English Cultural Activities

After the temple visit we went to have lunch but there were so many people so got separated. So we had lunch in smaller groups, but ran into each other many times during the afternoon.

We ate Korean food in Chinatown. It was oishi!
Hatara, Intermediate, Japan

It was such a happy day for me and for all my friends.
Pueng, Intermediate, Thailand

GONG XI FA CAI

Singapore history, film, food, fashion and lifestyle.

Thirty five or our students from different levels - Intermediate, Pre-Intermediate, Elementery and Starter – went to the National Museum of Singapore in the afternoon.

We left Ascend 3.40pm. In great spirit and to our surprise and joy we found out that students with student passes could get in for free - great start.

We were all given a ‘companion’ – a listening device - which would tell about the great variety exhibits, in different languages.

The students enjoy the visit. They enjoyed learning, discovering, recognizing some of the exhibits. They enjoy being out of the class room, talking to each other across the levels and just having fun together.

We finished the visit at about 6pm and some of us went for dinner together.
Here are some photos and thoughts from Students

Christine, Robin, Annie

The film Evening,  Thursday 6th December, 5.15pm, 5th floor

A good start on our monthly film evenings TAKE FIVE.

We screened the funny, Brithsh Christmas  film "Love Actually"

Some students were kind enough to help me load the DVD, find the subtitles, the volume, etc. Thanks to them.

A paper with a list of characters (there are confusingly many) and a short vocabulary list were given to interested students the day before.

24 students turned up and they seemed to enjoy the  film and  being together across  class levels and countries.

Afterwards some of us discussed the film over dinner and drinks. All in all, a really enjoyable evening!!!

Annie

Every country has it's own festivals. Deepavali is one of the biggest festivals in India. During this festival the streets are filled with traditional decorations, flowers and lights and you can hear traditional folk-songs.

Henna Art

Henna art is very impressive and traditional The price of a henna cone is $5 per piece. The beautiful henna art work is also $5. The henna artist drew fascinating pictures by free-hand. March. Upper Intermediate.

Double, double toil and trouble – Halloween at Ascend 31st October 2012 Demons and devils, ghosts and goblins,

monsters and mummies,

Pandas and pirates,

witches and wizzards and zombies

and a few angles and fairies

and a few angles and fairies

they were all there at the Halloween party on the 5 floor.

Great party, great costumes, great games and great food.

Halloween Shopping Tour

The Pre -Intermediate, Intermediate and the Starter classes went on a Halloween shopping tour on Tuesday, 30th October. The group of 15 students and 2 teachers (vini & Zee) set off after lunch to shop for Halloween costumes and masks to wear for the party scheduled on 31st October.

The students were really excited to see the variety of Halloween merchandise available in the shops. They really had a difficult time deciding what to buy!!
There was a lot of interesting talk about Halloween and how it’s celebrated in various places. Students tried on different masks and other accessories.

On the whole, it was a very enjoyable and productive trip. The students went home excited about the Halloween Party the next day. We had talked about ‘Halloween and its history in the earlier conversation classes and now the students were able to relate to the symbols and accessories they saw in the shops.

On Friday 21st August the Pre-Intermediate & Intermediate 1 conversation classes, and one student from Advanced Conversation class went to Chinatown in search of Hungry Ghosts. We had talked about the festival during previous conversation classes and now we went out to see for ourselves.

First we walked around in the streets of Chinatown and these are some of the things we saw. We saw this frog made of coins in Chinatown.

There was lots of food for the hungry ghosts. Two streets with setting for 200 hungry ghosts and one hungry students – me. Marco,  Int. 1.
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We saw this frog made of coins in Chinatown.
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The dragon is a symbol from Chinese culture and for Chinese people it is really important because we have animals to represent each year. And this happens to be the year of the dragon. It means good luck and prosperity. The hungry ghost festivzal is very important for the Chinese as they pray and send money, food and whatever they want to their ancestors. Pati, Int 1
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Before we went into the tempel Lisa from Pre-Int was praying for her family to be sound and safe. Lisa is from Vietnam and they also celebrate Hungry Ghost Festival there. Erica, Adv.
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The monks were chantin loudly for the hungry ghosts. Veronika, Pre-Int.
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The candles in the glass cups were labled with names of dead people. They are put on the tables but before people light them they them they are saying aprayer to Buddha. Lisa, Pre Int.
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Many people were praying to Buddha in the Chinatown Tempel, Teja Pre-Int.

