TAN March 8, 2013

By XIAOWEN LIANG

If you are

interested in art,

I think the

Museum of

Contemporary

Art (MOCA) is

your best choice.

MOCA, which was founded in

1979, is the only contemporary

art museum in Los Angeles.

There are different kinds of

exhibitions; you can see many

famous artists’ works in MOCA.

When walking towards their

creation, people may sense dif-

ferent expressions: a space may

make you feel like it is a shelter

for the soul, the center where

brainstorming is happening, or a

space which sits right in the

middle of the world of reality

and hyper-reality.

Contact with artists and appre-

ciation of their works may

change the viewer’s perspective

of the world, or may broaden

the audience’s vision.

Today the museum is housed

in three facilities: MOCA Grand

Avenue; The Geffen Contempo-

rary at MOCA (formerly the

Temporary Contemporary) in

Little Tokyo, and MOCA Pacific

Design Center in West Holly-

wood.

Current Exhibitions:

The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel

Collection: Fifty works for fifty

states at MOCA

02.20.13-03.11.13 Please see MOCA on p. 3 for more

information about current exhibits.

Movie in Hollywood Friday, March 8, 2013 from 2:30-9:00pm (meet at JEF at 3:30pm) Please note that the meeting time has changed due to the movie showtime. Come with Language Academy staff to the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame for a movie, sight-seeing and a great time. We will be watching OZ the Great and Powerful at the El Capitan Theatre.

Shopping at the Citadel Friday, March 15, 2013 from 1:30-6:00pm (meet at JEF at 1:30pm) Only in Los Angeles can you drive to an Assyrian palace to buy blue jeans and leather goods! Citadel Outlets, Los Angeles' only outlet center, has the distinct honor to be located behind an Assyrian Castle wall. It has over 115 stores and restaurants. Sign-up for this activity on Friday from 12:00-1:00pm.

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Language

Labs M/W

2

Language

Labs T/Th

3

Kobe

Bryant

4

Motivating

Employees

5

Reading

Speed

5

Oral Skills

Students

6

This Week’s

Photos

6

UP C O M I N G AC T I V I T I E S

The Academy News M A R C H 8 , 2 0 1 3 V O L U M E 5 6 , I S S U E 7 Check out The

Academy News online at

www.usc.edu/

langacad.Go to

“Student Infor-

mation” and

then click on

“The Academy

News.”

The Museum of Contemporary Art is nationally recognized for its permanent col-

lection of paintings, drawing, and sculpture. It is a short walk from Union Station.

Friday’s activity

pictures on pp. 2 & 6

P A G E 2

Reading Power

(Levels 1-3): Do you want to become a better, faster reader? Attend this lab to get tips and tricks on how to improve your reading skills. IELTS Preparation

(Levels 3-6): Learn how to do well on the IELTS exam. Writing an “A” Paper

(Levels 3-4): Make your writing more sophisticated by using research. Learn how to use research in your writing to effectively support your ideas.

Conversation Groups:

Practice speaking English by level with USC students. This is an interactive discussion in which you will participate in groups about several interesting topics. This is your opportunity to practice and to ask questions to native English speakers. To sign up, go to www.usc.edu/

langacad Click on “Student

Information” Click on “Current

Students” Click on

“Language Labs”

Monday, March 11

Time Location Description Facilitator

11-12pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 1 & 2

Rachel USC Student


TBD USC Student


Blaire USC Student

12-1pm

GFS 229 IELTS Prep Lab (Levels 2 & 3)

James Hutzell Instructor

GFS 228 GRE/GMAT (Levels 4, 5 & 6)

Jeminah Espinoza Instructor

GFS113 Writing an “A” Paper (Levels 3 & 4)

Heather Robertson Instructor


Belen USC Student


Rachel USC Student


Luke USC Student

Wednesday, March 13


11-12pm

KAP 166 Reading Power (Levels 1, 2 & 3)

Nevena Fairclough Instructor

12-1pm

GFS 228 Reading Power (Levels 1, 2 & 3)

Nevena Fairclough Instructor

GFS 229 IELTS Prep Lab (Levels 2 & 3)


GFS 113 Statement of Purpose (Levels 4, 5 & 6)

Marisa Garcia-Crocker

Instructor

Weeks 7, 8, 9, 10

Levels 3 & 4 Writing an A Paper Make your writing more sophisticated by using research. Learn how to

use research in your writing to effectively support your ideas.

