The Golden state of California.

Today’s session at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk was dedicated to the Golden state of California.

The floor was given to the California natives – PCVs Sam and Kathryn. They brought a support team of other Californians (Kim, Matt and Joseph) – we had 5 of them all together.

The girls prepared very interesting slide presentations about their respective parts of the state. They have surveyed the club members in advance and incorporated the most wanted info about California into their lectures.

The presentations included the facts and figures about California, its history, cultural diversity, climate, geography, nature, tourist attractions, gastronomic traditions, sports, life styles, etc. Each of the Californians present added his own details and explanations to help the presenters to convey to the audience the essence of being a Californian.

The audience on the other hand listened carefully to the information and asked a lot of questions. The inquiries ranged from the difference in North and South California accents to the real estate prices in most prestigious parts of California. Particularly interesting question was about the dangers of living in California.

Among them are earthquakes, fires and   poor security in some neighborhoods.

The session was a great success and the discussions lasted long after the official part was over!

The number of participants – 33 persons.

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Tootsie

The romance сomedy "Tootsie" (1982) was presented to all who wish to improve their language skills.

An unemployed actor with a reputation for being difficult disguises himself as a woman to get a role in a soap opera.

Director: Sydney Pollack

Writers: Don McGuire (story), Larry Gelbart (story), and 5 more credits

Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange and Teri Garr
The Games that are gifts of the U.S. Embassy were presented to center visitors. 
Joseph Battilega explained  idioms from the film.

Walt Disney - American legend

Today’s session at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk was dedicated to the anniversary of Walt Disney, whose birthday was on December, 5.

W. Disney is the visionary, whose desire for escape honed an innate sense of what people wanted to see on the screen and, when combined with iron determination and obsessive perfectionism, led him to the reinvention of animation.

It was Disney, first with Mickey Mouse and then with his feature films, who transformed animation from a novelty based on movement to an art form that presented an illusion of life.

A retrospective of his most famous feature films -Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi was offered.

From the video interview by a British newspaper we have learned a lot of educational info about the film “Fatasia” and its role in the history of animation.

 We have listened to the interview with W. Disney’s biographer on the American news channel.

The on-line quiz about Mickey Mouse and its names in different languages was quite funny, but our score was not high.

The discussion continued and the club members shared their attitudes towards the characters and animations works by W. Disney. The most interesting was the story by a Ukrainian club member Victoria who was lucky to visit Disney Land amusement park in Paris. 

The US guests Sam, Kathrynne and Patrick told about their impressions of this world known tourist attractions in different American states.

As a final activity the Ukrainian club members told the American guests about the classical Ukrainian cartoons and popular characters – Cossacks who played football and the dog Pes who befriended a wolf.

The number of participants – 22 persons.

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Adaptation

The film "Adaptation" (2002) was presented to all who wish to improve their language skills.
A lovelorn screenwriter turns to his less talented twin brother for help when his efforts to adapt a non-fiction book go nowhere.
 
Director:
Spike Jonze
Writers:
Susan Orlean (book), Charlie Kaufman (screenplay), and 1 more credit »
Stars:
Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper 

U.S. Promotion of Diversity - CO.NXC program

15.30-16.30
Information and Resource Center Window on America hosted web chat in English (CO.NXC program, Kyiv-Dnipropetrovsk) with a representative of the U.S. State Department EUR/UMB/PPD Desk Officer Joslin Mack-Wilson.
She shared with National Mine University teachers of English, students, workers of the library her views on issues of cultural diversity and tolerance. Participants actively asked questions and received competent answers.
The number of participants – 15 persons.


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Chemistry: Matter and its Changes

Alexandra Myrgorodskaya, High School teacher:

Last month book display of new arrivals helped me to find information for teaching materials. Chemistry: Matter and itsChanges with its photos and electronic illustrations will certainly help the students to learn the fundamentals of Chemistry easily and in an interesting way. It is obvious that the authors put a lot of work to write their explanations comprehensively.  I think, studying an academic subject with books written in English is useful for both English skills and the Sciences.

Brady, James E., 1938 -
    Chemistry: the study of matter and its changes / James E. Drady, Joel W. Russell, Jonh R. Holum. - 3rd ed. - Hooboken, NJ. - 2000. - 1085 p. + appendix.

Golden State - California

Looking forward to the presentation about California by Peace Corp volunteer Sam Sachs we prepared a book display 'Golden State - California' about the history, geography and major attractions of the Golden State.

International Mountain Day

Today’s session at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk was dedicated to the International Mountain Day.

To start the ball rolling the club members were asked to describe what they see on the International Mountain Day logo. Each person added own observation and we compared them to the official designer’s description. The perceptions of the viewers and the logo’s author proved to be somewhat different, but the club members learned that the description of an image can be executed on a much higher language proficiency level.

This year’s International Mountain Day theme will focus on Mountains and Forests.

It aims to raise awareness about the relevance of mountain forests and the role they play within a Green Economy as well as in climate change adaptation measures.

Healthy mountain forests are crucial to the ecological health of the world. They protect watersheds that supply freshwater to more than half the world’s people.

They also are the home of untold wildlife, provide food and fodder for mountain people and are important sources of timber and non-wood products.

Yet in many parts of the world mountain forests are under threat as never before and deforestation in tropical mountain forests continues at an astounding rate. Protecting these forests and making sure they are carefully managed is an important step towards sustainable mountain development.

The map of the North American mountains helped us to refresh in the memory the names of the US mountainous regions.

The video about the Rocky Mountains National Park impressed all the viewers.

http://www.nature.nps.gov/

We also watched several videos about the most famous US ski resorts on both coast - in Colorado and Vermont).

The information about the dangers to the mountains forests and was quite educational (mountain pine beetle, air and water pollution etc.).

 Rainforest phenomenon was well known to the audience; however, the video about temperate rainforests of Northern America mountains was a discovery to all.

The new terms learned from one of the articles allowed the Club members to describe the breathtaking photos of the mountains.

To round up the discussion we talked about mountains of different countries. Roland C. told about his favorite mountains in France.

Mohammed informed us about mountain regions of Algeria. Eugene P. told our foreign friends about the most fashionable ski resort in Ukraine – Bukovel’.

After the official part the club member Yana L.  gave us a long due  tutorial about buying staff on electronic auction site E-Bay. The clubmembers discussed their experience of using this site.

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Thanksgiving Day at the school # 22

The head of Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk Svitlana Usenko visited the secondary school # 22.
The recently donated by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine to the WOA centre electronic gadgets were introduced to the kids – iPad, Kindle. 

The useful resources   available at the WOA and presented to the school teachers and kids included the Rosetta Stone Language study program and E-Library (EBSCO etc.).The meeting also was dedicated to the Thanksgiving Day in the USA.
The slide show reminded to the kids the basic historic facts about this holiday. The Americans are celebrated with lots of craft activities. The creation of the Turkey – each pupil wrote on a feather shaped piece of paper for what he/she is grateful. The numerous feathers gave the Turkey a nice tail.
The meeting made the kids fascinated and attentive. It seems that everybody enjoyed to learn more about America, how people live and celebrate one of the biggest holidays.

The number of participants – 85 persons.

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