Edition #3 July-August 2010

Newsletter TH

E

ISSELSA

Congratulations to Amanda Ko Yang, a level 3 student in Vancouver, for winning the book of her choice

from the ISS ELSA book order service. Thank you Amanda for sending in your article (see below). A spe-

cial thanks also to the other students who sent in articles. The ELSA Newsletter is your newsletter and we

want you to send in your news, thoughts, and ideas about you, your new life in Canada or anything you

want to write about. We’ll have another competition again soon, so keep reading the newsletter for more

information!

The teachers and staff at ISS ELSA hope you have a wonderful summer break and we’ll see you back in

school on September 8th!

Amanda’s Letter….

I used to spend my spare time doing leisure activities with my friends in Taiwan. Those leisure ac-tivities included: playing moh-jong, singing karaoke,having afternoon tea, etc…

Because I am a pretty social person and my friends and I have a pretty close and lasting relation-ship, we always enjoyed the leisure activities together about once a week. During the leisure time, we had a chance to catch up on what had been happening with each other. We also had a great time singing, talking, drinking and playing which was so much fun and relaxing.

Besides that, my favorite leisure activity was travelling. I used to travel around Taiwan to many islands and other countries with my family. We've mainly spent our spare time travelling together at least twice a year for more than 10 years. What we like about travelling is that it is so stimulat-ing. We could meet some interesting people and see how other people live. We also have done some kind of exciting activities that we've never done before in Taiwan such as riding on a horse or an elephant for a little trip on the country road; snorkeling or scuba-diving in an ocean and milk-ing the cows on a farm. We've also watched many kinds of magic shows in different cities, etc... All of these things gave us great pleasure and experience.

Travelling is a chance to leave your hometown to discover something different in other countries, and you can find out that these are totally different views and people in the world. So, after each trip, I started planning on visiting somewhere else for the next trip in the future. It's worth spending your leisure time travelling. It's really fascinating and stimulating! I love it so much.

Students’ work - Richmond

2 THE ISS ELSA Newsletter July-August 2010

On June23rd, we went to Commericial Drive which was called ‘Little Italy’ that lo-

cated in the heart of Grandview-Woodland. Before we went there, our teacher Janet told

us the history of the ‘Little Italy’, the origin of the name and the current composition of

the population. Therefore, everyone was looking forward to this field trip.

Very fortunate that day, the weather was fine and sunny. We went there by Sky

Train together with Level 4 students. Bathed in the sunshine, we walked along the side-

walk all the way to enjoy the really unique style. There were lots of different flavors res-

taurants from different countries, such as Italian, Greek, French, Cuba, Portugues,

Japanese, Caribbean, and so on. There were also distinctive small grocery stores, ca-

fes, craft shops , clubs, ice cream stores and bakeries. I bought some handmade

chocolates and Italian desserts to my daughters. When I went home and gave them

these snacks, they were very happy to eat up and said: ”yummy,yummy!”

Along the way, there are many beautiful murals with different topics. We took a pic-

ture together in front of one of the murals. Then we went to the Britannia Community

Services Centre, one of North America’s largest facilities which was built in 1975. Al-

though it looked old now, but at that time it was a innovative design.

Everyone enjoyed the trip very much. There was only a little pity----Time is too short!

How much we hope to be like those people, sitting in the oldest Italian Coffee House,

drinking a cup of coffee and quietly enjoying the beautiful afternoons, or drinking beers

in the clubs, watching the World Cup together with the soccer fans.

Students and teachers from ELSA level 3 and ELSA level 4 (English For the Workplace) classes

in Richmond, taken in “Little Italy”, Commercial Drive

What’s happening in...

We’ve been keeping our eyes and ears open for free events happening in our communities that you

might be interested in. Here’s some of the events we’ve learned about….

When: Saturday, July 10, 2010 - Sunday, July 11,

2010, 5:30-8pm

Where: Willingdon Ctr

1491 Carleton Avenue

Burnaby, BC

What: Willingdon Community Day Fair

Free Admission Join us for carnival games, raffles, barbecue, displays and live enter-tainment.

