Issue 10 April-May

ESOL News 2

Our College 3

Holidays

around the

6

Literature

Corner

8

Where am I

now?

9

ESOL

Activities

11

Test your

English

12

Language Cafe 14

Page 1

ESOL OASISESOL OASISESOL OASIS

Hi ESOL eager beavers!

Oasis magazine has reached issue 10, well done! First of all, thank you for the overwhelming support, for every single piece of writing that you have sent making it possible for Oasis t be issued once again. But don’t stop there, we are greedy, we want more from you all. You have something to say, because you are an undercover genius or just because you want to do so! You are the Oasis team and you are precious for us. Send us your contributions to elena.moore@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk and see your work pub-lished. Outside there are fantastic corners full of history, mouth watering gastronomy and shocking traditions. In our last edition we visited China, for this issue Oasis has travelled to Spain and Poland; do you want to know more about it? Look inside. But if what are you looking for is a new challenge, adrenaline lovers will have a last chance to submit their compositions for “Embracing Diversity Competition 2013” by Friday 3rd May. Focus please; per-haps the £400 award has your name on it. See p. 13. Finally, it looks like the spring has sprung, in the case of Glasgow at least for a day, and this change of season impacts on everyone’s en-ergy levels and self esteem. So if that sounds very similar to what you are feeling, you should read about our former ESOL student and her tale of success in our section Where Am I Now? Or perhaps give a thought to A. Einstein’s words: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a

tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” By the way, in the previous issue we published the love stories writ-ten by the winners of “Love Story Competition”. For those who did not read their stories but meant to do - do not worry, here is a tip: http://www.cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk/esol-magazine. Download everything you can read and to be up-to-date in our regular ESOL activities.

Have fun!

Cristina Prado, Higher, ESOL Oasis Student Editor

In this issue: Letter to the readers

Page 2

ESOL NEWS 12 stu-dents from Aal-borg in Jutland, Den-mark have just left Scot-land after study-

ing with the Marketing Department for three weeks. The School of Languages and ESOL also pro-vided 13 hours of English language training as part of the short course. These classes were taught by Janvier Nkirunzuza and David Cullen. The classes focussed on develop-ing skills for making presentations in English. The students developed their skills in the following

areas: organisation of ideas, linking phrases, pro-nunciation and intonation. The students also took part in quizzes about Scotland and the UK, which they found very interesting. During their stay, the Danish students went on day trips in and around Glasgow and spent time with Scottish Marketing students. If you would like to meet groups of visiting students in the future, please ask your teacher about it and email me di-rectly to express your interest. david.cullen@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk

David Cullen Head of Languages and International

Viking VisitorsViking VisitorsViking Visitors

Beyond language: challenging Beyond language: challenging Beyond language: challenging the ‘limitation’ of the classroomthe ‘limitation’ of the classroomthe ‘limitation’ of the classroom

They said ‘It was a great opportunity to show-

case internationally the great work taking place

within the ESOL department at City of Glasgow

College’.

Rosie Quin

Curriculum Leader ESOL

ESOL curriculum leaders Christine Palmer, Jenifer Martin and Rosie Quin recently travelled to Liverpool to present at the 47th annual IATEFL conference for teachers of English as a foreign language. As part of the conference, attended by over 2000 delegates from all over the world, Christine, Jenifer and Rosie delivered a talk entitled ‘Beyond Language: Chal-lenging the ‘Limitations’ of the Classroom, to a packed audience. During the talk they discussed ini-tiatives like the ESOL Language Café, Student Men-toring Scheme, Reading the Waves and The NYC email exchange and offered practical advice and guidance to delegates who might wish to replicate such projects in their own institutions. Christine, Jenifer and Rosie were mentored in the preparation for their debut presentation by renowned EFL scholar Adrian Underhill and have since been invited to present their ideas at a teaching conference in Aberdeen later this year.

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OUR

This time a special guest of the issue is Gary MacLean, the lecturer of Professional Cookery at the City of Glasgow College. The pleasure of conducting an interview with him had our correspondent Agnieszka Ramian, the ESOL Higher student. We believe it's extremely important to make connections with other departments as well as keep ourselves up to date with what the college is involved in. Our counterparts from Food, Hospitality and Tourism de-partment led the college to victory earlier this year, in March. Let's discover why we should be proud of them!

