Sky Smith

On Friday, students, faculty

and staff celebrated the

American holiday of Thanks-

giving at the Queen Mary in

Long Beach.

Over 200 people partici-

pated in this activity, and we

all got to share the things that

we are thankful for in life.

Natalie Reyes, a Language

Academy student worker, said

that this was her favorite

Thanksgiving ever and also

that she is very thankful for

Language Academy students

and the wonderful experience

she has had getting to know

them.

Students were treated to a

traditional Thanksgiving

meal of turkey, stuffing,

mashed potatoes, yams and See Thanksgiving on p. 4

Thanksgiving Break 11/23—11/25 This week, there will be NO classes on Wednesday, November 23rd through Friday, November 25th for the Thanks-giving Holiday. The USC Language Academy and the University will also be closed during this time. If you need to see a staff member, please make arrangements to do so before or after the break.

Group Picture & SCavenger Hunt Friday, December 2nd Come be a part of the USC Language Academy Group Picture right after Oral Skills on Friday, December 2nd in front of Doheny Library at NOON. Right after, students who sign up for our last activity, the Scavenger Hunt, will begin the big hunt and could win fun prizes at the Closing Ceremony! Sign up on Monday, November 28th.

Thanksgiving on Queen Mary

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

Language

Labs

2

Course

Evaluations

3

Dubai 4

Interview

with Todd

5

American

Music Awards

6

In-N-Out

Burgers

7

Photo

Album

8

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

The Academy News N O V E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 1 V O L U M E 5 2 , I S S U E 1 2 Students share

Thanksgiving

Reflections, p. 4

Profile of Lan-

guage Academy

teacher Todd

Kolberg , p. 5

A special trip to

Yellowstone

National Park,

p. 6

What is the

Unhate Foun-

dation? See p.7

IELTS Test Preparation—In this lab, you will have the opportunity to learn tips and tricks on how to ace the IELTS test.

Writing Skills——In this lab, you will have the opportunity to work on improving your writing skills. You’ll get tips and tricks that will make you a better English writer. BOTH Writing Skills labs will cover the same topic on Tuesday.

Please only sign up for one section of Writing Skills.

Building English Skills: Levels 1-2—Do you want to pronounce words better when you read aloud in class? Do you want to have beautiful handwriting? Do you want to improve your spelling and basic grammar? This lab will focus on

handwriting, spelling, reading aloud and sentence grammar. It is strongly recommended for students in Beginning Level to Level 2.

Tuesday, November 29th

Time Location Description Facilitator Levels

11:00—12:00 KAP 113 IELTS Test Preparation James Hutzell All Levels (Recommended

for 3-6)

11:00—12:00 SOS B45 Building English Skills

Diana Hiciu Levels Beginner, 1 & 2

11:00—12:00 JEF 124 Writing Skills

Nevena Fairclough

Levels 3, 4, 5, & 6

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1 & 2 Jackie Kim Levels 1 & 2

11:00—12:00

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 3 Annie Lin Level 3

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 4 Diana Echeverria Level 4

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 5 Matt Shin Level 5

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 6 & 7

Isabelle Feldhaus Level 6 & 7

12:30—1:30 DRB 265 Writing Skills

Marisa Garcia-Crocker

Levels 3, 4, 5, & 6

Thursday, December 1st

Time Location Description Facilitator Levels

11:00—12:00 KAP 113 IELTS Test Preparation James Hutzell All Levels (Recommended

for 3-6)

11:00—12:00 SOS B38 Building English Skills

Diana Hiciu Levels Beginner, 1 & 2

11:00—12:00 JEF 124 Writing Skills

Nevena Fairclough

Levels 3, 4, 5, & 6

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1 & 2 Jackie Kim Levels 1 & 2

11:00—12:00

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 3 Annie Lin Level 3

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 4 Diana Echeverria Level 4

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 5 Matt Shin Level 5

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 6 & 7

Isabelle Feldhaus Level 6 & 7

12:30—1:30 JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 3 & 4 Matt Shin Levels 3, & 4

P A G E 3

END OF SESSION

Course and Program Evaluation Schedule

Monday, December 5

All students will complete the course and program evaluations on Monday, Decem-

ber 5 according to their elective classes. Please go to the computer lab at the time

indicated in the table below. IPPAM and CMGT students who are not in elective

course will be given the link to use to complete the evaluations.

Do you have your USC email account set up? If not, make

sure to set it up!

Go to http://bit.ly/uabgjl for step-by-step

instructions on how to set it up! You’ll need your USC email

username to complete your program evaluations—don’t

wait until it’s too late.