P A G E 3

Reading Power (Levels

1-3): Do you want to become a better, faster reader? Attend this lab to get tips and tricks on how to improve your reading skills. Statement of Purpose

Workshop (Levels 4-6): Learn how to write an amazing SOP for graduate school. GRE/GMAT Preparation

(Levels 4-6): Find out the best ways to succeed on the new exam IELTS Preparation

(Levels 3-6): Learn how to do well on the IELTS exam. Conversation Groups:

Practice speaking English by level with USC students. This is an interactive discussion in which you will participate in groups about several interesting topics. This is your opportunity to practice and to ask questions to native English speakers. To sign up for Language Labs, go to www.usc.edu/langacad Click on “Student

Information” Click on “Current

Students” Click on “Language

Labs”

Tuesday, March 12


11-12pm

MRF 206 IELTS Prep Lab (Levels 2 & 3)


GFS 220 Statement of Purpose (Levels 4, 5 & 6)

Marisa Garcia-Crocker

Instructor

THH 205 GRE/GMAT (Levels 4, 5 & 6)

Jeminah Espinoza Instructor

GFS 212 Writing an “A” Paper (Levels 3 & 4)

Heather Robertson Instructor


Anastasia USC Student


Jackie USC Student


Renee USC Student

12-1pm


Blaire USC Student


Renee USC Student


Anastasia USC Student

Thursday, March 14


11-12pm

THH 107 IELTS Prep Lab (Levels 2 & 3)


Spring Forward! Daylight Savings Time 2013

Daylight Savings Times starts at 2AM on this Sunday, March 10th! Before you go to bed Saturday night or when you wake up Sunday morning, be sure to move your clock ahead one hour. If you don't you will be an hour late to everything on Sunday!! For example, 11pm will become 12pm. If you have a smart-phone, this will be done automatically!

P A G E 4

American Culture

Kobe Bryant: Black Mambo

Photo Album: Language Academy stu-dents had fun with bumper cars at last Friday’s activ-ity. See p. 6 for more pics.

By LORA SONBOL

Kobe Bryant is an American professional basketball player. He plays for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National basketball Association. His nickname is “Black Mamba”.

Kobe Bean Bryant was born on Aug 23, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the young-est of three children, and he is the only son. He speaks three languages: English, Italian, and Spanish.

In November 1999, when he was 21 years old, he met Vanessa Laine, who was 17 years old. She was working as a background dancer on the Tha Easeidaz music video. He was in the building working on his first musical album, which was never released.

They dated and became engaged six months later on May 2000. They married in April 2001. He has two daughters. He entered the NBA directly from high school. He has played

for the Lakers his entire career. He has won five NBA champion-ships. He enjoyed playing bas-ketball when he was in high school. He was the top basket-ball player in the country.

Kobe Bryant became the youngest player in the league to

reach 30,000 career points. He has been selected to start every all-star game. He has won the all-star MVP (Most valuable player) four times-2002, 200, 2009 and 2011-making him the most all-star MVP award in NBA history. Sporting news and TNT named him the top NBA player of the 2000s.

In 2006 Kobe scored a career high 81 points against Toronto Raptors, the second highest number of points scored in a game in NBA history.

In 2012, Kobe signed a two- year endorsement deal with Turkish Airlines. In 2012, he shot commercial for Turkish Airlines with FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi.

Reference Kobe Bryant. Wikipedia. Re-

trieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Bryant

Kobe Bryant has won the All-Star Most Valuable Player award four times.

P A G E 5

By YOUSEF ALWASEIFER

During a one-year

internship program in a

financial institution, I

noticed that all employees

in my department had

switched their jobs at

least twice before settling

in that organization. I realized that their

previous companies were not able to mo-

tivate their employees. So, in order for

companies to avoid the negative results

of losing their valuable human assets, it

is important for them to care about this

concept and give it more attention.

Motivation could be defined as a psy-

chological state that exists whenever

internal and/or external forces stimulate,

direct, or maintain behaviors. Now in

order for managers to motivate their em-

ployees they could do the following:

Inspire employees through one-on-

one communication.

Set specific and challenging goals

that employees accept and will

strive to achieve, because goals

usually increase employees atten-

tion, energy, persistence, and crea-

tivity.

Provide employees with praise,

recognition, or rewards.

