The ELI Weekly Thanksgiving in the U.S. Most Americans learn that Thanksgiving started in 1621 when the people of the Wampanoag tribe in Plymouth, Massachusetts, shared a meal with a group of British colonists, known as the Pilgrims. The meal included lobster, clams, vegetables, dried fruits, and turkey. This celebration gave thanks for […]
The ELI Weekly Time Change: Standard Time Begins Does the time change in your country twice a year? Here in the U.S., the time “falls back” one hour on the first Sunday of November to start the period of the year known as Standard Time. Why do we set the clocks back one […]
The ELI Weekly Student Writing: YaHsuan Wang, RW 20 My Life at ELI I study English at ELI and it has amazing and wonderful program. I enjoy the courses here. I like to study reading / writing and grammar. The teachers are all very friendly, kind, and professional. The courses are also […]
The ELI Weekly The Legend of Jack-O-Lantern Besides the candy, jack-o-lanterns are many people’s favorite part of our Halloween tradition! Have you ever wondered where the name jack-o-lantern came from? It has its roots in an Irish folktale about a man named Jack, who was stingy but also very tricky. In the […]
The ELI Weekly Student Writing by YaHsuan Wang, RW 20 My Country Taiwan My country is very small in Asia and shaped like a sweet potato. It is very close to China, Japan and South Korea. It is Taiwan. Its population is 23.34 million and official languages are Traditional Chinese and Taiwanese. Many […]
The ELI Weekly A Special Farewell from Melina When I first started at the ELI, in Fall 2006, I was inexperienced and scared! At the end of the first week of class, I called my mami crying because I was worried that I wasn’t teaching my students well and they were just losing […]
The ELI Weekly Out and About: UF Bat Houses With the Halloween season around the corner, it’s a good time to talk about bats! Along with witches, ghosts, and pumpkins, bats are synonymous with Halloween. So, if you are interested in getting into the Halloween spirit, take a visit to the UF Bat […]
The ELI Weekly Out and About: Volunteering This weekend, ELI students have two volunteer opportunities: Green Bridges and Mill Creek Horse Farm. Did you know volunteering is an important aspect of American culture? Though the number of hours that Americans volunteer has decreased since the pandemic, volunteering is still strong in the U.S. […]
The ELI Weekly Out and About: Community Gardens Have you ever heard of a community garden? A community garden is a piece of land that is gardened by a group of people in a neighborhood. In some community gardens, people who sign up to tend the garden are given their own piece of […]
The ELI Weekly Where in the World? This semester, the ELI has 63 students from more than 21 different places. You can learn a lot about the world from your classmates! Some students are from more than one country. If you call more than one place home, let us know and we will […]