The ELI Weekly
Out and About: How to make friends here
By Leonardo Grisolia Davila and Hyojeong Park, RW 31
Do you have many friends at the ELI? At the ELI, it is not more difficult to make friends because you can know a lot of people from different countries. You can talk with them about various things. You can talk about food, cultures, languages, hobbies. If you want to make friends, you have to start a conversation with them. You can do it in the bus or in the lunch time, or at the weekly activities, or socializing in the classroom. For example, I went to the coffee talk on Monday. Then I met a new friend who likes board game, now we play games together and we talked a lot. Another example is when you finish your class, and everybody goes out to the hallway, and they talk about their classes. Listen to the LA class to be able to communicates with others in a respectfully way. It is important to talk and socialize with other people since you can make friends for a long time, and it is important to go to ELI activities as it helps you even more to meet new people.
CIP Weekday Activities
Weekend Activity
There is no scheduled ELI activity this weekend since many classes will be holding Midterm Exams next week. Use the weekend to study. Good luck on your exams!
Here are some tips to help you do well on the exams and to improve your English overall.
- Do the activities in the book that your instructor did and didn’t assign.
- Find activities online. For example, if you Google “preposition practice”, you’ll get lots of results.
- Practice whatever you’re studying, but do it out loud. You can practice using pronouns in sentences, reading the newspaper and finding them there, listening for them when people talk, and writing texts to friends using them.
- Get plenty of sleep and eat well!
Other CIP Reminders
CIP Passports: Don’t forget to get your CIP Passport hole punched from the activity leaders AT the event (not after). We will no longer hole punch passports after the event. Redeem your completed passport for a small gift and photo for the ELI Instagram! Remember the CIP Pineapple is hidden in a new place every Monday in the CIP office. Stop by and find it for hole punches!
Passport Winners in the Weekly: We would like to recognize the passport winners in the Weekly. Please let Tate know when you win if you do not want to have your name in the Weekly.
Conversation Partners (CPs):
Sign up for a CP here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScrco_-3vxQmpyStsHOW0DQcoPfkm5yJYDzOuWLmq3nIaj2wg/viewform
Remember, if you sign up, you must meet your partner at least once a week and respond to their messages. Email conversationpartners@eli.ufl.edu if you have any questions or problems or stop by the CIP office to see Will during his office hours.
Notes from the Office
New Students: B Term is about to begin, and you will see new students coming to the main office, in the hallways, in your classes, and at activities. Please welcome and help new students as they begin to settle at UF and in Gainesville.
People Out: Daryl and Tate are both out of the office from October 11-13. Please plan around these dates if you need to talk to either of them.
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 Moody (omoody@ufl.edu) or to your teacher. Please include your name and class on your submission. The deadline for submissions is Friday, November 3.
Photo of the Week
Birthdays!
Manners & Culture
Q: I heard someone in Starbucks say, “spill the tea,” and I was looking for a coffee on the floor. But they were laughing. What does “spill the tea” mean?
A: Since there was no mess to clean on the floor, maybe these friends were asking for the gossip. “Spill the tea” means “tell me the gossip.” Here is a list of great idioms you can use when you want to know the gossip.
- Spill the beans!
- Dish the dirt!
- Spill the tea!
- Out with it!
Grammar
Q: I get the prepositions confused! Can you explain study in vs. study at?
A: It depends on what you are trying to express with the full sentence. If you are answering this question:
Where are you studying?
Then you can say:
- I am studying at the University of Florida.
If you are answering this question:
What are you studying?
You can say:
- I am majoring in engineering.
- I am studying engineering.
You can combine ideas like this:
- I am majoring in engineering at the University of Florida.
- I am studying engineering at the University of Florida
Here are some other examples:
- He is a professor in the Physics Department at Harvard University.
- I am a PhD student in Business at MIT.
Notes From the Editor
Come by my office (221 MAT) and help me write the Out and About section! There are so many topics to write about–a fun activity, an interesting place on campus, a club or hobby that you enjoy, or even tell us about a place to visit in your country. Bring a photo of your experience and put it in the Weekly.
Send stories and grammar, manners, or culture questions to Maya Shastri (mshastri@ufl.edu).