First week of March was quite a challenging and busy one for Mr. Gary MacLean and his students. Not only had they entered and performed in a few cooking competitions, but also won! Their victory is the victory of the college so there are many rea-sons to praise for, brag about and feel pride! The main one was the final of the Brakes Student Chef Team Challenge, one of the biggest student compe-titions in Britain, and Mr McLean and his team have been named the Best in Britain. ‘We'd been working on it since October and we went through Scottish heats and we were the Scottish Champions and then the National Final was on Wednesday’ - said the proud lecturer to explain the stages of the contest. So it wasn't just one successful performance, but the series of bat-tles won and continuous effort and commitment at every stage of the contest. It's the reason why stu-dents chose to represent the college. The three Professional Cookery students were picked wisely. Students' approach really mattered, because they were required to invest lots of time and only a really keen person could handle such a commit-ment, not to mention the fact that attending classes was still compulsory on top of the competi-tion.

Gary MacLean and his team

Basi-cally, there were 3 differ-ent stages: a pa-per judg-ing (October) then the best from the menus got se-lected to compete against others; Scottish Finals in January and National Finals in March involved preparation and tasting. ‘The contest was organ-ised by Brake Brothers, which is a food company. It's been running for a 25 years so it's a very very well established intercollege competition’. - said Mr MacLean to give us a handful of the event's ori-gins. Our college has taken part in it for a few con-secutive years. This is a competition we have strived to win for a number of years. We finished second a few times in the last few years, but we never ever won it. - said Mr MacLean. However, only until now as we can see, because this year our students decided to break the habit and come first defeating 84 different teams. The students were evaluated on everything from techniques and hy-giene to teamwork and communication. The dishes were then marked individually for flavour, colour, texture, technique and professionalism and

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Brakes Student Chef Team Challenge

2013

Inspired by the Orient

Crab cake and seared scallop with crispy prawns, cucumber pickle

Lime and coriander dressing and an Oriental sauce

Inspired by Nepal

Seared fillet of pork with confit pig cheeks, rakti sausage

smoked Aubergine and green lentil dal, grape chut-ney roasted vegetables

red wine sauce

Inspired by the Ivory Coast

Coconut mousse passion fruit souffle and mango sorbet

OUR

‘He enjoyed our food so we received some good feedback on the food that was put up’. - said Mr MacLean about meeting the world famous chef. Asked whether it felt difficult and if the skills of other contestants were competitive, the lecturer said: The judge at the end said it was probably the toughest final in the whole history of the competi-tion and we won by one mark alone so it was a very very tight competition. What a perfect mix-ture of hard work, talent and luck it must have been to let our team to outstand! The theme for this year competition was inspiration from the world and our college team prepared the oriental starter, Nepalese main course and the des-sert that was inspired by the Ivory Coast.

Doesn't it work its magic on you? Surely judges were impressed, especially because Nepalese cui-sine is quite unusual. ‘When it comes to the competition at this level, judges want to see something new and interesting so everything that we've done was fairly unique, from making our own black pudding to our des-serts - there were 3 different desserts on the plate, so there were 3 different temperatures,

OUR

Page 5

3 different techniques so we gave the judges a lot of stuff that they could mark us on’. - said Mr MacLean to justify the choice and share with us a probable key to the suc-cess. We've been wonder-ing if the pre-pared food was flawless and if there

were any slips. From personal experience, we all realise that food doesn't always come out as per-fect as we wish it would. How did the winning team do? ‘The team on the day were absolutely fantastic. We'd practised a lot and that really helped. We did lots and lots and lots of practice, so you make all of the mistakes before you go and there is al-ways mistakes to be made but if you can get rid of them all and practise you don't have to do it on the day’. - said Mr. MacLean taking our doubts away and convincing that hard work pays out. Al-though not directly, our ESOL students were also involved with the procedure. As an inspiration from the world was the leading motive of the contest, it was really important for the food to be as authentic as possible. That's why the college chef decided to approach Ms Mary McManus, the Head of the ESOL depart-ment, so that she could possibly gather some infor-mation or ideas from our folks as ESOL students come from all over the world. Every little helps! ‘We used some artifacts from those countries as part of table decorations as well. We had some wood carvings from Africa, flowers from Nepal, that sort of thing so the whole thing kind of tied together’.- said Mr. MacLean to conclude the topic.

