My Story, by Leann Ma

My name is Leann Ma. I have lived in the U.S for many years. When I first came I lived in Massachusetts in a small town with my relatives. There there were lots of trees and the houses were far apart from each other , and it was very cold in winter. Also I didn't know any neighbors , so I felt very bored and lonely. Several months later, we decided to moved to San Francisco. After that I found a job as an electronic inspector until September 11, 2001. The business slowed down , unfortunately the company had to close. So I had chance to go to school to study English.

ABOUT ME, by Mick Law

Hello everybody! Firstly, I should introduce myself to you. I am Mick and 24 years old. I am from Hong Kong. I have come to US for just three weeks. My family members include my mother and sister. I have many hobbies, Such as riding a bicycle, swimming, reading and table tennis. Sometimes, I like to make new friends, because communicating and sharing ideas with friends can help me to learn more. Also, I often prefer to explore strange and mysterious things. So I am interested on reading ghost, love stories and universal books.
I just finished my study in Hong Kong, but I think I am still a student. Actually, that word does not only mean someone who is still studying in secondary school or University, but it also means that someone thinks his knowledge is not enough and tries a way for improving his or her knowledge and learning more. For this reason, I think everyone is also student, because the thing of learning is infinite.
I love San Francisco where can provide me with a perfect learning environment. Thus, I can have more leisure time to seriously think about my future goals. I hope to be a knowledgeable person. In fact, I am not too ambitious; I just want to be someone who is needed by others.

Thanksgiving with My Family - by Yee Jing Soohoo

Thanksgiving is a traditional American holiday. Many people invite relatives and friends to celebrate. They make roast beef and roast turkey for dinner. Also, they make salad, pumpkin curry soup, and vegetables. They bake cake and pumpkin pie. The whole family enjoys Thanksgiving dinner together. After dinner, everybody sits together to talk story and play games. Chinese people who came to America follow traditional American holidays. Some poeple invite realtives and friends to a restaurant to celebrate. My family will go to my sister's house for Thanksgiving dinner. My nephew will invite his friend. He will bake an almond pie. It's my favorite and sister's favorite too. I will make Chinese sticky rice. I hope everybody will have a happy Thanksgiving holiday.

It's Nice to Meet You!

L-R: Marie (Haiti), Natasha (Belarussia), Vickie (DR),
Jessica (El Salvador), Gladys (DR), Silvia (Nicaragua)
L-R: DieuHein (Vietnam), Lilibeth (DR), Emely (DR), Arleny (DR), Luz Denisse (DR)
L-R: Antholyn (DR), Luz Denisse (again!), Aristides (Brazil), Walkira (DR), Wellington (Brazil)
Jose (DR)

Hello from Doris

Hi! My name is Doris. I came to the United States in 1986. I am from El Salvador. I've lived here in San Francisco for 22 years. I live with my family. I'm married and have two children, a daughter and a son. About my job - I work very hard. I am self-employed. I have a small business in San Francisco at Fisherman's Wharf. I study English at City College of San Francisco on Filbert Street. I like my teacher and my English class.

Hello from YueHua Mei
My name is YueHua. My native country is China. I've lived in San Francisco for 15 years. San Francisco is a beautiful city with fresh air and good views. There is a big Chinatown here with much Chinese culture, for example: many Chinese grocery stores, many Chinese restaurants and most people speak Chinese. It's very convenient for me because Chinese is my first language. My husband and I live in Chinatown. Our children and grandchild llive in San Pablo. We visit them on our days off. We have a warm and loving family. I have been working at OnLok Senior Health Center since1993. I take care of seniors. I love them and my job very much. I work full-time, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Beofre or after work, I go to school to study English and computer. I like to study English because it is very important for me. I have to speak and write English at work. Sometimes, I speak English at home with my children and grandchild. I learn a lot of English from them.

Hello from Jin

My name is Xian Jin Zeng. You can call me Jin. I was born in Canton, China. I immigrated to the US in 1992. I've lived in San Francisco for 15 years. San Francisco is a beautiful city. It has fresh air and good views, and good transportation. It is very convenient for world-wide traveling. The population is diverse and there are a variety of excellent restaurants. There is a big Chinatown where many people speak Chinese and there are many Chinese grocery stores. This is good for me because Chinese is my first language.

I have been working at On Lok Senior Health Center since 1994. I take care of seniors. I love them and my job very much. I've been taking ESL classes at CCSF for 10 years. I think studying English is very important for my life and work. So before work, I got to school to study English and computer from Monday to Saturday.

Hello from Yee Jing Soohoo
My name is Yee Jing Soohoo. I was born in China. I lived in a village. I was a child at that time. Life was very difficult. It was during World War II. Many people didn't have food. Many people were hungry and starved to death. Chinldren couldn't go to school and businesses were also closed. When I wasa child, I liked to help my mother cook. I liked to knit and make flower garlands. I liked to work and Iliked to watch TV.
In 1955, I went to Hong Kong. I met my husband there in 1959. Two months later, we got married in Hong Kong. In 1960, my husband brought me to the US. When I came to the US, I was a housewife. In 1976, I was self-employed. My husband and I owned a Chinese restaurant on Polk and Union St. We hired two kitchen hlepers and two waiters. We were open for business for twenty years. I have two children: one daughter, one son and one grandson. They are well-educateda and have a good life. I'm retired. I get a retirement pay-check every month. I have a happy life now.

