Winter '08 Classes begin
October 14, 2008
Sunday Coffee and Questions August 17, 2008
ESL Bookclub
September 8, 2008
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Combine learning English with making friends! Join us at the cozy White Horse Trading Company (pub) in Post Alley (in Pike Place Market) the second Monday evening each month to discuss a book carefully selected for adult non-native English speakers. Meet new people, read great books, and expand your English vocabulary at the same time. There is always a teacher at the book club to answer any questions and to facilitate the discussion. And best of all, it's FREE and open to anyone who would like to come!
Place:
White Horse Trading Company, (In Post Alley, Pike Place Market). Read the Yelp reviews. Check Google Map. This place is in an alley and can be difficult to find. Park in or near Pike Place Market, or take any bus to downtown that stops near Pike Place.
Because this place serves alcohol, you must be 21 years old to attend this book club. If you are a non-drinker, they serve a fantastic lemonade.
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Buy used from Powell's Bookstore |
Buy new from Amazon.com |
(Ordering books through these links helps support the free book club.) |
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Date: August 11, 2008, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Title: Holes, by L. Sachar
Summary:
The philosophy of Camp Green Lake is simple: "If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy." At least that is what the Warden at the juvenile detention facility says.
Geeky, overweight 14-year-old Stanley Yelnats is wrongly convicted of stealing a pair of famous shoes and has a choice of going to jail or going to Camp Green Lake, where he is required do dig a hole five feet in diameter by five feet deep every day. He chooses Camp Green Lake and, for the first time in his life, he makes friends while unknowingly lifting a curse that was set on his family many, many generations back.
This intermediate level book is written for older kids, but is a great read for adults. The only complicated ESL aspect of the story is that three different time frames are involved and the reader must distinguish the difference between the present and two separate times in the past. Oh, and the kids at Camp Green Lake give each other nicknames and can be referred to by their real name as well as nicknames.
Mood: Nice, feel-good read
Cost to Attend: FREE!
English level: Intermediate
Sign up now! (Please sign up so we know if we need to bring additional teachers.)
(Ordering books through this link |
Date: September 8, 2008, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Place: White Horse Trading Company, (In Post Alley, Pike Place Market)
Title: The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Mood: Intellectual, thought-provoking
Cost to Attend: FREE!
English level: Intermediate
Summary: (Taken from Cliffs Notes)
"Lowry narrates The Giver in third person ("He said," as opposed to "I said," which is called first person), using a limited omniscient viewpoint (only Jonas' thoughts and feelings are revealed). Through Jonas' eyes, his community appears to be a utopia-a perfect place-that is self-contained and isolated from Elsewhere, every other place in the world. No evidence of disease, hunger, poverty, war, or lasting pain exists in the community. Jonas' family, like all other families in the community, includes a caring mother and father and two children-one male child and one female child. Jonas' mother has an important job with the Department of Justice, and his father has a job as a Nurturer, taking care of newborns. Jonas has one younger sister, Lily. His family seems ideal. Each morning, they discuss their dreams that they had the previous night; during the evening meal, they share feelings about the events of the day, comforting and supporting each other according to the rules of the community.
As we learn more about Jonas' family, we also learn about the community as a whole. Family units must apply for children, spouses do not get to choose one another but, instead, are matched, and grandparents do not exist. All of a sudden, this utopia that Lowry has created doesn't seem quite right. The mood is foreboding, a feeling that something bad will happen. This mood suggests that Jonas' community is far from perfect." (more)
(Ordering books through this link |
Date: October 13, 2008, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Place: White Horse Trading Company, (In Post Alley, Pike Place Market)
Title: The Great Gatsby
Mood: Intellectual, dark, moralistic, optimism clashing with pessimism
Cost to Attend: FREE!
English level: Intermediate/Advanced
Set in the 1920's Nick Carraway moves from the Midwest to the East Coast to pursue excitement and wealth. He meets Gatsby, a self-made man, and befriends him. Gatsby throws upscale parties at his mansion in the hopes of proving his worth to a past girlfriend, Daisy.
Nick watches as a bystander, surrounded by wealth, greed, love, and tragedy as the lifestyles of the rich swirl aroud him.
There is a reason this novel has become a classic. It is filled with all the makings of a great story. In the end, it is the same question. What can wealth really buy?
Sign up now! (Please sign up so we know if we need to bring additional teachers.)
This is a social activity as much as a learning activity. Join us for coffee the third Sunday morning every month, and bring your English questions with you. You can ask on any English topic you want: grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary usage, learning techniques, slang (even curse words if you feel the need to know the answer). Or, just come and learn from other people's questions and have fun conversation while making friends.
Date: August 17, 2008, 9:00 am - 11:00 am
Date: September 21, 2008, 9:00 am - 11:00 am
Date: October 19, 2008, 9:00 am - 11:00 am
Place:
Starbucks, 1200 Westlake Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109. Check Google Map. There should be ample Sunday morning parking here. Also, bus # 17 and #30 pass by and Dexter Avenue busses get close.
Cost: FREE!
Sign up now! (Please sign up so we know if we need to bring additional teachers.)
