Last Regularly Scheduled Meeting TONIGHT

Sadly, we have reached that time in the academic year. Exams are upon us, and students will soon be going home for the summer. Thus, we will have our last regularly scheduled meeting tonight at 19:00 in Sweet Surrender coffee shop.

For those who are staying in Poznań during the summer, email Liz if you'd like to be on a summer mailing list. Otherwise, hope you all have a wonderful summer holiday. I'll keep posting things here that may be interesting, so keep an eye out.

Good luck with exams!

Idioms and Football

Actually have more in common than you think.

For a Brit's explanation of the rules of American football, check this site. But if you want a less detailed explanation, remember some of the big key terms: touchdown, field goal (two ways to score points), quarterback (the one throwing), receiver, and a play / a down.

We'll play another game this week or in the future.

Also, a lot of American metaphors are influenced by sports, so it's key to have some understanding of the rules of popular American sports. Idiom Site.com has a pretty comprehensive alphabetical list of American idioms, though it's hard to see them by meaning.

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?

Meeting tonight at Sweet Surrender, 19:00! We'll be learning the rules of American football, the most popular sport in the US.

We the People...

In honor of Constitution Day in Poland on Tuesday, here's SchoolHouse Rock's version of the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution. My class had to watch this about 50 times in 5th grade (age 11) to memorize it. Enjoy!



The lyrics are here.

Meeting again in Sweet Surrender on Wednesday.

Meetings

Great news! Our friends at Sweet Surrender coffee shop have reserved us a room for every Wednesday night. So, rather than meeting in a stuffy classroom in Novum, we will now meet there from now on.

Directions: Go to the Most Teatralny tram stop. Walk north on ul. Roosevelta in the direction AWAY from Rondo Kaponeira and stay on the left side of the street. Keep walking straight, about 100m from the corner at Most Teatralny, and look for the yellow Sweet Surrender sign. It will be at the first small street, Krasińskiego 1.

See you tomorrow at 19:00 at Sweet Surrender (NOT at Novum)!

Recipes

For those of you who loved the dessert sampling at Sweet Surrender, here's a few recipes for similar desserts to try at home.

Chocolate Chip Cookies: Be sure to switch to metric measurements. Also, the biggest challenge you have here is finding brown sugar. This is different from natural brown sugar/raw cane sugar. You can simply replace the brown sugar with regular white sugar, or if you want to be more exact, replace it with white sugar and a spoonful of molasses.

Blondies: Mm those delicious peanut butter chocolate bars. Most blondie recipes also call for brown sugar, but here's another that does not.

And finally, Chocolate Brownie Cake.

Enjoy! Bon Appetit! Smacznego!

The USA: Making fun of itself

Today we'll be talking about stereotypes in the U.S. about other parts of the U.S. Such as why people in the rest of the country love to joke that everyone in my state, New Jersey, looks/thinks/acts like these people:



I promise, we don't. Most of the Jersey Shore cast members aren't even from New Jersey!!

Anyhow, for kicks, here's a few fun links about other stereotypes:

The United States, according to the United States
An endless list of Stuff White People Like
Mapping stereotypes around the world

Cleveland humorous tourism video


And then there's the second one.

Portland: stuck in the 90s

Wednesday: NOT in Novum!

I won't be at our meeting on Wednesday (April 6), so we will NOT meet at Collegium Novum. Instead you'll meet (without me) at Sweet Surrender coffee shop at Most Teatralny. Here's the address and directions.

Aaron and Anna will reserve a room for us beginning at 18:30, so come whenever you can. There will be games and the opportunity to just relax and talk in English. I will try to stop by later in the evening.

Dessert Sampling on Sunday

Sweet Surrender coffee shop has graciously offered to host us for an American dessert sampling this Sunday, April 10, at 15:00. They will open the shop especially for our group! The cost for this delicious event is only 5 zł per person (or 10 zł with coffee or juice).

All are welcome, but we need a headcount so that Sweet Surrender knows how much food to make. Please respond to this post or email me by Wednesday if you want to attend. See you there!

First Annual UAM Spelling Bee

TOMORROW in Collegium Novum, 212b Bloc B at 19:00 sharp:

First Annual UAM Spelling Bee!

A spelling bee is a contest to correctly spell as many words as possible. We will follow the rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the U.S. Every participant will have the opportunity to spell at least one word; however, once a participant misspells a word, he/she will be out of the running. There will be prizes!

There's even a Broadway musical about a spelling bee, let alone a number of movies.

To practice, check out the Merriam-Webster list of sample words. May the best speller win!

Green Eggs and Ham

As we read at our Dr. Seuss meeting last week, here's the text of Dr. Seuss' original Green Eggs and Ham.


And here's Moxy Fruvous' modified music version:

Wednesday meeting

Apologies for not being to post a reminder last week. I was away (with little internet access), so there was no meeting.

However, this week we WILL be meeting. In fact, because some people have a conflict later in the evening, we will start earlier this week only. For Wednesday, March 23 ONLY, we will start at 18:45 and end earlier. 212b as always.