One way to motivate employees is to

make their jobs meaningful and signifi-

cant to them by giving them some re-

sponsibilities or authority that will in-

crease their loyalty towards their organi-

zation. In addition, their job must not be

boring or have a regular routine because

after a while they may wish to find a

new job that has more interest for them.

Their job must also give them a

sense of personal development and con-

tinuous improvement. Managers should,

for example, offer seminars, courses,

business trips, or scholarships.

Moreover, employees must receive

feedback about their performance to

know whether they have performed

positively or negatively.

Finally, employees must feel that

they have been treated fairly. In other

words, an employee will check if his

performance matches his compensation

or not because if not, he may react nega-

tively by reducing his efforts, or finding

another job in a company that will treat

him in fair way.

In conclusion, when employees are

motivated, they will perform at their best,

be more loyal to their company, and be

more creative at work. This will lead to a

better company that has a good reputa-

tion, and higher profit.

Reference

Slocum, J.W. Jr., Jackson, S. E., and Hell-

riegel, D. (2008). Competency-Based

Management 11th ed. Mason, OH: Thom-

son.

By ALIBEK BISSEMBAYEV

I would like to describe some facts

about reading speed for us. I did some

research about how to increase our read-

ing skills as international students. Here

they are:

Do you know that when you are read-

ing, your eyes look at different letters

and convey a different image, but the

brain still combines them into one; that is

why it is important to concentrate on the

text.

Do you know that during traditional

reading, 1/6 of the time spent is lost due

to regressive eye movements; that is why

it is important to focus your eyes on the

main parts of the text;.

Do you know that the average person

reads less than one book per year; that is

why it’s important to read more and

memorize main ideas.

The human eye with average reading

skills makes 12-16 stops on a book line,

whereas with fast reading skills 4-2

stops. Keep practicing reading a lot.

Usually, the level of understanding in

the traditional reading is 60%, in rapid

reading 80%;

About 5% of all people read very

slowly, 180-220 words per minute, and

the someone with average reading skills,

make 12-16 stops on the book row, and

the one who is reading quickly makes 2-4

stops.

Historically, there were a lot of tal-

ented famous people who could read

very fast. For example: 1. Max Gorky’s

reading speed was 4,000 words a minute;

2.Napoleon read at a speed of a thousand

words a minute; 3. John F. Kennedy was

a proponent of speed reading and encour-

aged his staff to take lessons; 4.Thomas

Edison could simultaneously read 2-3

lines, memorizing the text of whole

pages due to maximum concentration; 5.

Balzac read a novel of two hundred

pages in half an hour.

In conclusion, as Abraham Lincoln

said, “A capacity and taste for reading

give access to whatever has already been

discovered by others.” We should de-

velop this technique to succeed at least

on TOEFL Reading Section and the

GRE/GMAT tests.

Interesting Facts About Reading

How to Motivate Employees

A General Description of Speed Reading

Words Per Minute

1. Poor —150 2. Average—300 3. Fast—600 4. Excellent—800

USC Language Academy

Rossier School of

Education

950 W. Jefferson Blvd.,

Phone: 213-740-0080

Fax: 213-740-0088

Web: www.usc.edu/langacad

The Week in Pictures

P A G E 6 M A R C H 8 , 2 0 1 3

The Academy News Spring 2013 Staff

Editor: Abdullah Bin Kolaib

Staff Reporters

Yousef Alwaseifer

Alibek Bissembayev

Xiaowen (Sharon) Liang

Lora Sonbol

Assel Tasbolatova

Top: Kuwaitis celebrated their Independence Day on February 25. Right: Language Academy students played golf and drove around a racetrack during Friday’s activity.

Beginning Level, Level 1 & 2

Oral Skills Students

Want to practice your English during Spring

Break? Want to practice your oral skills in an interview

setting?

English language teachers need your help!

The USC Language Center is looking for volunteers to do

up to two interviews on Thursday, March 21st and Fri-

day, March 22nd. The interviews will be about 10 min-

utes long, and it will help English language teachers

practice placing students into appropriate levels based

on speaking skills.

If you are interested, please contact the USC Language

Center at [email protected]. Let them know that you

are a Language Academy student, and let them know

which level you are in. You will receive a $25 USC

Bookstore Gift Card if you're selected to help out!

Thanks and have a great day!

PHOTO CONTEST

The Academy News is looking for your photos! Please send

your best picture to Editor Ab-dullah Bin Kulaid at [email protected]

and we’ll publish the winner in next week’s newsletter.

Documents

TAN March 8, 2013