The ELI Weekly
Out and About: The Most Popular Vacation Spot in Korea–Jeju Island
by Jeongmin Hong, RW51
If you like nature and you have a plan to visit Korea, there is a place that you should visit at least once. It is Jeju Island. It is located in the southern part of South Korea, so it’s the warmest location that you could find in Korea. It is famous for its nature and food, which, I think, are the most important parts in traveling. It’s an island, so you can commonly see the beaches and it’s made of a volcano’s lava. So, you can commonly see special rocks that have lots of holes and are dark black. Since it has a volcano that is inactive, you can go on a hike. When you hike you can see the green in Hanra Mountain. Moving on to the food, there is a special pig called ‘heukdoweji’ which means black pig. Its skin color is black, and its texture is chewy and soft. There are a lot of fish which is caught right before it’s served because it’s an island. And Jeju island is also as known for its oranges that have lots of sweet juice. You can have so many diverse foods whenever you want.
CIP Weekday Activities
Sign up for all activities here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0C4BA9A823A02-student28
Weekend Activity
Saturday March 19th – Spring Garden Festival – 1:00pm -4:45pm
Meet at Norman parking garage at 1:00pm to drive with LAs to the Spring Garden Festival at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens! Join us as we walk through the colorful flowers and enjoy the beginning of spring! Make sure to bring a camera to take pictures and wear some sunscreen. The tickets are $10 CASH ONLY to enter but make sure to bring extra money if you would like to buy food. There will be music, plants for sale, food, crafts and more!
Sign up on the weekly signup ONLY if you need a ride. Self-drivers can meet us at Norman Garage or at the front of Kanapaha.
ELI Talent Show Update
Upcoming dates:
Deadline: Make sure to submit your music in MP3 format to Tate by the end of the day on March 14th! You must also send the list of all participants in your act and a short bio about the performance.
Rehearsals: There are rehearsals after classes on March 15th from 5:00pm to 7:00pm in the Language Studio. There will also be a dress rehearsal right before the Talent Show on March 24th in the University Auditorium at 4:00pm.
Talent Show on March 24th at 7:30pm in the University Auditorium!
No other talent acts are being accepted at this time.
Conversation Partners (CPs)
Want to meet with an English speaker once a week and make a new friend?! Sign up here! https://forms.gle/k7Z826F2LU9gekrU7
Wait two weeks after signing up to be paired.
Email conversationpartners@eli.ufl.edu if your partner does not respond a week after you contact them.
Remember, CPs are not tutors, they will not do your homework or teach you grammar. They are fluent English speakers who will help you speak by having one-on-one practice and being your friend!
US Federal Tax Forms for International Students
Taxes are due on April 18th this year. Taxes are filed for the previous calendar year, which in this case is 2021. If you didn’t earn money in the U.S. in 2021, you won’t owe taxes; however, if you were an international student in a U.S. school in 2021, you must file Form 8843 for you and your dependents whether you worked at a campus job in 2021 or not.
As a UF ELI student you can use a free non-immigrant tax filing program called Sprintax to file tax form 8843. Daryl Bish emailed you how to access Sprintax. Contact him at studyenglish@eli.ufl.edu or make an appointment to talk with in 223 Matherly Hall if you did not receive information about Sprintax. You must access Sprintax through a secure portal, and you must use your Gatorlink information to enter the program.
If you do not use Sprintax, you can print Form 8843, complete and sign it, and mail it to the government. You can access form 8843 here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8843.pdf. Fill out the information under Part I and Part III. In 9 and 10, you need to include the information about the academic institution that you attended in 2021. You can find the address and phone number for the ELI at www.eli.ufl.edu. The name of the director of the ELI is Megan Forbes.
Mail your completed form to this address:
Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service
Austin, TX 73301
If you had on campus employment in 2021, you will receive a form reporting your income and tax withholdings called a W-2. Because you earned taxable and reportable income and must submit a federal tax return to file your W-2. You also must file form 8843. Sprintax can help you do both.
The ELI is not permitted to assist any student with any IRS tax form preparation or give tax advice, but if you have questions about the above information, please contact Daryl Bish.
Santa Fe Information Session
ELI Student Leadership Group
Notes from the Office
B-term Students: This week, we are welcoming our new B-term students to the ELI. Here are their places of origin:
Brazil- Colombia
- Greece
- Korea
- Kuwait
- Peru
- Saudi Arabia
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
B-term Deadlines: For B-term students, Thursday, March 17, is the last day to drop or add a class, pay tuition, turn in financial guarantees, and submit proof of insurance and immunizations. If you miss this deadline, go to the ELI Main Office in Matherly 223 immediately. If you don’t do this, you may be removed from classes or charged a late fee.
C-term Midterm Grades: C-term students will receive their midterm grade reports this week. You can check your grade reports on my.eli.ufl.edu .This is a good opportunity to see how you are doing this semester and talk to your teachers if you need extra help achieving your goals.
Student Voices: We love to see our students’ writing. Every semester, we take your writing and publish it in Student Voices. Past submissions have included paragraphs, essays, creative stories, recipes, letters, obituaries, poetry, creative stories, class projects, and other interesting works on a variety of topics. I 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 (omoody@ufl.edu) or to your teacher. Please include your name and class on your submission. The deadline for submissions is Friday, April 8th.
Manners & Culture
Q: My American friend told me to wear green on Thursday. Why?
Thursday, March 17, is St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick is a patron saint of Ireland. In the history of the US, a lot of Irish people immigrated to America, and they brought many traditions with them. Then these celebrations changed to reflect the American-Irish life. Today, St. Patrick’s Day is marked in the US by wearing green clothes and possibly drinking green-colored drinks.
Grammar
Q: What’s the difference between ‘like’ and ‘such as’ for examples?
We use ‘like’ to mean ‘such as’ to introduce examples when we are talking. Most textbooks will consider ‘like’ used in this way to be slang or conversational informal English. This means that you are likely to hear people say ‘like’ for examples, but you are less like to see it written in formal or academic texts.
- You will hear people say: “There are great trees here, like pine, bald cypress, and oak.”
- You will see written: This county has a variety of trees, such as pine, bald cypress, and oak.
Birthdays!
This includes the birthdays from Spring Break week and this week.
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Students: | Staff: |
| Abdulrahman Alsalem-3/8 | Melina Jimenez-3/17 | |
| Eugénia Francisco-3/9 | ||
| Ana Gabriela Moraes Nina-3/9 | ||
| Jiwoo Kang-3/11 | ||
| Jieun Ahn-3/14 | ||
| Asma Alzahrani-3/15 | ||
| Juan Grados Belandria-3/19 |
Notes from the Editor
I would love to see some stories about interesting places in your country! Tell us about a place that we must see if we visit your country. This might be a museum, historical place, religious place, park etc. Send stories and a photo of the place to Maya (mshastri@ufl.edu) and use the subject line ‘ELI Weekly’.