The ELI Weekly
Where in the World?
This semester, the ELI has 121 students from 24 countries. Ask your classmates to tell you some fun facts about their countries!
CIP Weekly Activities
Weekend Event: Volunteer Weekend
Help your community by choosing ONE of the volunteering events this weekend. Please only sign up for one. You must sign up to attend: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0C4BA9A823A02-51145361-volunteer
Saturday September 14th
Porters Community Garden – 9:00am – 11:00am – Meet at Porters near Downtown
- Help garden in our local community to provide fresh food to those who need it!
- Meet at 518 SW 3rd St, Gainesville, FL 32601
- Take bus 1, 5, or 46 and walk 5 minutes
Guardian Angels – 9:00am – 12:30pm – Meet at Norman Parking Garage
- Help this facility for service dogs in training with maintenance and upkeep. Then, help train the dogs through socializing and exposure to strangers by playing with them and petting them!
Helping Hands with North Florida Sewing Center – 9:30 am – 12:30pm- Meet at Norman Parking Garage
- Help create items for people in need by cutting and sewing health and comfort supplies! Beginners welcome, nobody needs to have any prior experience!
Sunday September 15th
Millcreek Horse Farm – 9:15am -1:30pm – Meet at Norman Garage
- Come help this retirement home for horses! They have different farm maintenance projects for us and we will get a chance to see and feed the horses!
Other CIP Reminders
Conversation Partners (CPs)
Want to meet with a fluent English speaker and make a new friend? Sign up for a CP! If you choose to sign up, you must meet with your partner for one hour a week. It can take up to two weeks to get a partner from when you sign up. Please sign up at this link: https://forms.gle/CZoP2zQ7nxWD4wcA8
Please email Rachel at conversationpartners@eli.ufl.edu for any issues, questions or concerns or visit her in the CIP Office during office hours.
CIP Passports
Don’t forget to get your CIP Passport hole punched from the activity leaders AT the event (not after). We don’t hole punch passports after the event. Redeem your completed passport for a small gift, a photo for the ELI Instagram, and your name published in the ELI weekly!
Need a new CIP Passport? Stop by the CIP Office!
Remember the CIP Pineapple is hidden in a new place every Monday in the CIP office. Stop by and find it for hole punches!
Notes from the Office
ELI Classrooms: Please remember that there are two grammar periods this semester. This means that the ELI classrooms have classes in them from 11:45-12:35. After 12:35 you will be able to go in and find a seat for your LS class.
Class Attendance: Your attendance is important. Your teachers are taking note of both your absences and your tardies in every class every day. Please remember that this also includes time spent in the hallway instead of the classroom.
Lost and Found: Have you lost your car keys, student ID card, driver’s license, wallet, or some other important item? Many times, when people find an item, they bring it to the office for safe keeping. When you lose something, please come by the ELI Main Office (MAT223) and see if it is in the lost and found.
Hallways: Many UF faculty and staff have offices in classroom buildings, just like Matherly Hall and Norman. Please remember to speak softly in the buildings. Please do not block the hallways or staircases by sitting in them.
Student Voices
Every semester, we have amazing student writers, so we take your writing and publish it in an online collection called Student Voices. In past semesters, students have written paragraphs, essays, creative stories, recipes, letters, obituaries, poetry, and more. You can see past editions of Student Voices (https://eli.ufl.edu/news-publications/, scroll to the bottom of the page) for inspiration.
We encourage you to submit anything of your work that you wish to see published. It can be from any class or something you have written on your own but ask your teachers for help editing! You can email it to Olga Moody (omoody@ufl.edu) or to your teacher. Please include your name and class on your submission. The deadline for submissions is Friday, November 1st.
Getting Extra Help in the Classroom (Accommodations)
Do you have special learning needs due to a personal medical condition? If you do, it is important that you get in touch with Christine (christinevoigt@ufl.edu) as soon as possible so we know how to help you. Christine will help you talk to the UF Disabilities Resource Center about accommodations for your classes.
Some examples of accommodations are:
- extra time on exams due to a reading disability
- providing PowerPoint Presentations to students who need more reading time
- permission to leave the classroom to take medication
- eating or drinking in class for a specific medical condition
- an audio version of a text book for students who have limited vision
We want this to be a great learning experience for all our students!
Staying Safe on Campus
Here are a few safety reminders for staying safe on campus:
- Weather: If there are high winds, lightning, or thunder, stay in a building. For hurricanes, you can go to http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ to keep informed of hurricane activity, and they also have some excellent preparation and planning tips. Also, if there is a hurricane threatening Gainesville, the ELI will keep you informed and make sure you know what to do and where to go. Finally, you should download the Gatorsafe App on your phone so you can get notifications about storms or other dangerous weather near campus.
- Personal belongings: Do not leave backpacks, computers, phones or other personal belongings in the classrooms or hallways when you are not there. Also, if you use a mobility device like a bike, electric scooter, or skateboard, you should lock it outside at one of the racks. Take the time to register your property with UFPD, especially your mobility devices.
- Personal information: Be careful of scam emails, text messages, and phone calls from people asking for bank account information, gift cards, credit card information, etc, even if they say they are from the police, ICE, or IRS. These messages often claim they need immediate payment or there will be some terrible result for you. These are scams meant to scare you into giving them money. If you ever get a text or call and you aren’t sure if it is a scam, come talk to Christine for help.
- ELI Emergency Cell Phone and 911: The ELI has a special phone number that you can use if you have a medical or legal emergency outside of normal office hours. The ELI emergency phone number is 352-672-0144 that is available from 4:30pm-8:00am when the ELI office is closed. You should store this number in your phone in case you have an emergency. An example of an emergency is if an ELI student needs to go to the hospital or gets arrested. Please do not use the emergency number for anything that can wait to be answered by email or when the office is open. If you need the police, fire department, or an ambulance for an extreme emergency, call 911 before you call the ELI emergency number.
Photo of the Week
Birthdays!
Culture
Q: In the USA, can I call my teacher “Teacher” like this: “Teacher Maya?”
A: We do not say “Teacher Maya” in the United States. We have very specific forms of address for formal and informal situations.
Informal address: This is easy! You only use the person’s first name. If your teacher wants you to be informal, she will tell you, “Call me Maya.”
Formal address: For a more respectful way to address people, we use a title plus the last name.
- Men: Mister (Mr.) Smith
- Women: Miss Smith for a young girl, Missus (Mrs.) Smith for a married woman, and Ms. Smith for a woman when you don’t know if she is married or not.
- At the university, you will also hear two titles “Doctor” and “Professor”. Doctor is only for people who have earned their PhD or medical degree. Professor can be used for any teaching staff with a master’s or PhD. Remember that you would still use the last or family name with these, so if Maya wants you to use a formal address, you might use any of these: Ms. Shastri, Mrs. Shastri, or Professor Shastri.
Grammar
Q: Do I use “much” or “many” with money?
A: While both words mean “a lot,” we use the word “much” with things that cannot be counted and “many” with plural count nouns. The word “money” is non-count, so we use “much.”
- I don’t have much money.
- How much money is in the bank account?
However, if we are talking about units of money (coins, bills) then we will use “many.”
- I have many one-dollar bills in my wallet.
- She asked me for many coins from my country for her world coin collection.
Notes from the editor
When you see or do cool things on campus, in Gainesville, and around Florida, share them with your ELI family by sending a paragraph and a photo to me to put in the Weekly.
Are you curious about the culture of Gainesville? Send a culture question for me to put in the Weekly.
Is grammar getting you down? Send a grammar question to me and see the answer in the Weekly!
Send stories and questions to Maya (mshastri@ufl.edu).