Cold Mountain

“Wednesday Movie Club” at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine.
Mr. Joseph Battilega continues his project of introducing American idioms and difficult expressions to the Movie Cub members for the better comprehension of the film content.

The film "Cold Mountain" (2003) was presented to all who wish to improve their language skills.
«If hate sends men to war, then it must be love that brings them home».
Plot: In the waning days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart.
Director: Anthony Minghella
Writers: Charles Frazier (book), Anthony Minghella (screenplay)
Stars: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger
Number of participants 16 persons.

Students tour

The students of National Mining University visited Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine).
Svitlana Usenko, the head of Window on America center, presented the resources of the Center (Books, Internet, Wi-Fi, Movie Club, English Speaking Club GABFEST, Rosetta Stone, elibraryUSA, iPad, Kindle etc.).
Students saw book display “If you want to study in the USA”.
The number of visitors – 15 persons.

Give Thanks

Today, in Dnipropetrovsk’s Window on America center, we observed the American holiday of the Thanksgiving with National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine (NMetAU).

The head of Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Svitlana Usenko, teachers of NMetAU, Aleksandra Myrgorodskaya and Tatiana Ishchenko, carried out English speaking club devoted to the Thanksgiving Day.

The meeting started with showing the slide presentation to remind the students the basic historic facts about this holiday.

The books devoted to this event were exposed on the table and drew the students’ attention: they looked swiftly through the articles and illustrations, ask about the opportunities to read. The last donations by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine - electronic gadgets iPad and Kindle - were also introduced to the new club members.

After watching the first slide, Aleksandra Myrgorodskaya initiated the talk about what the students know about the Thanksgiving. One of the students, Natalia Trifonova, shared her knowledge on this topic. The other student compared the American Thanksgiving with Ukrainian Day of Forgiving. While watching the slide show, the teacher asked the students’ opinion of the represented material, asked questions about some facts, encouraged to comment on the presented slides, clarified difficult points.  Some students were astonished at the facts of existing Mayflower Society, of the out-of-state status of the District of Columbia, of the quaint names of American dishes, and of the Thanksgiving parade in New York.

Then the teachers remind the students that almost every American textbook for English language learners contains lessons and stories depicting the events of the Pilgrim voyage and their life in the New World. The club members watched a cartoon “Charley Brown” devoted to this topic. After the cartoon, some of the students shared their opinions with each other. One of the ideas uttered was to have a tasty roasted turkey at home and to have a treat of the turkey in the Window of America next year. The students also thanked the librarian and the teachers for the meeting and expressed their desire to continue observance of the other American holidays.

 

Then, the students made the turkey with the inscription “Give Thanks” from color paper. On the turkey feathers they wrote everything for what they are thankful to the God and fortune. They accepted this activity in a very serious way and it was notable, that they are carefully choosing the words, and thinking or recollecting before starting to write. Two girls said that they are teaching English to young students and this activity is interesting to be practiced with them. The students were also given the cards to congratulate their people at home with the Thanksgiving Day.

 
The number of participants – 17 people (a librarian, 2 teachers,14 students).
Have a look at more pictures, please 

To kill a mocking bird

Today the Gabfest speaking club had walk-in guests from the Netherlands. Ladies Sabine and Jannie came to our city on a noble mission – to visit the field where Sabine’s family member is buried. He was German and was killed in action during the World War II.

The guests of the city stayed in the lovely Astoria hotel. The club members told them a lot of funny facts about the history of the hotel.

It was the head quarters of the Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno during the Civil War in 1919.The classical Russian novelist   Alexey Tolstoy described it in his novel  “The Ordeal”.

The club members recommended them the places of interest – from the historical and Blavatskaya museums to the nuclear missiles and space rockets display in the local machine building factory.

The ladies told us a few things about Holland and joined the movie club for the screening of “To kill a mocking bird”.

International Students’ Day

Today’s session at the GABFEST speaking club club (at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) was blessed :-) with the visit of our American friends – Mrs. Erica, Mr. Joseph , Mr. Keith and Master  Jacob.
Mrs. Erica triggered a vivid conversation with the club members by asking them funny and paradoxical questions. This allowed her to learn more about her new Ukrainian friends. But she was often perplexed by the pronunciation of the Ukrainian first names and their short forms. For example, Dmitriy is Dima for short, or Artiom is Tioma for short.
The official topic of the session was International Students’ Day.  We have read and translated an article about the history of this day. The story was illustrated by a video about actions of the US Student association. Our American guests explained to us important things about the phenomenon of a student loan.
The International Education Week organized by the US department of state and US department of education was introduced to the club members. The world known programs for academic and professional exchange were introduced to the audience - the Fulbright Program, IREX, the Humphrey fellowship.
A book display «If you want to study in the USA» of the Window On America center was presented as an illustration to the educational opportunities in the USA.
The Ukrainian full-time students and lecturers shared their impressions about the modern Ukrainian education system. The older club members were asked about the good and bad things in the Soviet education system. Our American friends were surprised with the stories about the soviet practices of sending students to the collective farms in autumn to help the farmers with harvesting vegetables and fruits. The Club members explained to our American guests other phenomena of the Soviet education – pioneer and Komsomol organizations, summer pioneer camps, obligatory workplaces for graduates, St.Tatiana’s Day, etc. The story that impressed the Americans most was about the protocol of an oral exam with question cards (“tickets” in Russian).
The conversation was very emotional and enriched the knowledge of all participants.
The session was fun and very informative. Many club members inquired about the opportunities to study in the USA.
The number of participants – 32.
Have a look at more pictures, please 

If you want to study in the USA

Book display «If you want to study in the USA».
The International Education Week organized by the US department of state and US department of education was introduced to the club members. The world known programs for academic and professional exchange were introduced to the audience - the Fulbright Program, IREX, the Humphrey fellowship.
A book display of the Window On America center was presented as an illustration to the educational opportunities in the USA.