Last but not least, of course we wanted to know what the students won! ‘The prize for that particu-lar competition is that the students get a week work experience in London. They also get a set of knives and obviously the City of Glasgow College gets a British title, so we've got a trophy for the cabinet’.- explained Mr MacLean. What is more: ‘A main objective of every competition is the stu-dents' engagement and getting the students to try something different and gain new experiences. Also, these types of competitions and the level they are, it’s on the CV so when they're going for the job they can then say they are British Champi-ons and it separates them from candidates from other colleges. They've proven, they're good, they've done fantastically well and I am really proud of them’. - added Mr. MacLean. 'Congratulations' and 'fingers crossed' were words

coming out of our mouths repetitively, as there

were some things finished and some of them still

pending. Mr. MacLean and his students are still

waiting for some other results and they could be

going to represent Scotland in finals in the USA!

However, as the conversation rolled no signs of

anxiety or nervousness was detected; enthusiasm

and determination prevailed. As Mr. MacLean said,

our college has beaten even bigger colleges so it

has really put us on the map. Now, after all the

hard work that's been done, the winners hope they

can get a slight rest and a cup of tea. Meanwhile,

the newsletter investigators including me couldn't

resist asking for an expert's opinion and recom-

mendation on Scottish cuisines. Surprisingly a

crown goes to the variety of seafood: shellfish, scal-

lops, langoustines, lobsters... However, haggis re-

mains an unconditional must-try when visiting Scot-

land.

Agnieszka Ramian, Higher

Holidays

around the world

Page 6

Easter in PolandEaster in PolandEaster in Poland

In my country people celebrate Easter, the most impor-

tant Christian festival.

People celebrate the adoration of cross on Good Friday.

All day and night they visit a church and kiss wood of

cross. During Good Friday the post is closed. Usually peo-

ple eat fish, some people only drink water.

On Saturday people go to church for blessing of food and

eggs.

Most people get up early on Sunday. Nobody can be late for Resurrection. On Sun-

day procession start and a Mass. On this day everybody eats a festive breakfast with

family.

People consume a lot of eggs. Children get a present from rabbit.

On Monday young people drench each other with water. It is a tradition called

“Smingus-Dyngus”.

Easter has a rich tradition. Festival days are colourful and very joyful because Catho-

lics believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Christian Festival is a good time. Usually this festival begins in spring when vegeta-

tion comes to life.

Alicja Kondziolka, Intermediate 1 Stage 2 Evening

Page 7

Easter is different all over the globe. Each country has its own traditions that heighten its heritage and customs that mark their people’s identity. Spain does not set apart.

“Semana Santa” is the Spanish name for Easter. As a catholic country its people mourn the death of Jesus and celebrate his resurrection during ten days. We need to go way back to the 16th century to find out the origin. The Church installed a particular way to teach the story of Christ’s Passion and his mother, the Virgin Mary.

Although Semana Santa is honoured across all over Spain, it seems to be Andalucia, in the south, where celebrations are taken more intensively.

In a city such a Seville, the capital of Andalucia, flocks of flawlessly dressed people drive you around narrow and colourful streets, gathering around exquisitely rich lifelike painted sculp-tures depicting scenes of the Virgin Mary and Jesus’ called “pasos”. For a week, The Holy Week, religious brotherhoods parade the old city carrying hundred year old artworks.

These rituals implicate lot of time of preparation, effort and commitment. The carriers or

“costaleros” are trained for more than a year but first they must be elected and confirmed

by the rest the community members. To become a costalero is a great honour that younger

and no so younger people are proud to receive it.. In the streets and from balconies, audi-

ence members join the procession singing a “saeta” in the spur of the moment while the

religious floats are passing by.

Once the flamenco song has finished the cheerful audience acclaim the act saying all to-gether at once “ole, ole, oooooleeeeeeeeeeeee”. One in a life time experience that makes you feel goose bumps.

When the event is finished everybody are overjoyed. It is time to go for some refreshment. Wine and tapas are consumed standing up meanwhile street singers stop by making the supper more pleasant.

Sevile and Malaga are the most popular cities for tourist during this period of the year due to their religious fervour and extravagance but the truth is that similar rituals are celebrated all over the country. Regions as Castilla y Leon in centre Spain or Galicia in northwest have their own charm. In their case is more gastronomy orientated with specialities designed for the occasion.

While centre Spain is world known for its wines and rich roasted piglets and lambs, the northwest gets its reputation for its seafood and white wine.

Honestly, it is not important which part of the country you visit. It is so authentic and differ-

ent all over the place that it is going to be an unforgettable experience. What it does really

matter is that you go and live Spain for yourself.