All in all, it was a very interesting and exciting experience and Lisa and Erica,  who are both Buddhists, told us a lot about what was going on.
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Captions were made by the students and the photos were provided by Pati.

At lunch conversation class Intermediate 1, Pati, Raquel and Li Jingjing set off to experience the Hari Raya  atmosphere in Geylang Serai.

Hari Raya marks the end of Ramadan, the month when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. After 30 days of fasting  Hari Raya is a very happy, colourful and  fascinating festival. Muslim families dress in the same colour and go to the street bazaar, where you can buy  everything from traditional food and drinks, flowers, handicraft, beautiful dresses and suits cushions to Persian carpets.

Went the last day of Ramadan – the day before Hari Raya and the bazaar was full of people shopping for colorful lights, flower decorations for their homes and most importantly clothes for the Festival.

Here are some of the things we saw:

Some of the traditional dresses for the women in this moment of the year. <--

Here is some henna to make tattoos. There are many kind of henna for your hair, on the hand or others parts on your body.  Here is a lady is doing Henna tattoos at the hand of the lady.

A man cooking the meat. In the central market of this temporal market at Paya lebar.
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The traditional hats for the men in this culture. -->

Someone carrying a cart with many flowers for decorating the streets.
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There are a lot of thing one of this it's was the toys for the kids.
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Flowers: We saw many different kinds of flowers around the stands and shops, from the Hari Raya. They're in different colors some are red or  yellow, but all of them are beautiful.
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I like when people use the flowers for decorating their houses with flowers for the new year.

Prepared by  Pati, Raquel and Li Jingjing from Intermediate 1
Layout by Pati

Visit to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum

In Chinatown,
1.30 – 3.30pm, Tuesday 8th May 2012
Conversation classes: Beginner, Elementary, Pre-Intermediate 1, Intermediate 1 and Up-Intermediate 1
Teachers: Michael, Annie

After having discussed Vesak Day and Buddha’s enlightenment in the conversation classes we visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum in Chinatown. The outside of the temple was beautifully decorated with lots of cherry blossom and hundreds of lanterns in all shapes and colours.

Students in short, short skirts and bare shoulders had to put on ‘sarongs’ and shawls. The first thing we did in the entrance Hall was to find out our Chinese Zodiac sign by looking at the charts and images of the 12 zodiac signs.

Due to the recent Vesak Day there were lots of activities going on in the main temple halls on the ground floor and the second floor. Luckily we had two ‘Buddhist‘students, Ivy and Kook Kai (Int. 1) who could tell us a lot about what was going on.

We also visited the Relic Chamber on the 4th floor, the Museum on the 3rd floor and
the roof garden.

The visit sparked of some discussion the following day in conversation class about the Chinese Zodiac signs and the characteristics connected with the twelve signs.

Visit to the Titanic exhibition

at the ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay
Friday 27th April 2012, 1.30– 3.30pm
Teachers: Michael, Annie

Beginner, Elementary, Pre-Intermediate 1, Intermediate 1 and Up-Intermediate 1 went to the Titanic exhibition.

Most students enjoyed the exhibiton especially because we had worked with material about Titanic and and watched the film. The students were very eager to find out what was reality and what was fiction in the film.

Especially the bow of the ship, where Rose and Jack stood, the promenade deck with the calm water below and the stars shimmering in the dark, the 'famous' staircase, the first class cabin, and the 'real' iceberg was of great interest to the students.

