ESL job: Nordhausen October 6 through December 14, 2009

[Torsten]

Hi Noel,

Tomorrow please review the simple present, simple past and present continuous. You may want to do a trend describing exercise similar to the one in Business Basics, p. 60 which we are doing right now. Also, please do some additional exercises covering statistics, percentages and key figures. Also, please ask the group about their project work. We have translated part of the Nordhausen website here: Nordhausen in Thuringia and we have also started to collect and display information about Nordhausen based companies and organizations.

TOEIC listening, photographs: A loading dock

[NoelHolburn]

Hi Torsten
Thanks a lot for that - very clear - will do !

[NoelHolburn]

November 12th.

Today we covered unit 15 of the Murphy book 1 ( Past continuous and simple ) in great detail uncovering every possible stone and exploring the concepts thoroughly with plenty of further examples on the board and supplementary activation exercises. I had wanted to go on and explore units 16 - 19 as well as a starter to the present perfect, but the whole day was very profitably taken up with unit 15 plus games, looking at a recipe, and more on the Roald Dahl poem, plus a little internet time. Melanie and Sylvias project for the tourist department regarding paintballing has now been gone through and brought up to proper and standard english. We might have half an hour to begin exploring unit 16 soon.

[Torsten]

Hello everyone,

Today the question about field trip came up and since Scott Graham did an excellent job with the previous trip to Erfurt Nordhausen group: Field trip to Erfurt on August 14th I suggest that this time we are going to Leipzig.

The Leipzig trip can be titled 'Leipzig through the eyes of an Englishman' or 'The International Aspects of Leipzig' or 'Experiencing Leipzig from an English Language Perspective' or 'The Leipzig English Language Challenge Tour (LELC)' and Scott Graham can be the project manager. Marco, one the current Nordhausen group members said he will be looking into organizing a Van so the group can be driven around in Leipzig. Alternatively, they can arrive by train and Scott is picking them up from the station from where you walk through the city center. We can incorporate a number of practical tasks the group need to complete using their English language skills such as finding a particular spot following the directions Scott is giving them in English.

Also, I suggest we invite Roberto and I'll also ask Uli to pull a few strings with the Leipzig-Hallo Airport management. Maybe we can even incorporate a short tour around the airport.
Here are some more ideas and topics to cover: (with no particular order or priority, just thinking out loud)
- differences between public transport in Leipzig and London
- a brief history of the city of Leipzig
- the new Leipzig university building
- the monument of the peoples' battle and the Russian Orthodox Church
- the Leipzig City Museum
- the English speaking community in Leipzig
- the America House Leipzig
- Irish pubs in Leipzig
- international cuisine
- the churches of the city of Leipzig

Of course it would be great to get access to any of the major international companies such as Amazon, DHL, Porsche, BMW, etc.

We should have a plan in place by the end of the week.
Any suggestions?

Many thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: A worker

[Scott Graham]

A big hello to all the English-team crew,

Sounds like a great idea! I'm more than happy to do it here in Le where I personally have quite a good local knowledge already. So no need for a tour guide, I have the next 2 days off so I will put some ideas together.

One point I must mention, I can't to it between the 30th of November and the 7th of December as I am returning to 'old Blighty to 'dot the i's and cross the t's' for the up and coming London trips.

So let's keep in touch and hopefully we can better the previous trips to Erfurt.

Best wishes

Scott
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Torsten]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your swift and positive response. Would December 9 work for you then?

TOEIC listening, photographs: Packing up

[Scott Graham]

Hi Torsten,

Yes thats Hunky-dory, we should chat soon to make some plans and as last time I will set the group some exercises which I will prepare and forward to you before the 9th.

Regards
Scott
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Torsten]

Sounds great. Talk to you soon. Thanks. Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: A car carrier

[Roberto]

Hi Torsten and the whole English-team,

this sounds great indeed! This is something I'd have liked to do with other groups too. I had the chance to do something similar with one of the D-groups. I don't know if you remember when I talked you about it on the phone: We went for a short stroll around town, we visited the market square and bought some products. Some of them were enthusiastic about the idea and even dared to ask some questions to the sellers at the market stalls (in English of course). They were from India, I reckon. I gave them different tasks to accomplish too, e.g. can you explain to a passer-by (one of the class participants certainly) where the town hall is, where the next baker's shop is? etc. I also did it in Erfurt with a group of soldiers: we walked down to the city centre, looking for English words/signs on the streets. We found a lot of them.
Would it be possible to invite one of the pupils in Leipzig (Bildungszentrum). I could ask them if some of them would like to join us.

Regards

Roberto
_________________
Graduate Management Admission Test
GMAT Preparation & GMAT Vocabulary
Learn more about: Roberto Enrique Steffens Villarreal

[Roberto]

Hello again,

I'd like to ask my last question again: Would it be possible to invite some (not only one!!) of the L-class pupils (BZ)?

Thanks in advance and best regards

Roberto
_________________
Graduate Management Admission Test
GMAT Preparation & GMAT Vocabulary
Learn more about: Roberto Enrique Steffens Villarreal

[Torsten]

Hi Roberto,

Sure that's a great idea and you certainly can invite the BZ students to our English Language Challenge Tour through Leipzig. The question is where and what they are scheduled to do on December 9? Let me talk to the management of both BZ's to get their approval and support for this project. At any rate, it's fantastic to see you are enthusiastic about this idea.

Yes, I remember what you posted and told me about the D-groups and we should incorporate those elements into our upcoming programs. By the way, any response from that packaging company in Siebenlehn?

Thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: A flock of geese

[Scott Graham]

Hi all,

I want to plan the field trip for the group and their exercises, but it'd be really handy to know if they will be coming in a van or on the train.

Regards

Scott
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Torsten]

Hi Scott, we'll know whether they come by van or train on Monday. In the meantime, can you please add your questions, tasks and ideas to the online document I sent you? If we plan this project as a team we have better chances to offer it to other companies and clients too.

Many thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: Students in class

[Torsten]

Hi Scott,

We'll know on Monday whether they'll be coming by van or train. In the meantime, can you please add your questions, tasks and ideas to the Google doc I sent you two days ago? What do you think of the questions and tasks I have created so far? If we plan this project as a team we'll have better chances to market it to other companies and organizations too.

Many thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: A girl with boxes

[NoelHolburn]

Monday 23 November.

Today we reviwed the present simple and as new material looked at unit 16 book 1 of the Murphy - Present Perfect 1. We looked further at my poem, and we played a game i made up yesterday which was an extension of one of Scotts games, whereby i wrote a series of 10 clues, but the answers were anagrams and the anagrams were not in the same order as the questions ! The group unexpectedly demlished the whole game in 10 minutes ! We also covered page 78 of the business basics, discussed learning teachniques over and beyond this course. There were many activation exercises on the Murphy, both on unit 16 and reviewing the present simple. Melanie looked at the Morris extract i brought along and thought it was OK with there only being a few words she didn´t understand. We also had internet time.