Pulp Fiction

“Wednesday Movie Club” - Crime | Thriller

Mr. Joseph Battilega continues his project of introducing American idioms and difficult expressions to the Movie Cub members for the better comprehension of the film content.

The film “Pulp Fiction” (1994) was presented to all who wish to improve their language skills.

 Plot: The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

 Director: Quentin Tarantino

Writers: Quentin Tarantino (story), Roger Avary (story)

Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson

National Gaming Day at the library

Today’s session at the GABFEST speaking club (at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) was dedicated to the National Gaming Day at the library.
To start with we have read and translated an article about the classification of the Tabletop Games. The article was quite difficult and contained some difficult terms, but it was a good challenge for our minds.
The terms were illustrated by the photos of the numerous games from the classification table.
We have discovered that some games have different names in British and American English - like the game of droughts is called “checkers” in America. A pleasant surprise was that some paper & pencil games are popular both in Ukraine and in the USA – like “Battleships” and “The consequences”. 

After the theory of gaming we started to practice. The easy option for a start was “The consequences”. We formed 5 teams and completed all steps of the game scenario. The funniest story was greeted with a round of applause.
Our American volunteer Mr. Joseph was asked to clarify to us the rules of some games that have been donated to the WOA centre.  Mr. Joseph was giving instruction to each game and some of them acted as a judge. We tried the following games:
 “Apples to Apples”, 
 “The scrambled States of America”
 “Bananagrams” – an easy version of scrabble. 
Things that seemed complicated turned out to be easy and enjoyable. All the participants got excited with their successful play and thoroughly enjoyed the session.
We’ll be thinking of a possibility to make more playing sessions at the WOA center.
The number of visitors – 28 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please 

Logistics in the Hospitality Industry in the USA

The Window on America center in Dnipropetrovsk / Ukraine continues to implement the library project “Cross Cultural Encounters for Ukrainian University students”.
The aim of the project is to introduce the WOA and its resources to the students majoring in
“Hospitality Management”.
This month the fourth year students of the Kyiv University for Arts and Culture (Dnipropetrovsk branch) have been invited to the WOA center.
Svitlana Usenko, the head of Window on America center, presented the resources of the Center (Books, Movie Club, English speaking club Gabfest, Rosetta Stone software, e-gadgets – Kindle and iPad, etc.)
The group of students with major in “Hospitality Management” listened to the lecture “Logistics in the Hospitality Industry in the USA”. The lecture was delivered by the center’s staff member T. Gavryluk.  The information was illustrated by numerous videos about supply chain management at the world known American restaurant brand – McDonald’s. We started with the logistics of the McDonald’s operations in Ukraine. After that McDonald’s participation in the Beijing Olympics in 2008 was showcased. The supply chain organization and management for this remote destination impressed the students.
The examples from the hotel industry logistics were also presented. The sustainability and challenges of logistics management were touched upon and illustrated with relevant YouTube videos.
The lecture at the WOA was a valuable addition to the theoretical course in Logistics.
Number of the visitors – 17.
Have a look at more pictures, please 

Capra at his greatest!

“Wednesday Movie Club”.
Mr. Joseph Battilega continues his project of introducing American idioms and difficult expressions to the Movie Cub members for the better comprehension of the film content.

At the Window on America center in Dnipropetrovsk the film/drama “Mr. Smith goes to Washington” (1939) was presented to all who wish to improve their language skills.
 
Plot: A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down.

Director: Frank Capra
Writers: Sidney Buchman (screenplay), Lewis R. Foster (story)
Stars: James Stewart, Jean Arthur and Claude Rains

Voting

Today the session of the GABFEST speaking club (at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) started with a surprise - we had 4 American friends visiting us, some of them after a long absence. All the club members and the newcomers were happy to meet them.

The session was divided into two separate parts.

In the first part we discussed the hurricane that hit the East coast of the USA last week. We watched the CNN report on the storm and shared our impressions after watching   international news about this natural disaster. The American guests shared their experiences of the hurricanes or storms in the USA. We have watched two educational videos explaining the nature of hurricanes and floods. The new terms and organizational ideas remembered from the videos were very useful. The club members were given a task to tell about the natural disasters that may hit Dnipropetrovsk. Our American guests were informed about the locations in the city which may be very dangerous in case of the floods or landslides.

The second part of the session was dedicated to the topic of “Voting”. We answered a number of questions about the phenomenon of voting and discussed the famous quote of Joseph Stalin: "The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do."

The club members told several funny stories about the current parliamentary elections to Mr. Joseph and described to him the process of voting in Ukraine.

At the end of the session the new - comers talked to Mr. Joseph and asked him numerous questions about his Ukrainian experiences.

The session was fun and enjoyed by all the participants.

Participants – 32 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please