Another exiting thing was the tickets, which were copies of real bording passes with peresonal information about real passengers. Each student got a boarding pass and could check their accomodation (first, second, third class) and at the end they could check if they were one of the 705 lucky ones who survived.

All in all a great, intereting outing which generated further discussion during the following class.

Visit to Titanic exhibition – ArtScience Museum Marina Bay

Friday 27th April 2012
11.00 – 1.00

Advanced/IELTS Conversation Class, Upper-Intermediate 2 Conversation Class, Pre-Intermediate 2 Conversation Class, Intermediate 2 Conversation Class

Jane and Vini took four conversation classes comprising about 40 students, including some part-time students who opted to join the ECA. The students had read about and discussed various aspects of the Titanic disaster before the ECA.  At the exhibition they completed a quiz based on information that could be gleaned from the displays. The exhibition was very interesting and the recreation of parts of the Titanic eg. The Promenade Deck and the Grand Staircase, very realistic. At the entrance to the exhibition we were given a Boarding Pass with a passenger’s name and booking details on it and the students were able to check the list of names at the end of the exhibition to see if they had survived or not. A very enjoyable and worthwhile ECA which generated a lot of material for use in class both before and after visiting the exhibition.
Jane and Vini

Visit to the National Library: Street Names of Singapore
Friday 13th April,

Up-Int. 1, Int 1, Pre-Int 1, Elementary and Beginner classes, Michael and Annie went for the exhibition 'Streets Names of Singapore.'

We were about 35-40 people as some of the part time students also joined. We were about 35-40 people as some of the part time students also joined. We got a booklet and an activity book to work with and we stayed there for about one and a half to two hours. Some Students did some work in the Activity book, while others mostly were chatting to each other in English making new friends, all having a good time although the exhibition was a little disappointing for some, as there were only a few photos of the old Singapore. Som

e of us went to have a bite, a drink and a chat at Blu Jaz afterwards.
Michael & Annie

THAIPUSAM

Visit Sri Thendayuthapani  Temple   1.30-3.30pm  February 7th 2012

Jane and Vini took Pre-Int 1 Intermediate 1., Upper-Int. 1, Elementary and Starter classes. to Sri Thendayuthapani  Temple to experience the Thaipusam Festival.

We were able to see the kavadi carriers arrive in the temple and proceed to the area were the spikes were removed.

The students subsequently made excellent presentations (using visual aids) of the trip in the form of posters and slide shows.

All in all a very enjoyable, educational outing where students from different levels were able to interact with each other and observe this unusual Hindu festival.

Jane and Vini

Farewell BBQ at Vicky's, Saturday 19th August 2011

Intermediate 2 had a great BBQ party at Vicky's place. We met at the Farrer Rd. MRT station 3pm and went shopping for food and drinks (a lot). Later we BBQed and played on the playground (for children – we are big children) and in the  swimming pool.

Yuka, Vicky, Tyler	The whole gang

It was a great evening. Vicky's Mum had prepared some very spicy marinade for the meat. It was so spicy we had to drink a lot.



Vicky's Mum, Amy  Sooo spicy and sooo good. The reason for the party was that 5 of our class-mates are leaving, so; Farewell Evgeny and Elena from Russia.

Farewell Long from Vietnam (going back to university).

Farewell Vivian from Shanghai (planning her wedding here in Singapore). Farewell Yuka from Japan (going back to continue high school). Very funny Yuka.


We will miss you a lot and Good Luck in the Future

From, Annie (teacher), Vicky (China), Jessie (Taiwan), Melissa (Malaysia), Joy (Korea),   Tyler, Jun (Japan). Vicky's Mum, Amy and Vicky's brother, Lucky.

Unfortunately a few couldn't join, Hiroko (who was sick), Amelia, Sue and Hanh (who   had birthday that day – we didn't know).

A lot of English was spoken that afternoon and evening and many promises of keeping in touch and e-mailing  each other (practice English). 

Memories of a 'crazy' class.

Every smile has a silver lining  Hens on a perch

Having fun What????

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