Author: TAO ZHANG

 

Language Tutoring: For International Students, a Second Home

Abdallah Alsallal majored in Japanese at La Guardia Community College before transferring to Queens College, with the goal of becoming a college instructor. After he graduated, he applied to work for the tutoring lab back at LAGCC. The interview, he said, was something he’d never forget.
“One of the questions [Lorna Feldman, who oversees tutoring lab] asked me was ‘Why do you want to be a tutor here?’ I said the tutoring lab is my second home.”

The modern language department is for tutoring students who studied a foreign language. Currently, Japanese is one of the popular languages that students register the most. Alsallal was very enjoy tutoring and puts all his efforts to work for students. In 2018, Alsallal successfully becomes an instructor.

“I felt like they had already prepared me to teach here. It was quite challenging for sure. Now I have been doing for a year. I’m very happy. This is my dream’s job come true.”

Alsallal made many friends here. He has special emotion because tutoring lab is not only a workplace but also like a home to him. In a tutoring lab, tutors have come from different countries. Europe, Asia, and South Africa. The various cultures consist of multiple languages that create a harmony environment and the feeling just like home.

Xhovana Robi is an Italian tutor. She is a senior tutor. She works here since she was a sophomore student. The tutoring lab is also her second home.
“I am an international student. At the beginning, it was hard to make friends. This place helps me a lot. I find so many good people and so much fun. We are a big family.”

For Xhovana, the teaching lab was improving her to gain more experience in teaching. To be an Italian teacher was her expecting job. Since she became a tutor and teaching lab for students. She realized the teacher is not an easy job. How to interact with students; how to make students pay attention to the class; how to be a good communicator then get what students thinking are need a lot of practical experiments to find the result. Last year, Xhovana graduated in LAGCC. She applied for Hunter College for a learning education major. During this semester, she spent whole-time work in the tutoring lab. As she said, this is a valuable experience that leads her to go on the right track. She perceives a tutoring lab as her part of life. Her friends and work are all here. She is happy to have a home in the U.S. This job is encouraging her to find herself; to complete her chase what she wants to be.

Sophia So has been working in a tutoring lab for two years.
“This is a big family.”

Sophia made a lot of friends here. She demonstrated in school that she can’t get time to make friends. Students go to class to class and the schedule is always changing. But here it is like staples place. Even if students come and go, still a family environment like a long-term relationship.

Everyone who studied and taught here loves tutoring lab. Whenever you go, this place is an international students’ home and it will always wait for them to stay.

 

https://vimeo.com/376020165

For my video project, my topic is about tutors who work in language acquisition n department in LAGCC. I was preparing to do this project for a long time. I would like to interview language tutors during their work and catch some good moments then edit them into my video. My questions for them will focus on what did they learn about teaching in a lab; what is the most value they have got since they became a tutor; do they enjoy teaching and what the experience affaces their future job? I would like to collect six or eight tutors to talk in the video but the length is limit in three minutes so I will distill a nice quote of each tutor in one question. I will put three parts in my video. First, a part is saying hello in their languages, try to catch the audiences’ eyes. The second part is the interview includes sequence plots. In the end, I would like to highlight a good environment of this department and express the value of the study center not only for learning a foreign language but also good to know the country’s culture.

Wanna to be a successful public speaker? Toastmaster International Club may achieve your goal.

By Tao Zhang

Toastmasters International, the famous leadership and public speaking nonprofit organization, claims over 350,000 members in 143 countries. Most of these people are just trying to get better at public speaking. But in a place as diverse and full of immigrants as the borough of Queens in New York City, regulars at the “Queens Best Toastmasters Club,” have found it to be a great, free resource for improving their spoken English. Tao Zhang went to their weekly Saturday morning meetup in Elmhurst to get the story.

I’m at Elmurst Hospital for the weekly meetup of the local Toastmasters club, and Amelia Abad is in front of everyone delivering a monologue about how she met her husband.

He was also shy and timid, not talk too much. Moreover, is very providential. We were live in the same resident hotel. So we studied together. Some of the courses we had to take in management. And we went to together because we live in the same resident hotel. So you can guess what happened. We live well and we decided to get married.
Toastmaster Ciaran Donohue presides over the club meeting as usual. Six people are on the schedule to speak today, including club president Jesse Cassell. Here’s Jesse.

