The Museum tour in English

Exciting visit to the Local Museum was the highlight of the "History in your life" discussion.
The Museum tour was made in English.

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English lesson for students

The students of National Metallurgical academy with their English teacher Alexandra Myrgorodska visited WOA Center Dnepropetrovsk to improve their English. They were lucky that day, because the American Josef visited the center as well. He joined the lesson and helped the participants to understand the topic better. The students were happy to discuss some topics with Josef in English.

 Number of participants – 7.

English Speaking club - South of the USA

Our guest was Peace Corps Volunteer American Andrew Shell, who works as an English teacher in Pavlograd, but visits our center on a regular basis. He prepared an illustrated story about the South of the USA including his own State Georgia. The club-members found out many interesting facts about the State’s geographical position , nature peculiarities , historical events connected with slavery elimination, wonderful mountains Appalachians and the river Mississippi.

Andrew Shell told about his University, about his favorite corners of Atlanta, architectural masterpieces, which create the modern history of the state, about the game of millions – baseball, about the favorite dishes of the citizens of the South USA and the East Coast.

The club-members asked a lot of questions, which Andrew answered easily. That was an exciting virtual trip! We got new knowledge and fell in love with Georgia.

The second part of the meeting was a free topic discussion.

Our guest from Egypt Solo told  us about the revolutionary events which were happening in his country. The members of WOA shared  their opinions. Every member showed  tolerance to  the events discussed.

 Number of participants - 26. (specialists - 15, students - 8, pensioners – 1, pupils - 1, Librarian -1).
Watch this nice vodeo! 

Foreign languages Week in Dnipropetrovsk school # 22

February 9-10th –The  Head of Dnipropetrovsk information and resource center "Window on America" Svetlana Usenko accepted the invitation of the English teacher Valentina Shvydka and took part in the Foreign Languages Week, held at school number 22  with in-depth study of English.
During the meeting about 200 students (2-10 grades) and their teachers learned about the funds and resources of the Oblast  Scientific Library named after the  Slavic alphabet founders Cyril and Methodius.

All the participants of the event were  in  detail  acquainted with the "Window on America" Center . The Center  will be useful to all English language learners.

The following information slide-show were offered to the attention of the students:
“The history and present of  the “Window on America” information center”;

“ USA  state symbols “;

“Bill Gates and his philanthropy”;

“ Walt Disney characters”;

“The Life and Books  of American writer Jack London”;

“Thanksgiving Day Celebration”;

“Saint Valentine's Day Celebration”;

Animated  cartoons were demonstrated to younger students.

All the presentations were  enjoyed by the students.

Number of participants – 208. (Teachers of English - 9, pupils - 198, librarian -1).

English Speaking club - Black History Month

On February 5 at the Dnipropetrovsk information and resource center Window on America there was the meeting of people who would like to improve their knowledge of English and learn more about the United States of America. 

A volunteer of the Center Nataly Karmaz a student of National Metallurgical Academy has prepared the material for this meeting. She has drawn attention of members to the book exhibition Black History Month and acquainted them with interesting information about the Civil rights era for Afro-American population. 

The members of English speaking club have learned more about the leaders of this movement Martin Luther King and Dr. Carter G. Woodson. At first, we have discussed the history and reasons of foundation the tradition of celebrating Black History Month. During our meeting, we have answered such questions as the problem of discrimination of Afro-Americans nowadays and the issue of racial harmony. Owing to our guest from California Joseph Battilega, we had a possibility to compare the racial situation in the USA and Ukraine

Contemporary American culture honors not only historical figures. American calendar has many unusual holidays. In the second part of the meeting, we have discussed the tradition of Groundhog Day and Random Acts of Kindness Day.  We used Internet resources of our Center and reviewed some interesting videos about these holidays from YouTube.

The Speaker of this meeting Nataly Karmaz was successfully monitoring the discussion, she had prepared the questions that made people thinking about their actions. We were talking about the kind actions and charity in Ukraine. By the end of our meeting, we had made a conclusion that we should make good actions to each other not only 1 day annually but also every day of our life.

The third part of our 3-hour meeting - was free communication.

Number of participants - 25. (Teachers of English - 1, specialists - 14 students - 5, pensioners – 2, pupils - 2, Librarian -1).