Also, for those of you who are interested in studying in the USA, check out the Fulbright program. This exchange program (my program!) offers scholarships for Polish students and graduates to study in the US. It's recognized as very prestigious in the US, and the scholarship funds almost all of the costs of travel, living, and research expenses. The only catch is that you do need to apply about a year-and-a-half before you want to go. For example, for the 2012-2013 academic year (arriving in the US and beginning around Aug/Sept 2012), the application deadline is April 29, 2011.

If this is something that you are interested in, let me know! There's a Fulbright info session next Monday in Collegium Minus at 13:00. If you cannot make it, email me if you have questions. I'll bring extra materials to our meeting in a week.

See you Wednesday!

Meeting tomorrow!

Next meeting is tomorrow (Wed), again at 19:00 in 212b. We'll have some extra American students visiting (otherwise known as Liz drafting her friends to help), so we'll talk about the differences between university life in the U.S. and in Poland.

Also, if you haven't found our Facebook group yet, you should join.

Multiculturalism in the USA

Here's a couple of the videos that I wanted to show last time, but technology made things too difficult.

Schoolhouse Rock was a TV show (and later a musical on the stage) to teach kids about history, math, grammar, and more in a fun way. When I was in elementary school, teachers were still showing these videos in order to teach us different lessons, so I will probably share a lot of them this semester. This one tells the story of America, the nation of immigrants, and tries to explain the blending of cultures. (Lyrics)



Also, every few years there are TV miniseries which focus on our very different family histories. Americans generally are fascinated by genealogy (studying the family's past and tracing its roots through a family tree), but many of us may know nothing about our ancestors. This PBS reporter hunted through the history of a number of famous Americans and shared their families' stories, as a means to show just a glimpse of the diverse backgrounds of Americans.
Watch it here: Our American Stories: Faces of America

The Line-Up

Here's a tentative plan for the next couple weeks. As always, the goal is just to get discussions flowing, so these topics are just starters.

This week (March 2): Diversity, multiethnicity, the so-called "American Melting Pot", and other fun things. Such as why Americans like pieorgies (yes, we add an -s ending in English) and names not to call someone.

Next week (March 9): American universities and the differences with Polish universities. And even better, we'll have at least two more native speakers present-- current 4th year university students from New York who are visiting me in Poznań for their spring break!

March 16: NO MEETING (unless you guys want to); I'll be at a conference, sorry.

March 23 (and onward): Meeting again as normal

Juno's in Alaska, and there's Lincoln in Nebraska

Rusty on your U.S. states and capitals? Let Wakko and the Animaniacs help you out!



Enjoy!

While you're at it, here's some of the other most memorable Animaniacs songs.

The Parts of the Brain, with Pinky & the Brain

(hilariously out-dated) The Nations of the World, with Yakko

The Universe, with Yakko again

Tonight, Tonight

Our first meeting will be tonight at 19:00 in 212b, Bloc B. It will probably be a relatively short informational meeting just to get the ball rolling. Bring your friends, and see you there!

And if you're still curious about football, here's a map of all the teams in the U.S. according to region: United States of Football.

First Meeting

We've secured a time slot! The American Convo group will start meeting at 19:00 on Wednesdays in Collegium Novum 212b, bloc B. We'll start by meeting in this classroom, but in the future we may instead arrange to meet in coffee shops, bars, or elsewhere. All levels of English and all studies are welcome!

Our first meeting will be Wednesday, Feb. 23 at 19:00. See you there!

Super Bowl Ads

This past Sunday was the biggest game of the year in American football-- the Super Bowl! Known colloquially as Super Bowl Sunday, it is an American tradition to watch this game. It doesn't matter if you don't care about the teams or even don't care about football; if you're not watching because of the game, you're probably watching for the halftime show (always a famous band, this year it was the Black Eyed Peas) or the commercials. This year, a new record was set (again) with 111 million people tuning in of the USA's population of 300 million.

Because the Super Bowl is the most watched TV event in the USA, the commercials, which play during the breaks in play (2-3 might air roughly every 10 minutes), are incredibly expensive and usually very well done. Companies spend millions of dollars on just a few minutes of advertising, so it is important that they get their message across quickly.

Here's the YouTube channel with all the ads from this year's Super Bowl. As you can see, it's usually dominated by beer and car ads. My favorites this year are probably "Volkswagen- The Force" and "Chrysler Eminem". Enjoy!

Coming Soon!

Starting this spring in Poznań: an American Culture and Conversation group!

This is NOT a class. Nor is it a lecture. Instead, this is a group of students for students, and an opportunity for you to relax, and have fun, and use only English. You will meet native speakers who may help us talk about everything from the details of American football to how to study in the USA. Come ready to talk about whatever you want to talk about, especially things not discussed in the classroom. Popular culture, slang, films, foods, music and much more!

This group is completely casual and completely free. It is run by a native speaker, but it is by students and for students of any level. All are welcome!