After arriving in America, we had an orientation during the first week. We had placement tests, Seattle trip and the overnight CORE camp.

Day 1

Check our own street address and make an account for PC to use at school.

Day 2

Take a test.

Day 3

Take the second test.

Day 4

Seattle Trip

Day 5

CORE Camp

Day 6&7

Come back from CORE camp

We went to Downtown Seattle by bus. We visited famous places in Seattle such as Pike Place Market, Chinatown, Gum Wall, and Gas Works Park. I also went to the first Starbucks store and had hot chocolate. We can make new friends from foreign countries that time. I had a great time.

Pike Place Market

Gum Wall

CORE is an overnight camp. We enjoyed many activities such as canoe, horseback riding and archery. We also danced and watched some movies until midnight. The dance room was like a night club. We shook penlights and danced together. I really enjoyed the camp. We have a chance to make a lot of friends at the camp.

Movie Watching

We made s'more chocolate cookies.

IESL has levels 1 to 5. Non-native Engish speakers mainly take those classes. At the orientation, students from many countries take a test to check their own English skills. I started at level 2. We studied grammar, reading, writing, speaking and listening. You may feel at first that your class is difficult, but you can understand it easily because the teachers explain until you understand. I felt the class atmosphere was good and different from that in Japan.

Class Contents

I wasn't good at writing, but I practiced writing almost every day, and I was able to write longer sentences. I don't think you feel the class is difficult. We mainly practiced writing paragraphs. Also, we made our own PPT files and gave presentations to our classmates.

Teacher (Gary)

The teacher was Gary. He has a Japanese wife. When he came to the classroom, he always talked to me. He taught me kindly until I understood.

Classmates

I enjoyed this class because everybody was energetic. A number of students were from China, and some other students were from Korea,Taiwan and Myanmar. There were 12 students in the class including me.

Class Contents

Level 3 class was more difficult than level 2 class. We practiced writing essays instead of paragraphs. At first, we learned the parts of speech. While taking notes, we listened to a lecture video. We answered some questions after we watched some videos. Listening was difficult for me, but Ann gave us the opportunity to play quizzes and games. I enjoyed learning in this class.

Teacher (Ann)

The teacher was Ann. She sometimes told us jokes. She gave us snacks when we answered the quiz correctly. She was funny and thoughtful of her students.

Classmates

There were 14 students in the class. My classmates were from Japan, China, Korea, Myanmar and Taiwan. Half of the class was Chinese. Ann gave us a lot of opportunities to talk with all our classmates.

GRC Entrance

Level 2: Gary

Level 3: Ann