Home town profiles #1: Aberdeen

This week I thought I'd write a little about my home town. Maybe in the future the other teachers will write about their home towns. We'll see...

Aberdeen City crest with the theatre in the background

My home town is a small city on the North East coast of Scotland called Aberdeen. The main part of the city sits between two rivers. The River Don to the North and The River Dee to the South. The name Aberdeen means 'between two rivers'. The city has a population of about 200,000 people. It's a pretty cold place with average temperatures of around zero in the winter and it rains a lot during the rest of the year. The city has a few different nicknames but the ones that are used the most are The Granite City and Europe's Oil Capital.

Aberdeen city centre

The main industry in Aberdeen is off-shore oil. Oil was discovered in The North Sea during the 1970s and Aberdeen became the main base for a lot of large oil companies. Because of the oil industry there are a lot of engineering and geology companies in and around Aberdeen. In 1988 there was a terrible fire on an oil rig which killed 167 of the workers. A memorial rose garden now stands in Hazlehead Park. In the center of the rose garden is a statue of three oil workers and the names of all the victims are engraved on the statue. Aberdeen also has a busy port and connections with the fishing industry.

Aberdeen Beach

The most popular sport in Aberdeen is soccer. Aberdeen Football Club is one of the most successful teams in Scotland. They have won all of the major Scottish trophies several times and have also won two European trophies. They won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1983, beating Real Madrid 2-1 in the final. Later that same year they beat SV Hamburg to win the European Super Cup. The team's colours are red and white. I used to go to watch most Aberdeen home games. The stadium is very close to the sea and it was almost always very cold.

So now you know a little about my home town. If you have any questions please leave a comment.

E.L.I. Christmas Party 12月 25日

On December 25th (Christmas Day) we are having a Christmas party. From one o' clock until four o' clock there will be a kids' party. Then, from five-thirty until eight-thirty there will be an adults' party. Ask a member of E.L.I. staff for more details.

The E.L.I. 高崎 Lending Library

This December we started a new service for our students. We now have a selection of different English books available to borrow. You can borrow these books for free to help you practice English at home. It's a good way to build your vocabulary and your range of English expression. If you're interested, please ask an instructor or a member of staff next time you visit us.

Reading: The Total Package

How can I get a better TOEIC score? How should I build my vocabulary? How can I understand the way native speakers really speak?

These are some of the questions that English Instructors are asked almost every day. There are, of course, many different answers, just as there are many different types of student. One of the answers that always surprises students is, “read a book”. I can understand their surprise. E.L.I. is, after all, a conversation school. Our methods in class focus on interaction, creation and two-way communication. Now, considering all of this, why would I recommend something as flat and lifeless as a book? The first reason is that books (good books anyway) are anything but flat and lifeless. Good books challenge us and make us think to fully interpret the meaning behind the text．The narration and dialogue in a good novel is a world away from the wooden sentences found in most textbooks. In many ways a textbook needs an instructor to bring it to life. A good book needs only an active imagination.

There are many other elements of English in both fiction and non-fiction that are rarely present in textbooks. Slang, inference and poetic imagery are some of the most challenging aspects of English for non-native speakers and yet they are usually absent from most academic texts. Reading helps students to build a flexible range of vocabulary to fit a number of different occasions. It’s not just vocabulary. To see English grammar at its best, you really must read the work of the language’s greatest writers. Language isn’t just a list of grammar rules and vocabulary. It’s a living, evolving, cultural phenomenon. Without understanding the culture of a language you can only ever hope to scratch the surface of it. Reading a book fills in these cultural blind spots that can hold you back from using and understanding English in real-life situations.

So, even if you are not a big reader in your native language, try reading something in English. It doesn’t matter if it’s a novel, a newspaper report, a biography or a movie review. The most important thing is that you find it interesting. So go ahead, dive into a book and discover that reading really is The Total Package.

E.L.I. 高崎 Christmas Holidays

We will be closing for Christmas on the 29th of December. The first day of business in 2009 will be the 6th of January.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.