STORY BY SATYARTH MISHRA
The Sheridan International Student Association at the Trafalgar Campus, has started a conversation circle for students this month who face problems learning English.
“College life is not just an academics. It’s much more than that. This is the time when we discover ourselves,” said Abhijith Arenmulethu Sasikumar, president of SISA Trafalgar. “Conversation circle will help international students, who recently arrived in Canada, and are lagging behind in English.”
Conversation circle includes variety of topics, grammar, listening and speaking skills. Students sit in a circle and begin discussing a topic.
SISA started at Hazel McCallion Campus last December, while SISA Trafalgar began last month.
“I am an active member of SISA. I heard about the conversation circle in one of the meetings,” said Avdhoot Nazarkar, 23, from India.
Nazarkar struggled with English when he first came to Canada. “ESL course is hard for any international student,” said Nazarkar
Conversation circle is a free service for all students.
“I pretty much like the idea of conversation circle because it’s an easy and free way for many students to improve their conversational skills,” Nazarkar said.
Shinhee Kang, 20, and Miji Lee, 24, from Korea, are attending conversation circle to learn to speak fluently and to make some new friends from different cultures.
“In Korea, learning English is a very big thing, so I learned the very basics and grammar. I am not fluent in speaking,” said Lee. “If I hear English from Chinese, Vietnamese or Korean students, that is much easier to understand but it is hard to understand in the classroom, when my professors speak.”
“I joined conversation circle because sometimes I find it very difficult to communicate and it is also a great opportunity for international students to improve language while being a part of SISA,” said Kang.
Die Zhang, 23 an international student from China said, “Conversation circle is a concept of dealing with people in daily life by practising English.”
“My English was not so bad but I had a problem in reading. As I joined an ESL course, I improved a lot but since I took ECE, Early Childhood Education, I have no time to take another level of course in ESL and it would cost me more money.”