KOH 208 KOH 208

100:00-10:30 Film 472 Marisa Garcia-Crocker 10:30-11:00 Bus 470 Todd Kolberg

11:00-11:30 LS TOEFL Barbara Holmes 11:30-12:00 LS TOEFL James Hutzell

WPH B 36 WPH B 36

100:00-10:30 Film 471 Diana Hiciu

Drama 360 Priscilla Taylor

10:30-11:00 Vocab 120 Ilana Melmed

TOEFL 301 Michael Cannon

11:00-11:30 SPKENFL 241 Nathan Crandall

Journal 370 Sonja Lovelace

11:30-12:00 SPKENFL 242 Maggie Calafano

Pro 470 Priscilla Caraveo

12:00-12:30 LisNote 20 Katie FitzSimons 12:30-1:00 TOEFL 302 Jeminah Espinoza

PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS OF YOUR ELECTIVE TEACHER

P A G E 4

delicious vegetables, but the

best part was the pumpkin pie!

After the luncheon, many stu-

dents took the opportunity to

look around the giant ship and

take a tour of the Queen Mary.

This was a fun activity for all

of the students who attended.

With only a few weeks left in

the fall semester, it was great

to spend time together and be

thankful for each other. Happy

Thanksgiving from the USC

Language Academy!

Thanksgiving

Lexie Wei

What are your feelings about

Thanksgiving Dinner on the

Queen Mary?

The legend of Queen Mary

makes it full of mysterious

atmosphere. After the lunch, I

went to the deck with friends.

I got lost and walked around

in the cabin alone. There was

a moment that I felt I was

back in the nineteenth cen-

tury. And this feeling sud-

denly brought a fearful emo-

tion. I couldn’t help turning

back to see whether there was

something behind me. I was

so eager to find the exit to step

out of the old cabin. The

Queen Mary looks peaceful.

But I can feel the loneliness. If

you have never been on a

cruise, the Queen Mary will

be a nice choice.

-----Chenny (China)

Thanksgiving is one of the

most important festivals in

America, which symbolizes

our thankful hearts for things

we have already got in our

lives. The Academy asked

several students to video tape

their feelings of “what are you

thankful for.” The majority

mentioned family, friends and

all the precious moments that

happened to them in the past

two years. I was impressed

and realized the significance

of this festival that we should

all perceive a thankful heart so

that we can be confident and

determined the future.

-----Cloudy (China)

The experience on the Queen

Mary on last Friday gave me

enough experience to enjoy

American Thanksgiving Day.

Even though it was my first

time to have pumpkin pie, I

was addicted to that taste.

Moreover, I could fully enjoy

myself with many interna-

tional friends in a large ship,

taking many pictures with

them.

-----Junu (Korea)

Who do you want to thank the

most?

It was an amazing experience

for me. I am very thankful for

the Language Academy be-

cause it gave me so much,

including this dinner on the

Queen Mary. I will go back to

Japan this winter, and I will

tell my friends how exciting

this experience was. I love

Thanksgiving Dinner, and I

am very thankful for the Lan-

guage Academy.

-----Motoka (Japan)

I want to thank Azziz, who

invited me to go to Miami,

and Ahmed , who shared a

good time with me in Las Ve-

gas. I want to thank Gil for

being very helpful all the

time,and Juno, who called me

his best friend.

-----Bo Sheng (China)

I want to thank my house-

mates, especially Lexie. She

always cooks for me and teach

me many things. She is very

generous. I like her very

much. Besides, I also want to

thank Bowei. He is very nice

and often helps me clean our

house. We have a lot of com-

mon interests.

has an amazing Thanksgiving

holiday.

-----Hugo (China)

Dubai: A place where

everyone would be

amazed

Camille Houphouet-Boigny

Where would you see an island

called the world? Houses built in the

desert? The most luxurious hotel in the

world?

I can feel that the desert is nearby,

but at the same time, I see the ocean,

smell oriental smells, and hear a foreign

language…

These things make me think of Du-

bai, a place where tradition mixes with

superficiality: I can see men and

women wearing traditional clothes and

driving fancy cars, carrying fancy

purses and wearing shoes, sunglasses,

and amazing pieces of jewelry.

In Dubai, a lot of things are contra-

dictory: even though it is in the Middle

East and it is a Muslim city, you don’t

feel the restrictions that you would feel

in other very religious countries. You

can’t see anything that reminds you that

you are in a Muslim country, except for

the call the Imam makes to pray.

This place is like Disneyland—

everything is magical, from the fact that

you can spend your morning at the beach

and your afternoon in the desert; the fact

that you can have a traditional and sim-

ple meal, but also the fanciest meal; and

most especially, that you can go into the

highest tower of the world and from

there see all kind of landscapes and ar-

chitecture.

For the first time, I felt that I wasn’t

in a real place, like if I had gone on an-

other planet on holidays!