Hello from Sara

My name is Sara Yum. I come from Hong Kong. I'm sixty-three years old. I've been in the US for nine years. My two daughters are both married. The younger one lives in England. I went there three times. It's a good place to live. Also, I go to Seattle to visit my sister's family once a year. There are a lot of trees there that make it look like an emerald in North America. I have to take care of my older daughter's family. I think this is my job. Some of my hobbies are exercising and shopping. I like San Francisco, because the transportation is very convenient and the weather is gorgeous. I take an English class on the weekdays. My teacher

Marcia has a lot of experience teaching us, and I enjoy being in her class.

Hello from YuSui!
My name is YuSui. I was born in China. I have lived in the US for 19 years. I have a happy family. My husbandand I were middle school classmates. When we had a job, we fell in love. 10 years later, we got married. Two years later we had a son. I worked at an elementary school until I immigrated to the US. In the beginning, my life in the US wasn't easy. I didn't speak the language. I had to work in a clothing factory. When the factory where I worked closed down, I was very happy, becuase I got this opportunity to study English. Now, I really enjoy my English class.

Some Things We Would Like to Know . . . .

The following questions are posted for all the students at CCSF and NSCC. We hope many of you respond and share ideas across the country!
Students in Intermediate 1 Grammar class, NSCC


What do you do on Thanksgiving? What do you eat? How do you celebrate on this day? Is your whole family together?

What are the most important tourist attractions in your city?

Greetings from Level 6 students at CCSF, Chinatown Campus. Here we are in the computer lab.
We only go there on Fridays for a short time, so we haven't learned enough skills to reply to your class. But we are working on it! You'll hear from us soon. We are practicing English on the computer using "Side by Side" and Focus on Grammar software.
(l-r)Doris, Yu-sui, Jennifer, Leanne, Yue-hua, Sara L., Yee- Jing, Sara Y., Bing, Jin

Happy Halloween!!

BOO!

Greetings From Red Sox Nation!

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox and Red Sox fans everywhere on winning the World Series! The fans in Boston are excited to welcome their team back home to thank them and to celebrate!

Hi From Level 6 Students in San Francisco

Hi from Jia Li!
My Story: I grew up in Taishan China. Taishan is a beautiful ssamll town. I have many friends still living there. In 2000, I immigrated from China and arrived in Chico, California. Everything was different. I didn't like Chico, because everything was not convenient. It doesn't have any public tranportation and another problem, when I got sick, I had to wait a long time for an appointment. After two months, I moved to San Francisco. I loe it here - the weather is wonderful and everything is convenient. When I get sick, any time I can go to Chinatown to see a Chinese doctor. I have been living in San Francisco 7 years. I work six days a week at a restaurant as a food server. My boss is a cheapskate, but I'm very happy everyday.

Hi from Marcia

Hi Everyone,
We are very happy to join you in the ESL Blog. We hope we'll get to know each other and become good friends!
About me: I was born and grew up in Sacramento, California. My grandparents came from China, so I'm a 3rd generation Chinese-American. I have 2 sisters and a brother. I got my bachelor's degree at the University of California, Davis, then got my master's degree in Vermont, where I met Kathie. Oh! that was a long time ago! But we're still friends, even though we live far apart and don't see each other often. We're part of the electronic global village - we can communicate instantly through emails and online journals - blogs, like this one.
I've been teaching at City College of San Francisco since 1985 at the Chinatown Northbeach Campus. My students come mostly from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam, but we also have students from Mexico, El Salvador, Italy, Russia, Japan and other countries. THere are 6000 students on our campus and about 20,000 students at City College.

Hello from Kathie!

I am excited about this project and hope you all enjoy participating this blog! I am looking forward to reading the blog postings by all of us in Lynn, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California. Soon you will meet the students in my class which is named Intermediate ESL Grammar 1. The students in this class come from 7 different countries, and they will introduce themselves to you.

On the left side of this blog, under About Us, you can read a little bit about about the two teachers, Kathie and Marcia.

I was born in Lynn, MA. I have four brothers, but no sisters. I went to college in Washington, DC for my bachelor's degree and Vermont for my master's degree (which is where Marcia and I met each other). Each time, I returned home to Lynn, so you can see I really enjoy living in this area. Lynn, MA has a very diverse population and is located on the Atlantic Ocean. In the 1900's, Lynn was the largest maufacturer of women's shoes in the world! Our college is surrounded by many old shoe factories which are now big apartment buildings. NSCC is in the downtown section of the city. Lynn is about 10 miles north of Boston, the capital of MA.

I have been teaching at North Shore Community College (NSCC) since 1989. There are about 350 students in the ESL Program here. We have classes in the day and the evening. Most of the ESL students, about two-thirds, attend class in the evening. Our class meets in the morning.