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"Franklin D. Roosevelt" and "New Jersey State"

The first part of the crowded meeting was dedicated to American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his political activity and personal life. His birthday America celebrates on the 30th of January.

The club-members were offered to watch a slide-show “FDR” and Peace Corp volunteer Avital Muth read the information allowing the members to enjoy her pronunciation.

It was useful and interesting to learn that:

•        A 1999 survey of academic historians by CSPAN found that historians consider Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Roosevelt the three greatest presidents by a wide margin, and other surveys are consistent.

•        Roosevelt is the sixth most admired person in the 20th century, according to Gallup.

At the second part of meeting Peace Corp volunteer Avital Muth narrated about her native state New Jersey and showed a slide show as well. It was an interesting story about the sights, economy, national Emblem, famous people of New Jersey. Avital was asked a lot of questions by the club-members. Also we watched a video “State Dance of New Jersey – Square Dance”

It was useful and interesting to learn that:

•        The properties in the United States version of the board game Monopoly are named after the streets of Atlantic City

•        The first organized baseball game was played in Hoboken, NJ in 1846.

•        2nd in blueberry production

•        New Jersey has the most dense system of highways and railroads in the U.S.

•        New Jersey has the most diners in the world and is sometimes referred to as the diner capital of the world.

•        North Jersey has the most shopping malls in one area in the world with seven major shopping malls in a 25 sq. mile radius

After a short break everybody discussed the topic of holding Euro-cap 2012 in Ukraine. The opinions were different. Ones thought that it would be a wonderful chance for Ukraine to improve its economy, build new roads, hotels, but the others supposed that it was not good, because the host-country usually spends much more money on holding an event than earns. Anyway the discussion was vivid and everybody enjoyed.

The Center was visited by 3 foreign quests from Brazil. All of them are members of AIESEC – the biggest International non-govermental organization in the world, that provides young people with opportunities to develop leadership, professional and personal traits for positive influence on the society.

The number of visitors - 35

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Not all together...30 and Yana, Boris, Anatoliy, Olesyio, Tamara were unlucky to miss the picture :-)

English Speaking club - the Peace Corp

Dnipropetrovsk WOA session of the English Speaking Club was dedicated to the Peace Corp.

Our guests were Americans,  Peace Corps volunteers: the English language teachers Aaron, Avital and Andrew. They got introduced to the Ukrainian club members. They explained the aim of their visit to Dnipropetrovsk, the work directions of Peace Corps’ members, told about their pupils and activities in Ukraine. Each of them promised to prepare a presentation about the USA to the ESC members.

The number of the visitors – 41 (English teachers – 6, specialists – 20, students – 10, pensioner – 2, pupils – 2, librarians – 1)
There were no vacant seats!!!
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Picture slide show here

English Speaking club - Wikipedia turned 10!

Dnipropetrovsk WOA session of the ESC was dedicated to the 10^th anniversary of the internet resource Wikipedia.

We listened to the message from Wikipedia founder - Jimmy Wales. It was interesting to find out about the impressive statistics on the Wikipedia users around the world. J.Wales urges all users to  write articles and correct mistakes if there are any in the encyclopedia, to make it more academic and profound.

The speaker of today’s meeting T.Gavryluik asked people who use Wikipedia to raise their hands. All the present club members raised their hands. Discussion about the recourse was very vivid. Some people love the possibility to work with this free encyclopedia. Others have doubts about the scientific value of it’s articles.

Then the discussion moved to the topic of the difference between information and knowledge. The ways of

collecting information were discussed, as well as the useful and harmful aspects of information.

Every session adds to our knowledge about USA!

3 club members asked  the password to use Wi-Fi facility of the Centre and use their  mobile phones for looking up new words in the on-line dictionaries.

New club members were introduced to the community and were familiarized with the book collection.

The WOA guest of honor , US citizen Mr. Joseph B., donated to the Centre a copy of the Pimsleur language course CD “English for Russian  speakers”.

The number of the visitors – 30 (English teachers – 1, specialists – 15, students – 9, pensioner – 2, pupils – 2, librarians – 1)

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Wi-Fi

Equipment Wi-Fi was bought for the Center WOA. The equipment is installed, adjusted and being used now. The visitors of the Center have more comfortable conditions at the meetings and more opportunities for access to Internet.