Spring 2010 Evening Class Comments
 
"Hi my name is Aura Paniagua I have been studying for a semester at the Long Beach Adult school, I am happy because today it will be the second to the last day of school. the The teacher said (that) the most important thing was grammar. So we are supposed to speak English all the times, aren’t we? I was embarrassed every time when somebody asked me something and I couldn’t answer back. But now it is different, I fell more confident, even when I had written an incident report in my job. I say thank you teacher for encouraging me to pursue my dreams. "
"This years is different from the others years.This class is very important for me because in this class I started my goals, this class helped me so mach. When I was on the class and I talked about my problems in grammar. Im supposed to be learning a lot of grammar because I have a lot of material,but sometimes I didn't study enough. Now I decided to study hard for 30 minutes, a day. I learned a little more I have to study more because it is hard to past the grammar test and I have to finish my grammar activities before finish the year."
"In this class I have learned a lot. The programs on the computer are good for learning English. I liked it when each of us had to prepare sentences with our new vocabulary. I saw that it helped me improve my writing and listening skills. I started using the computer more than I used to, which helped me improve my computer skills. I missed a couple of weeks because I had something very important to do but before and after that I was always in class and completed my homework. The teacher was very helpful with us with any questions that we had in class. I did complete 90% of my goals in class. I feel satisfied with myself because I write and speak in front of people with more confidence. I guess I have to be more organized. I would like to continue with English class to help me grow as a person and keep in my mind other goals that I would like to complete in the future, which is to get my GED."
"This is the second semester that I have been in this class. The teacher said that the most important thing in learning English was to practice and remember the rules. I am supposed to finish all my home work. I understand that completing all my homework and all the assignments are for my own benefit. It is very exciting to give a dictation. It has helped me a lot, and now when I give a dictation I feel more comfortable and when I take it I am able catch most of the words. I have been learning new vocabulary since I have been in this class. Did I show improvement in my English? Yes, I did. I learned many things besides English. I have really enjoyed this class. I think I did well in class and I am proud of myself. "
 
At the beginning of the semester this year, when I was signing up for ESL classes at the registration office, I was required to take an entrance exam. The exam was to see how well I know English and where I should be placed in from a list of different levels of classes. It also examined if I could write in English accurately as well. I think I did very well in my entrance exam, and that’s why I was immediately assigned to an advanced class. I was equally excited and nervous when I found out about it, and I couldn’t wait to go to my class. It was my very first time taking a class in the States and I was not sure what to expect from it. I was thinking many things in my mind about it, more importantly if I am going to face a very mean teacher or if my classmates are going to be harsh towards me or to pick on me all the time. At the start, it was quite a struggle for me. Since I was not familiar with the school system here, I was completely lost. It was a brand new experience for me. Luckily I had a wonderful teacher and all my fear went out the window. My classmates weren’t that bad either. I made up my mind that I would never give up no matter how difficult it would get. My teacher made it very easy and simple for me to fit in the class and his encouragement has helped me tremendously to continue with it. By the time it was the third or fourth week into the class, I was feeling much more comfortable and I was getting into the rhythm of it. I think I have been doing much better and having a lot better understanding about the lectures and homework for last several weeks. I usually like challenges and I took it upon me as another challenge to do well in this class. The first few exams didn’t go very well for me. But since then, I have been able to prepare myself better for the exams and I noticed significant improvement and confidence in me. I usually check the website for homework and assignments regularly for every week, and anything I need to know about the class is right there for me on the web. I like the fact that I can easily send my completed works through the web to my teacher which definitely saves a lot of time, papers and trees. I tried to do my homework and the assignments on time. In this class I have been told, “It is vital not to fall behind with the class work and then try to catch up. It becomes more and more difficult and the projects usually pile up”. Every week I had to study five new words. When I was creating sentences and paragraphs with those new words, it helped me to have more practices with them. I have learned a lot from this class. I feel I have a much better understanding about the English grammar and sentence structures now than ever before. My vocabulary bank has grown significantly. My fear of speaking to someone in English has been diminished a little. I am confident that I can at least have a conversation with someone now in a language other than Bengali, Hindi or Urdu.
 
Dated: June 14, 2010 My ESL class is an advanced class, and it meets twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays. The class starts at 6 PM and it finishes at 9 PM. At the beginning of the semester, it had about 16 students, but now towards the end of the semester, there are only 8 students left. Before the semester started, everyone in this class was required to take a placement test to qualify for this level since it is an advanced level English class. The class is taught by Mr. Ron Fujihara. He is one of the most wonderful teachers I have ever had. Our teacher has been very helpful, understandable and extremely patient with us. He has answered all of our questions in the class and made things clearer and easier for us. He always emphasizes that devoting plenty of time to do the homework is vital in this class. We have been learning quite a bit in this class since the very first day of the semester. We have learned plenty of new words, grammar, tense, sentence structures and paragraph writing. There are multiple assignments due on every week. And all the home works are posted on the website. We are allowed to be creative with our new words whenever we were writing the paragraphs for the class. All the students in the class are also very nice. There are only two guys and the rest are girls. Maybe the guys felt overpowered by the girls in the class. That’s why there are so few of them now. My most favorite classmate is Lourdes Natividas. I think she is the brightest student among us all. We usually like to sit next to each other whenever we can, and after each class session, we spend a little time talking about the class or exams or next week’s assignments in the parking lot. When I asked her how she feels about the class, Lourdes said, “We wish there were more students in the class, don’t we? That way there were more competitions and more discussions among the students. It would have helped everyone to understand and learn English better.” Out of the other classmates, Julia Asifuina said, “I love this class. I like the fact that we get do our class works in the computer and our teacher makes us very comfortable and easy to understand everything.” When I asked Maria the same question, she said, “I like this class because I got to learn a lot of new things this semester.” And, finally Jose said that he particularly liked the assignments in this class. Our classroom is divided into two sections and each room has about 30 computers in it. The classroom is very nicely garlanded with flags from many different countries. It also has lots of books and if anyone ever gets thirsty, he or she can purchase a bottle of water without stepping out of the classroom. In my opinion, the only thing missing in the class is a flag from my country. A beautiful flag from Bangladesh should be displayed on the wall above the blackboard as well!