Program Highlights

Left: A man-made island in the shape of the world. Top: Dubai’s famous tower, Burj Al-

Arab is the most luxurious hotel in the world.

Thanksgiving continued from p. 1

z

P A G E 5

Michelle Chen

Do you know there’s such a teacher in Language Academy? He has lots of fans. He used to be an actor. He loves teaching. He is always happy and energetic. He looks better than Brad Pitt and forever young. His name is Todd Kolberg.

I feel honored to have this chance to interview him and I also want to thank my gossip classmates who gave me many ideas during my question collection. Here’s the inter-view. What’was your biggest dream in your childhood? Be an actor. Did you ever think of being a teacher in the future when you were a child? I was always a teacher, When I was first grade. I taught my little sister. I also got extra copy of homework from my teacher and gave it to her. How do you keep happy and ener-getic? Just enjoy what you do. What would you do if you were not teaching here? I would teach music. I like teaching a lot of different things. I like doing things and interacting with people. I can’t imagine a job sitting in front of the desk and staying in an office the whole day. What kinds of jobs have you ever done? My first job was in a store when I was in high school. I put prices on the prod-ucts. That’s what they call stock boy. Then I was a waiter in a restaurant. After that, I worked in a wood working company. My company made things of wood, outdoor wood furniture, every outdoor wood thing. So my job was to

go out and design fancy wood things for people. Is that also the reason why you went to Mexico and built houses for poor people? Yes, I enjoy making things with my own hands, and it is good to see how things change there. There’ s a church group. Every year they build 1-2 houses for poor people. This was my 4th year. Ac-tually, it was not a real house. It was very small, with concrete floor, 12*12 foot, one door and one window, no electricity or running water. Everyday there came a water giant where people can get water. You know what, lots of your students think you are gay because you look great, interesting and well educated , but you are not married. No I am not gay, I have lots of gay friends because you know when you are actor, everybody around you seems like a gay…but I am definitely straight. And I was once married.

When do you want to get married again? If I find the right person. I think a good relationship should make you happy. I think relationships should bring happi-ness. If you don’t feel you are happy in the relationship why stay in? I didn’t date a lot before I got married in my late twenties. But when I got divorced, I felt uncomfortable because I was 32 years old and I hadn’t dated anyone for eight years, so I don’t know how to date. But I don’t worry about that any-more. So what kind of women do you like? Err…I’ve dated so many different girls, from different countries. I’ve dated woman taller than me, shorter, long hair, short hair, brown hair, golden hair, from Russia, Thailand, Taiwan… I admitted that at first you have to be physically attracted, but I think person-ality is the most important. I enjoy do-ing things together with different per-sons. But when people too much like me it gets boring. I like things new. I date different women and I learn more because they all have different inter-ests. That’s the best way to learn things, when doing them with people who are really interested in them. Do you have some suggestions for English learners? Speak more and don’t worry about making mistakes. It is by physical be-cause you hear yourself speaking sound. People who speak more, even they make mistakes, they learn English better. It is a little bit difficult for interna-tional students to fit in American soci-ety especially during the first months after they come here. Do you have any advice on this problem? Well, it is natural when people get into a new environment they try to find some similar ones. And LA is not the See Todd on p. 8

Interview with “Brad Pitt” in Language Academy

Yellowstone National Park by Danting Li

P A G E 6

Bovard Auditorium is the

venue for many concerts dur-

ing the academic year.

Ayman Sultan

The American Music

Awards ceremony, which

occurs once every year,

was held on Sunday, No-

vember 20, in the Nokia

Theatre in L.A. Live, and

it was full of amazing

performances by amazing

musicians. This event had

15 different awards given

out to fifteen different

artists.

The event started at 5

p.m. with great perform-

ances by fa-

mous artists,

like Jennifer

Lopez, Drake,

Rihanna, and

many others.

The best per-

formance was “Party

Rock Anthem,” which

made the whole crowd

stand up on their feet and

dance.

Taylor Swift, who won

the best Female Country

Artist award, also won the

best artist of the year

award. More than

half of the crowd

was surprised by Taylor

Swift’s winning the best

artist of the year because

there were many other

artists who were in the

spotlight all the time this

year, like Lil Wayne and

Rihanna.

People came out of this

great event with big

smiles on their faces, and

that’s because of the

fabulous performances

that were held there.

Blue sky, white clouds,

green grass, forests without

boundary, high mountains

with glacier on the top, great

canyons with water falls and

rivers. There is even a great

lake that seems as big as sea.