Cristina Prado, Higher

Holidays around the world Easter in SpainEaster in SpainEaster in Spain

Literature Corner

Page 8

A step forward then another back

a repeated action that I used to do

since the day I met myself

we haven’t been always on the same spot

perhaps we have had

haven’t been always on the right way

as I’ve lost balance in cases of rush and teenage rage

and haven’t been always with

sometimes I enjoy being against

when I usually follow my own

there are always arguments between myself and I

sometimes myself start the row and sometimes I

whenever my heart makes a decision

my mind unjustly turns the table upside down

and moves me from a joyous state to cry

and yet my heart naturally forgets

not even with a sign of regret

while others usually get upset

but I won’t get more than my fate

so when I am down I don’t look so down

and when I am up I am just in the middle of the line

I leave emotions fight against emotions

sometimes the weak emotions die

and sometimes some emotions win the rest

honestly I don’t care which of them are the best

as long as they all

come from the

bottom

the same thing for feelings

as when they fight against each other

I used to stupidly react with a smile

and forget the fact that the smile isn’t always enough

or the right thing to react with

but myself says to me why should you stay in pain

while you could simply smile and breathe

I’ve tried to run away from myself

but wisdom has never let me do so

it used to grab me from my confusion and put me on track

then create beginnings after each end

you know last night I thought I wrote a love poem

but I woke up this morning with a fact that it was a political poem

I don’t know what brought politics into love

I mean it all sounds complete madness

in fact I’m not even interested in politics

but as wise people said

different seeds seem always different

but they give us the same shadow despite

and today is not far different from yesterday nor the day before

they always have the same shape

and yet we who play the rest

and to be the best in my point of view

does not mean to be better than others whilst it means to be the best at who you are

so I always try to do the best I could

to achieve the best of me

Badradeen Mohammed, Higher

ArgumentsArgumentsArguments

WHERE AM I NOW?

Page 9

Sara tell us a little bit about yourself, your background.

I was born in Iran in a middle class family. I went to the university where I studied Educa-tional Planning and Management, I always really loved hairdressing so in my spare time I got the certificate as well. At the age of 19 I got married and immediately after that my husband and I were forced to leave Iran.

You and your husband, Arash Jamalzadeh, ar-rived in Holland. What happened then?

They didn’t accept my certificates because I was from Middle East and the system in Europe is different. So it wasn’t good news for me. I was a little bit down then. But I worked very hard. I wrote thousands of letters and they told me I could do a refresh-ment course in Dutch language. So I did it. In Holland we had so many problems; I had to be away from my husband for almost two years because of immigration matters. It was a very difficult time for us.

When did you decide to move to the UK?

In the end of 2003 we managed to reach the UK to be with the family. I was very happy. We entered the UK, and two weeks later I

started to work as a stylist in London. But I did-

n’t get paid because it wasn’t allowed due to

my immigration status, but I was so happy to

do it because of the experience that I didn’t

mind.

When did you move to Scotland?

A year later we came to Glasgow because I wanted to do further education and London colleges were so busy so I realised it wouldn’t be possible to do it there. We came to Glasgow in 2005, I was so happy; people here are so welcome and friendly. Two months later I started working as a volunteer and soon after that I had my son. The reason for me to work as a volunteer was to be part of the community. I used it as a tool to gain work experience here.

How did your life change after becoming a UK citizen?

In 2006 I get my leave to remain in this country. I was allowed to work, to go to university and to do whatever I wanted. I found a professional job as a stylist and got

paid for it. My husband started to study in this

college where he got an award in 2010. After he

went to the University of West of Scotland and

he got graduated as a Personnel Trainer.

Nowadays Arash is an entrepreneur and has his

own list of clients.

When did you start to study in City of Glasgow College and what did you get from it?

I felt like I wasn’t moving forward, I felt that I

was a little stuck. In 2008 I started to study in

this college.

In this section the Oasis team interview highly accomplished former students of

City of Glasgow College to share their wisdom, experience and achievements. In

this occasion our guest is the Creative Director of the Salon called Burlington

Boutique Sara Mostahiri Abid. Sara talked to us about her life in Iran, her dif-

ficult first years in Holland as an asylum seeker and what she did to change her

fate. Today Sara is a woman of success, mother of a family and has several pro-

jects in mind.

WHERE AM I NOW?

Page 10

I started a refresher course of hairdressing during the day and at night time I used to do beauty courses. I wanted to know every-thing. That was me wanted to go up. In 2009, after finishing the courses, my lec-turer Alison suggested doing HNC. So I got it. But in order to enter the Higher National Qualifications I had to have English higher. So I did it as well. Here it really was when I felt my English communication skills im-proved very fast. It was quite a hard year, I was working part time, I was a mum, a wife, I had to do all my homework, write a lot of essays but my lec-turers Rosie and David were very helpful and I’m very grateful for it. It was an amaz-ing experience, really, really hard but I man-aged to get A+.

