"There Is a Free Meal at UCF" by Christina (China)

Although it is usually said that there is no free meal in the world, as a foreign student who studies English as a second language at CMMS, there are some methods to learn English FOR FREE!

As a part of my Academic Presentations class, I went to several lectures at UCF. Those lectures can be found on the UCF website under the section of “Campus Events.” Some of the lectures are open to all the UCF students or even those who are not students, but there are some where you may need to sign up. For example, I am interested in the American point of view of Chinese culture, so I participated in a lecture held by UCF alumni, “A Highly Civilized Country--3000 Years of Inventing China.” The professor is a Chinese historian and has spent over 20 years in China to study the culture there.

The lecture lasted an hour and covered one third of the five-thousand-year Chinese history. He spoke at a pretty fast speed with a bunch of unfamiliar vocabulary words for me in politics and economics. Yet, his PowerPoint slides and some other visual aids like handouts helped me a lot to understand his lecture even better.

However, my favorite part of the lecture was when the audience asked him some questions about the new president’s attitude towards the two counties, the United States and China. It was a really lively talk. I felt that all the audience was involved in the lecture and enjoyed what he had said.

It was a good way to practice my listening because the speaker was not a teacher who taught English as a second language. In addition, I realized that English was actually a tool to understand the cultural in a different way. After the lecture, there were some snacks for the speaker and the audience, so they could continue the topic in a friendly environment. That was really a free meal!

Learning English at CMMS in the classrooms is not the only way to improve your English skill. Those native English speakers are just a few steps outside the classroom around the campus. That is the real place where the language is used, and to take part in the real world with using English is why we study English so hard here. Try to move out of the classroom and you will find more opportunities to improve your English!