Good morning for the members and most for coming the guests. Sometimes, challenges are actually blessing in disguise. This man is named Valentine. Mr. Valentine, he was a real gangster, a real criminal. One day, he got a conflict with police officer, a several police officers. And he made his mind, you can’t get me campus, bang! Ah…he laid down but he woke up the other side. Who is agree with him was very well dressed man…”
The various speakers are all competing to see who will be voted best of the week.

To make you committed, that much stronger. And your success that much for accessible. It willing must to try you best. And fail make you committed and much stronger. And you success that much for accessible. Thanks.
Please take one minute to evaluate Jesse’s speech.

That’s Ciaran, longtime member and today’s Toastmaster. He also goes to other meeting in different week. He is an airline account executive. Since he joined toastmaster club, he got more knowledge of speaking. Good for his work and better to promote sales. Now he become a toastmaster to manage the whole meeting in each week. He can see many people fill confidence and logical to covey context on the best way.

For each meeting, there is different toastmasters. We like to, one of supposes that we are very on rule. So this week I have to be a toastmaster. I have been this club for many many years. Probably if add all years come to the club relevant to ten, but I dropped out for couple of years and come back. I have been long time of this club.

What is the motivation that you join to the toastmaster club?
Basically, the motivation I think certainly for most of people I think is self-development. That is underlining motivation. But really practical sense to develop your communication skills. And being able to stand, give presentation, give a speech to the audiences.

Toastmaster international is to make people who come here that obtain the most benefits of public speaking skills, leadership, personal growth, career advancement and confidence. When you join in the club and listen to once, you will realize that speech is another way to know the world.

That’s important for me in my work, important for a lots of us for life. For to giving it, that’s the public speaking motivation.

Do you think join this club effects your work and life?
Absolutely. I think it’s all especially work. In my work I have to get presentations, I have to do sales presentations, I have to do cheer meeting sometimes. So all of that required public speaking. It is not only public speaking, it is also leadership, expect clubs. We take on rules, we give to the projects. So there is other upper speaking club to help self-development. So turns into packaging your life, yes, it does effecting my life.

During one speech, the speaker, Mark Lavergne, notices my recorder and gives me a shout-out.

People are afraid of public speaking. Here is another statistic. We have reporter here. Eight-five percent is percentage of toastmasters in the metropolitan New York area belong to clubs is not exist 20 years ago. Everyone in the room is the part of eight-five percent. This club is not exist 20 years ago.

One of the things they teach here is that humor and wit can be important in connecting with audiences. If you want people more interested in your speech, be funny. Otherwise, people will tune you out like a stereotypical lecturer at a conference.

Every meeting runs four segments. First one is “Project Speech”, including six or seven speeches by different members. Four levels mark on the sheet of the day of schedule which are “Ice breaker”, “Introduction to toastmaster mentoring”, “Connect with storytelling” and “Communicate change”. Each speech follows one evaluator to estimate their speech. The toastmaster will give them one minutes to leave notes then go on the next.
I assume we are taking time out to a minute to time mark speech. Please pass all evaluations to the back. Evaluation is all finish. It is my pleasure to invite to table topic toastmaster evaluator Milton Freitas. [APPLUS] Fellow toastmaster, good morning…

Find another way to end this. It sounds too much like you’re promoting the club. Maybe tell us who was voted the winner and then sign off.
For Baruch College, this is Tao Zhang in Queens, New York.