Did you get any financial help?

Of course I applied for ILA for previous

courses and for SAS in my last course. It was

fantastic. Without this support I wouldn’t

have managed to do further education in

this country.

Could you say that Glasgow has improved your life?

Of course. Definitely. I am quite happy I moved up to Scotland. I think there are more opportunities to study in the further education sector. If you are coming from a non-European country it is totally different and very hard. I found myself 10 years behind. My English was quite broken. Studying here, living here even finding a job was easier even for me in Glasgow.

What is your next move?

I am planning to become a lecturer in hair-dressing. I’m very confident in what I am doing.

I have experienced everything in the field and in very different countries. I am confident where I am now and who I am.

Any piece of advise for those who are in the po-sition you were in some time ago?

I am happy to tell everybody who comes to this country that it doesn’t matter how old you are, if you have children, if you are married, if you are a foreigner it is difficult but please don’t push yourself back, don’t give up. You have to think positive. Always. You have your life. Try to make a goal for yourself and try to push yourself as hard as you can in order to achieve this goal.

Cristina Prado, Higher

Page 11

WRITING COURSE

WHEN?

SATURDAYS 9.30 – 12.30

WHERE? NHS. Room 308

For students at Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2 and Higher levels

Learn:

Academic and descriptive writing skills Discussion/conversation skills Confidence in your writing abilities

Focus: Diversity and multi-cultural issues Many other topics

Do: Produce articles for a magazine Enter the Diversity Competition

ESOL HELP HUB

WHEN?

MONDAYS 9.30 – 4.30 THURSDAYS 9.30—12.30

WHERE? Room GN24C

Townhead Building (on the ground floor next to the food court)

WHAT?

HELP WITH… Application forms, letters, communications with

banks and other services

ESOL ACTIVITIES

Page 12

TEST YOUR ENGLISH

Unscramble the tiles to reveal messages.

Letter TilesLetter TilesLetter Tiles

City of Glasgow College

ESOL Department

Glasgow

Embracing Diversity

Competition 2013 Use your creativity to embrace diversity at City of Glasgow College.

Theme and Judging Criteria

The theme is “Embracing Diversity” and the aim is to find the most effective expression and communication of this theme according to the following judging criteria:

Clarity and accessibility of Diversity & Equality message.

Level of effort shown.

Originality of concept.

Quality of work.

Impact on viewer/audience. Format

Entries can be presented in any format, including:

A record of relevant community or citizenship activity.

An engineering, energy, science, or nautical concept or project.

An event programme/concept, including community and care, hair & beauty, language, sport, or tourism.

A building, joinery and shop-fitting, painting and decorating, stonemasonry, bricklaying, plaster-ing, or tiling project.

A web page, interactive media, computing program, information database, or blog.

An item of cookery, baking, cake decoration, sugar-craft, or food and beverage service.

A business and enterprise proposal, event vision or logistical plan.

A poem, short story, song, news article, or film/television/radio production.

A sculpture, piece of craftwork, furniture, jewellery, glass work, ceramic, 3D design, model, product design, or interior design project.

A piece of graphic design, painting, illustration, poster, pamphlet, banner, photograph or print.

Entering and Deadline

Students currently registered and attending a course during the 2012-2013 session can enter. Each student can submit up to two entries: one individual and one group entry and each entry must be an original piece of work. The piece of work may be related to your course, or may be something completely different!

Keep your entry, but return your entry form by Friday 3rd May 2013. All entry forms must be sub-mitted by 5pm on this date.

You are encouraged to submit an online, electronic form and save the file as Online Entry Form_YOUR NAME, e.g. “Online Entry Form_JohnSmith”. However an alternative print copy is available.

Electronic forms must be submitted to diversity&equalities@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk and paper copies returned to Townhead Building, room GS.

http://www.cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk/about-us/embracing-diversity-competition

Page 13

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ESOL LANGUAGE CAFEESOL LANGUAGE CAFEESOL LANGUAGE CAFE

ESOL Language Café is for ESOL

students and their families to relax, practice English & make friends.

We meet at: St.Mungo’s Museum

www.facebook.com/cogcesol

Come along to the next ESOL Café 11th May, 1-3pm.

IT’S FREE! There’s tea, coffee, juice,

snacks & activities for adults & children!

We’d love to see YOU there!