When: Saturday, August 28th,11:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Where: Kerrisdale Village

West 41s & West Boulevard

Vancouver, BC

What: Kerrisdale Days

Three days of sidewalk sales and en-tertainment with most events happen-ing on Saturday August 28. Free Horse & Carriage rides, Kerrisdale Idol Con-test and free Play Palace at the Arena plus face painting, clowns, bands and giant slides! Phone: 778-866-9875 www.kerrisdalevillage.com

When: Sunday, August 15, 2010, 10am—4pm

Where: Downtown Port Coquitlam

What: Downtown Port Coquitlam’s 6th An-

nual Car Show

Hosted by the Port Coquitlam Business

Improvement Association, Port Coquit-

lam's Downtown Car Show provides

visitors an incredible opportunity to

see a range of unique, vintage and

custom vehicles as over 300 cars,

trucks and motorcycles line the down-

town streets.

Admission is Free.

For more information visit

www.pocobia.com or call 604.464.1490.

When: Tuesday, August 17th, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Where: King George Park Gathering Place

4100 No 5 Road

Richmond, BC

What: Summer Fun Nights in Richmond

Concert in the Park Price: This event is FREE! A free fun night in the Park with a BBQ and lots of activities. In conjunction with Concerts in the Park. August 17 is Caribbean Night. This event is for all ages!

For more information contact: East Rich-

mond Community Association Phone: 604-

233-8399

or Visit http://www.richmond.ca/cambie

When: Saturday, August 14th & Sunday August 15th

Where: Columbia and Keefer Street, Vancouver

What: Vancouver China Town Festival

Every year thousands of festival goers

converge on the streets of Columbia

and Keefer in historic Chinatown to

experience the biggest multicultural

summer celebration in the area.

When: Thu. June 10, 2010 - Thu. October 7, 2010 @

3pm-7pm

Where: Tipperary Park, beside New Westminster City

Hall(501 Royal Ave)

What: Royal City Farmers Market

Weekly Farmers Market every Thurs-day. Featuring fresh farm produce, plants, quality crafts from local artists and artisans, gourmet prepared foods, community information, live enter-

tainment, and more.

* More information on these events and many more can be found at www.kidsvancouver.com/events

3 THE ISS ELSA Newsletter July-August 2010

Welcome to Richmond Career Centre. I will take you today on a tour from station “unemployment” to station “working”. The fee for this tour is paid by the provincial government so take charge, relax and enjoy the tour. Richmond Career Centre provides free employment services to immigrants, looking for work. If you are an immigrant, entitled to work in Canada and facing challenges in finding work, please come and see one of our highly qualified counselors. You can book an appointment at our front desk to have 1:1 discussion with the counselor. During your session, the counselor will try to get your previous work history, details of the duties performed, and educational background to assess your needs and to help you develop an action plan that will take you towards your employment goal. The counselor can also refer you to other free services to support you in your job search such as career planning and resume writing classes, skills connect program, job mentoring program etc. These various programs are funded by government to help you get into the labour force. At Richmond Career Centre, you can also get short workshops on resume writing and interview skills. These are designed to help immigrants understand interview questions and to give appropriate answers to maximize your chances of landing that job. You can also use the resource centre free of charge. In the resource centre, we provide access to fax, computer, photocopier and internet for job search purposes. Books and magazines to give you more information about Canadian Labour Market are also available for your use. Our next stop on this tour of Richmond Career Centre is our Job Placement Service. This is where we help you connect with employers. We meet with employers to directly market you, the job seekers, for the positions available. We keep a database of employers looking for workers and send your resume to them if appropriate. In addition to job fairs, we also hold employer sessions on a monthly basis so that our clients can get first hand info from employers. Though we encourage clients to learn English, at Richmond Career Centre, we provide services not only in English but in 6 other languages too: Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi, Punjabi, Vietnamese and Russian. If you think you can benefit from this free service, then call today to book an appointment.

604-233-7031 rcc@issbc.org

150 – 8400 Alexandra Road Richmond

4 THE ISS ELSA Newsletter July– August 2010

ISS Resource Centre

Editor: Kurt Munari Design Editor: Tatiana Sturari