For my radio story, my topic is Toastmaster International. What is Toastmaster?
Toastmaster International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a nationwide network of clubs. Toastmasters covered 143 countries and more than 16,800 clubs all over the world. They achieved people well to speak in public. Many businessmen succeed in the complete good presentation during their work. Toastmaster becomes many confident speakers, communicators, and leaders. This is a good program that teaches very knowledgeable skills of public speaking so that they gain the experience of talking to people and get feedback for improving the level of communication.
Toastmaster has many locations in New York City and each of them scheduled at different times. Some of the place meeting once a week, some of our two or three times a week. One meeting in around two hours. The host selects five best presentations and named in different themes for the meeting. The short speaking minimum is three minutes. This part is often spoked by new people who have no experience or the first time speaking in public. The host usually selects five minutes longer to be the next speaking, who had spoked a few times before. They know how to control the time and catch the audience’s attention. After two or three the five minutes length speech, the most knowledgeable which is the best speech of that day should be arranged at the end. The length is around seven or ten minutes. He should have a good experience and skillful speaking to share a meaningful story to audiences. The content of speaking can be a short story, political issue, and global issues.
Toastmaster is a fine subject to record a radio story. The Ambi could be a short interview or the competitor’s speaking. The audiences’ applause, their feedback in the middle of the speaking and people walk in the footstep sounds are all could be a nat. Radioing Toastmaster International that advocates people to know this program if someone has a problem to speak in front. After all, speaking is the basic way to convey information to people. I would like to join this meeting once for a week then find the behind scenes to fulfill the radio.

https://zhangtao.exposure.co/211ae577eefa26030bc08fca18530cfc?source=share-zhangtao

Photoville is an amazing exhibition of photographs. People who interested in photography are free to enjoy  viewing each photographer’s works. I was excited to see their photos and good to learn the way they shoot pictures.

The first photos that I like the most is from Bronx Activists. Bronx Junior Photo League is a group of after school documentary photo program for twelve to eighteen-year-old, who view the Bronx to write photo essays. With good subject to express the current issues in the Bronx. It included activism, housing access, public housing conditions, gun violence and public safety and more. Hebu Jamal is Julie Lozano’s work which is the one of photo in Bronx Activists. The photo shows a muslin girl who named Hebu stands on the street. Her face is warm and pure but little tire and helpless. She is typical muslin look that her scarf surround her head. Her hands look like prey something but not explicit to say what her gesture means. The background is her community Bronx. The photographer uses black and white to describe the melancholy atmosphere. Hebu has been disturbing about muslin issues for long time. People hatred and discriminated them badly. She was suffering offensive questions sometimes but nothing can fightback because people think muslin is represents terrorists. Society issues are good topic to show the public a true world. Julie Lozano chose a wide perspective to reveal reality and grabs people’s attention on these problems.

Water is a women’s issue is another great work. The photographer puts six photos in one group. All related that the relationship with our daily live. Cooking, washing, planting, fishing are all need water. I like the way that the theme is about water is important to human that we have to consider pollution issues and how managed the water resource is pointed on his works clearly. He doesn’t use dark theme to shows water issue. However, the colorful images are fill of joy that leading people to think about more. After seeing his work that I thought water is the most important recourse serves human. If we have water to live that means we will never happy and death will wait for us.

The third theme that I like the most is : Past Tense-Dumbo Before Instagram. Here are bunches archival photographs around 1851 to 1980. The classic old New York pictures will take you back to 100 years ago to see how magnificent the city was. Michael Evans’ The Brooklyn Bridge punctuate the night view in August 1974. All though these pictures are black and white, the shining would never fade. I admired these photographers that they caught the moments we had never been. It will be everlasting to freeze the time and people would go further to move on better when they see these pictures. It is not only an art of photograph, but also an epic of the New York City.

 

My photojournalism assignment is focus on a new school course policy in community college. Since 2018, the government announced a new rule of enough quantify students in each class. Which is means all classes must be enough fifteen students before the new semester start. Otherwise, the class will be cancelled. Now, whether a class might start is depends on numbers of students. Fifteen is a minimum number that makes the class run.

LaGuardia Community College offers eight languages courses for students. The main office is modern language department. Each language has two or three classes in different times for students to choose. Department disputes tutors work in the tutoring center better for students ask questions one by one. However, after the new policy released, many foreign language classes were cancelled in this year. The school emailed to language department that which classes would be cancelled. Until September 5, there were twenty-six classes cancelled and those students who registered foreign classes had to pick another class up.

I chose this topic the reason is foreign language study is important in a country of immigrant. Whether each class has sufficient students, the government should keep the rule of course before. I would like to pick one foreign language teacher ‘s daily routine to pictures on his class and office.  Meanwhile, tutoring center is another place which I mandatory to interview and take photos. Twelve photos are minimum in my photojournalism assignment. I will focus on teachers and tutors lives at school. The main goal is express foreign languages are popular in college. Hopefully the rule of course could be change it a little for language department.

 

Tao Zhang