Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
A Publication by and for Students of the English Language Center, Old Dominion University
December 2009—Fall 2
Why did you There was a really terrible car accident 1 year ago. I drove my
come to the ELC car too fast. My friends and I got injured, one of my friends had
and how long his two legs broken and the other had surgery on his arms. We
have you been almost died. That accident changed my life in some parts, even
here? though I don’t know why and how that accident affected me.
There is my After the accident, I became much more careful about my
cousin here at friends.
ODU. He recom-
mended me to get Have you ever had cultural shock? If so, what do you think
a degree at ODU. is the cultural difference between America and Saudi Ara-
I have been here bia?
about 10 months. A lot. Ha ha, everything is different: food, gestures, communica-
tion, fashion, etc. I think Americans are generally more individu-
How’s your class alistic than Saudi Arabians. Sometimes it makes me feel free
at the ELC? and comfortable, but in Arabic culture, family comes before any-
What do you thing else. We highly
think is the most value the family and
difficult to learn caring about each other
From left: Advanced II students Jimmy (China), in English? much more.
Natallia (Belarus), Janice (South Korea), and Marat Everything’s good.
(Russia) pose with Mazin (UP, Saudi Arabia) for
Mazin’s interview.
Learning English To be specific, what’s
and making lots of the difference in the
different friends are always interesting things to me. Actually, it educational system
took a longer time to get used to the American English accent between America and
than I expected. Saudi Arabia?
You know, the most
Who do you want to be and what do your parents expect from difference is religion.
you? Education is also
I hold my father in high regard and want to be like him. He is work- based on strong Muslim ideas and beliefs.
ing at King Abdullah University, one of the most famous universi- From middle school to high school, we have to wear school
ties in Saudi Arabia. He has so good personality and is held in uniforms and boys and girls are totally separated. To enter uni-
great esteem by his colleagues. He is expecting me to be a pro- versity, we take 4 exams, which are Arabic Literature, Math,
fessor at King Abdullah University and I also want to be a profes- Science, and English.
sor someday.
What do you think is good or bad in Saudi Arabian educa-
If there is anything you hope the ELC could change or im- tion?
prove, what would it be? Um, I think English is important. So, English education is more
Absolutely, the TOEFL!! The ELC should let us enter the regular needed than now. The good thing is that you can invite your
university courses without the TOEFL test. And, I think it would be teachers to your house and learn more if you want to.
better for ELC students that the ELC had a kind of quota system.
Sometimes, there are too many students from one country in one What do you think is the best thing in America?
class. America is like a melting pot. You can meet many different peo-
ple from many other countries. Meeting different people and
Do you have any event in your life that changed you? talking about many things are very interesting to me.
Happy Winter Vacation! We will see you in 2010! Are you on Facebook? Join the “Old Dominion University English Language
TOEFL is January 5 at 10 a.m. Center” group and help plan events, meet and talk with current and former
Spring 1 classes begin January 12! students, and see pictures from all of our events and adventures!
Two ways of teaching in the University Transportation Nowadays and in the 1950s in Kuwait
(Alberto Moreno, Spain) (Abdulrahman Al Qahtani, Kuwait)
There are a lot of differences between the Spanish and American university
More than fifty years ago, people in Kuwait had no cars,
teaching methods. Why!? Mainly, the university chiefs and professors of
these countries don't have a similar point of view. Both of them want to cre- airplanes, or buses. However, they used camels, don-
ate experts in different majors, and also offer almost the same degrees, but keys, and ships as ways to travel or to go anywhere.
they obtain a dissimilar final result. Camels and donkeys were the most popular means of
travel because they’re cheap, easy to raise, and easy to
On the one hand, in the US universities, teachers split the knowledge con- find. Also, sailing by ships was one of the most common
cepts of the subjects in their classes, and they push their students using
daily homework. Thus, the students have a "simple" way of understanding
ways to travel in Kuwait because Kuwait has a sea which
the complex ideas taught in these university degrees. They also examine was the trading location between India and the Arabian
their students with a lot of midterm tests. Not only this factor, but also atten- Gulf countries.
dance and participation are taken into account for the final grade.
On the other hand, nowa-
On the other hand, in the Spanish universities it is common to have only one days, Kuwaitis use cars,
exam for each subject in a semester, which accounts for almost 100 percent
of the student’s final grade. The attendance is not mandatory, but the profes- airplanes, and buses as
sors make a special effort to give strong knowledge to their students. The transportation. They don’t
freedom in these universities is greater, but they use more demanding tests. use the old means of trans-
portation anymore.
The Americans universities teach people in order to have better personal
skills like leadership or entrepreneurship. Instead of that, the Spanish ones
try to obtain the maximum knowledge capacity.