assistant didn't do anything useful, she was really loud and obnoxious and always interrupted with pointless jabber. She liked to pronounce words really loudly over and over again to the Mexican-American students who had trouble with words such as "legislative" and "representatives". Although neither of us were cocky, Alex and I felt like we could have done a better job if we had taught the class ourselves. So the progress really seemed to happen when we worked one-on-one with the students with the book, testing them on terms and helping them spell and pronounce words. All of the students were at different levels of skill in writing english, but they all improved over the few classes. It felt good to help the students and now I have more confidence in my ability to teach. I hope I can have another meaningful experience with the language and communications committee this semester. Take care of yourselves!

The Semester Wraps Up

With the semester winding down, it seems appropriate to reflect on the various accomplishments of the Madison International Language and Communication Committee. Each subcommittee experienced success in our quest to become more culturally tolerant.

Subcommittee the First: SkyLine Literacy

Teaching people how to read is an interesting and educative experience for both parties involved. One is not aware of what one knows until (s)he has to teach it. The many nonsensical aspects of language are an endless source of curiousity which has made teaching them to other people enjoyable and a growing experience to say the least. The group that we are working with just began their studies in English but they have made great progress in their short time. The group consists of people varying from 19 year olds to 70 year old students. Also, people from South and Central America as well as people from Eastern Europe and from Russia. They all approach the subject of English with gusto as the advantages of speaking the language are obvious.

Subcommittee the Second: Cultural Presenters

The "Around the World" event at Berkley Glenn Elementary was very successful and was enjoyed by both the children and presenters. The children got their first glimpses at countries that many were not familiar with including: Serbia, Germany, Australia, Japan, and Ghana. More presentations, with more countries, are planned for next semester.

Subcommittee the Third: US Citizen Classes

Teaching foreigners about the complexities of the US political system/ US history was a task not taken lightly by our committee members. They quickly learned the disparties that exist between Americans concerning our own history. Especially when studying the Civil War! But all in all, much knowledge was exchanged, and Jared and Alex will resume their adventures next semester.

Subcommittee the Fourth: Foreign Language Club

Members of the French club were exposed to many a French film over the course of the semester and were able to partake in some francophone events put on by the French club here at JMU. One of our members, the Club's secretary, was able to espouse some of her love for the culture to other Ashby residents who joined the French club this semester.


Programming:

The Langauge and Communication Committee's programs enjoyed high participation in all of our programs. The Open Mic Night event saw almost all of Ashby come out, as well as some Ashby friends. Jared, a committee member, opened the show with an excellent rendition of "Crush" by Dave Matthews. He was followed by Filipe's sensuous performance of Stevie Wonder's "Sunshine of my Life," and then a duet with yours truly for Andrea Bocelli's "Vivo Por Ella." Christine, Shea, and Cookie put on a very organic a capella version of "Zion" by Lauryn Hill. Followed by a poem, and another song by Jeremy and Will, an original! The night was capped off with fashion "Walk-offs" and the highly anticipated Ashby Fashion Show.

For our last program, we had a foreign film night where we watched "Y Tu Mama Tambien." The film could not help but inspire conversation regarding love, sex, death, and LIFE! We watched it at 2:30 a.m. but still saw many people come out to the screening.


Though this past semester went great, We are sure to see even higher feats acheived before the year is out. Until next time~!!

So the Language and Communication Commitee has been working hard all semester. With just a few weeks left in the semester, the committe is in the middle of several awesome projects.

Community service is top priority. We've split ourselves into 4 sub-groups in order to tackle several different projects.
1. First off, we have a group working with Skyline Literacy. This group meets once a week and helps people from the community learn how to read.
2. There is another group that is in charge of the cultural presentations. This group organizes a presentation called "Around the World" which they present at local elementary schools in order to educate fourth and fifth graders about international culture.
3. Two of our members are working with a Citizenship Class. They meet once a week to help teach a class were local people can acquire the knowledge necessary to pass the test to get their US citizenship.
4. Last but definitely not least, several of our members have teamed up with the Languge Club of their choice. They join in on any of the community service project that the Language Club is completing.

Throughout the semester our committee is required to put on at least three events for the Ashby Hall folk. We've already done one and two more are in the works. Our first program was an international dance party. This was quite successful as people danced to foreign music late into the night. Next up, we're having an Open Mic Night. This event is going to be amazing! Be there or be square! There are going to be some amazing acts performed by members of the Madison International Communit, and the big finale to the night is going to be a Runway Show. For the past week or so, teams of Ashby kids have been working hard to create a garment for less than $15 with the theme of International Couture. On Open Mic Night these teams will present their garments in a walk off with the audience being the judges. This program is going to be quite an event! The third event is still in the planning stages, but be prepared because the L&C committee is set to throw yet another amazing program.

Well that's the news for now. Keep checking back for committee updates.