You can meet with many

kinds of animals when hiking

in the wild: eagle, moose, elk,

bison, and even bear some-

times. You can smell some

penetrating odor in the air. It

comes from geysers and hot

springs, which is a significant

geographic phenomenon in

this area. Here is the home of

wild animals. Here is a con-

centration of geothermal fea-

tures. Here is area of fantasy

and nature. Here is the Yel-

lowstone National Park.

Yellowstone National

Park, which is located pri-

marily in the state of Wyo-

ming, but also extends intto

Idaho and Montana. It is the

first National Park in U.S

founded in 1872. It was

inscribed by the United Na-

tions Educational Scientific

and Cultural organizations

as a World Heritage Site in

year 1978. It is famous for

its beautiful natural scenery,

and it attracts millions of

tourists every year.

Yellowstone National

Park is a perfect place to

spend your vacation. Some

friends and I visited there

this summer.

During the whole week,

we stayed there, we were

busy at sightseeing, camp-

ing, hiking, and kayaking.

Five main information cen-

ters and many facilities, such

as stores, hotels, and restau-

rants inside the park will

provide all necessities you

need. It is a great place with

attractions and memories

where you wish to plan your

next visit as soon as soon as

you leave there.

Travel Story

The American Music Awards 2011

Taylor Swift reacts to the announcement that she won the best artist of the year award.

Top: Pano-ramic view of

Yellowstone

Park; Right:

Morning

Glory Pool,

one of many hot springs in

Yellowstone.

P A G E 7

By Sharon Jung

IN-N-OUT Bur-

gers

Do you like hamburg-

ers? If your answer is

YES, then you should try

to go to IN-N-OUT Burger

if you haven’t tried it yet.

At IN-N-OUT Burger,

even though it is fast food,

quality is everything. They make

their burgers from fresh vegetable,

100% pure beef. Also they are free

of additives. There are no fillers

and preservatives of any kind, and

everything is made to order at the

same time. They focus on making a

high quality hamburger. So the

food is more delicious and fresh

than at other burger restaurants.

IN-N-OUT Burger is unfamiliar

to Koreans, but it’s a very well

known burger stand to Americans.

According to customer satisfaction

surveys in U.S.C, IN-N-OUT Bur-

ger was rated as one of the top fast

food restaurants.

The prices in this restaurant are

very cheap. A hamburger is $1.75

and double-hamburger is $3.05.

The restaurant is a regional

chain of fast food restaurants. The

nearest restaurant from U.S.C is

located at 24445 CRENSHAW

BLVD TORRANCE, CA 90505, 1-

800-786-1000. It is around 2.06

miles from U.S.C.

Cheap, Close, Delicious and

Fresh! Try to eat quickly.

I recommend eating french fries

of Animal style, which aren’t on

the menu. It is the secret menu.

Unhate foundation By Mocha Tang

Recently, Benetton (a casual wear brand) initiated a con-

troversial advertising campaign named “Unhate Founda-tion” in a bunch of cities.

Political leaders with completely different religious be-liefs in distinctive countries appeared in the posters kissing each other, which caused a big stir among consumers. “We were trying to advocate a more inclusive world to

the public,” explained a think tank in the art research cen-ter. The super hanging poster and digital projection of

“Unhate Foundation” can be found in public places in New York, Milan, Rome and Paris.

Online activities are under way at the same time. Consum-ers are able to upload their kissing picture on http://kisswall.benetton.com/ to have an intimate contact with people in another continent.

Right: More Thanksgiving Pics

USC Language

Academy

Rossier School of

Education

Phone: 213-740-0080

Fax: 213-740-0088

Web: http://

www.usc.edu/dept/education/langacad/

Thanksgiving Album 2011

The Academy News is a weekly newsletter pro-duced by students in the Journalism Elective of the USC Language Academy. All students in the Lan-guage Academy Program are encouraged to send news stories and photos to Sonja Lovelace at slove-lac@usc.edu.

Check out The Academy News online at www.usc.edu/langacad.Go to “Student Informa-

tion” and then click on “The Academy News.”

P A G E 8 N O V E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 1

THE TAN STAFF

Editor Ningqi (Jeannine) Jiang

Assistant Editor Camille Houphouet-Boigny

Reporters Youssef Abdat

Yuzhen (Michelle) Chen

So Hyun Jeong

Sya Ron (Sharon) Jung

Danting Li

Ayman Sultan

Qian (Mocha) Tang

Laixin (Lexie) Wei

Meng (Cassie) Wu

Cheng Zeng

Todd Continued from p. 5 easiest place. But I think univer-sity has many clubs and events, movies and concerts… those are good opportunities to meet people. You need to tie into university activities and get involved. But it also depends on how much time you have. That’s a challenge. I always joke like if you really want to learn English, find an American boy-friend. It’s the most practical thing…but…yeah, it is partially true. But it is easier for girls than boys, hahaha.