Happy Birthday!

Clarke, our hard-working president at Nomen Global who has been at this English school for over 14 years, is having a birthday this weekend! We thought we'd take a look at a few of the American traditions associated with these special days.

Party
To celebrate a birthday, most Americans have a party with friends and family. Most celebrators send out decorated invitations in the mail, or more recently, through Facebook. Traditionally, guests invited to the party bring a gift for the person, but this is not usually necessary for older birthday celebrators.

Cake
In the United States, a birthday isn't complete without some sort of celebratory confection. Most people choose from a variety of different flavored cakes and frostings. The most important part of a birthday cake, however, is the candles on top. The number of candles represents the age that the person is turning. For example, if someone is turning 25, there would be 25 candles on top of the cake. After the all the candles are lit, everyone sings the famous "Happy Birthday" song. The person who has a birthday then makes a wish (without telling anyone!) and blows out the candles. If all the candles go out in one breath, legend says that the wish will come true!

Song
The most well-known song in the English language is "Happy Birthday." This song was written in 1893 by Mildred and Patty Hill. The two sisters were school teachers in Kentucky. As an accomplished musician, Mildred wrote the tune and her sister, Patty, wrote the lyrics to a simple song to greet their students:
"Good morning to you,
Good morning to you,
Good morning, dear children,
Good morning to all."
After about 30 years, the lyrics were anonymously changed to the ever-popular
"Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday, dear ______,
Happy birthday to you."

Visit Randall's Cyber Listening Lab for some fun listening practice on birthdays (easy) and sending invitations (medium difficulty).

To learn more about Nomen Global, visit our website.

Student Spotlight: Telma Pradera


Telma Pradera is from Brazil. She has been studying English at Nomen Global for 3 months and has been helping the school as much as the school has been helping her! Telma is one of our student employees who assists in finding other students to study English in Utah. She is doing a fantastic job! So far, she has already brought 2 students and has many more other students in the application process. Telma is studying at Nomen Global because she thinks that it is a great school to study English; she wants others to enjoy learning as much as she does! Although Telma enjoys her whole experience at Nomen Global, she especially loves the teachers and their teaching method.

In the future, Telma hopes to earn her master's degree after she studies English. Her greatest success is doing what she planned to do and being happy while doing it! However, the most important thing to Telma is her family. In her free time, Telma likes to run, to swim, and to read.

Meet Telma and other great students like her at Nomen Global!

Activities 2010–2011

Today is the first day of Nomen Global's summer semester! What better way to celebrate than by taking a walk down memory lane. Someone at our school made this slideshow from pictures taken at our activities over the past year. Take a look at this slideshow to see how this English school has fun: rafting, hiking, bowling, ice skating, dancing, visiting Disneyland and Las Vegas, and many more!


To learn more about Nomen Global and its activites, visit our website.

Grammar Guide: Parts of Speech

If you have studied Englishor any language for that matteryou know the significance of parts of speech. "Part of speech" is a grammar term that refers to how a word is used in a sentence. Many students can recognize a noun or a verb, but did you know that there are 8 parts of speech? Did you know that the same word can be a noun in one sentence, but a verb in another? Read more to find out about all of these types of words.

Verb
One of the most important parts of a sentence, verbs represent the action or state of being. A verb must have a subject, or something or someone that does the action. Verbs also show time through their tense. There are 12 verb tenses in English.

Oh! The tall man was riding his bicycle across the street and the red car was speeding through the intersection! They almost crashed!

Noun
Nouns can represent people, places, animals, things, or ideas. They can take the place of subject, direct object, indirect object, or object of a preposition in a sentence.

Oh! The tall man was riding his bicycle across the street and the red car was speeding through the intersection! They almost crashed!

Pronoun
Pronouns take the place of nouns. The noun to which a pronoun refers is called the antecedent. There are 4 different types of pronouns: subject pronouns, object pronouns, possessive adjectives, and possessive pronouns.

Oh! The tall man was riding his bicycle across the street and the red car was speeding through the intersection! They almost crashed!

Adjective
Adjectives are describing or quantifying words that modify nouns or pronouns. In English, the adjective usually precedes the word it modifies.

Oh! The tall man was riding his bicycle across the street and the red car was speeding through the intersection! They almost crashed!

Adverb
Adverbs can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or even a whole phrase or clause! Adverbs answer the questions how?, where?, when?, to what extent?, and how much?

Oh! The tall man was riding his bicycle across the street and the red car was speeding through the intersection! They almost crashed!

Preposition
Prepositions connect nouns, pronouns, and phrases to other parts of the sentence. Prepositional phrases can be adjectival or adverbial in nature.

Oh! The tall man was riding his bicycle across the street and the red car was speeding through the intersection! They almost crashed!

Conjunction
Conjunctions are the connecting words in English. They connect words, phrases, and even clauses together!

Oh! The tall man was riding his bicycle across the street and the red car was speeding through the intersection! They almost crashed!

Interjection
Interjections  are used to convey emotions. They are not grammatically apart of sentences. An exclamation mark is usually used with interjections.

Oh
! The tall man was riding his bicycle across the street and the red car was speeding through the intersection! They almost crashed!

Last, but not least, we will answer the riddle from last week's post.
Q: A woman has two coins that equal 30 cents in total. One of them is not a nickel. What are the two coins?
A: A quarter and a nickel! A quarter is not a nickel!

To learn more about Nomen Global, visit our website.

Student Spotlight: Erdenebat Sanjdorj


Erdenebat Sanjdorj (Nate) is from Mongolia, located between China and Russia. Nate is enrolled in our TOEFL Preparation course and has been studying at Nomen Global for 5 months. He has enjoyed meeting a diverse group of international students. Nate says that because of the variety of cultures and languages, "it's fun and faster to learn English at Nomen Global." Nate also appreciates the way the teachers teach. He says that learning English at Nomen Global is "study with fun."

After he finishes studying English, Nate plans to go to a university in Texas or California. He hasn't decided yet because are so many "cool and famous" universities in the United States! Nate hopes to receive his bachelor's degree with a GPA higher than 3.7.

Although Nate doesn't have much free time, he enjoys spending time at the park. His goals include attending a prestigious university, obtaining a respectable job, and having a happy family. For fun, Nate wants to travel to Dubai, Brazil, and different countries in Europe. Nate believes that family is the most important thing.

Meet Nate and other students like him at Nomen Global!

Nature Scavenger Hunt at Bridal Veil Falls

Nomen Global students enjoy not only a great English education but also beautiful mountain surroundings! Last week we hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls, a breath-taking waterfall up the canyon, to explore nature and have fun with English.

The purpose of a scavenger hunt is to be the first group finished finding all of the items on the list. The students broke up into teams and received a camera and list of things to find in nature.

In order to prove that each item was found, the groups had to take a picture of everything they found.

Items on the list focused on things in nature. Some of the items were easy to spot; others required our students to get creative!


  • Someone doing a handstand in front of a waterfall.
  • Someone holding a really big rock.
  • A wild animal.
  • Someone wearing a hat made out of leaves.
  • Someone drinking a waterfall.
  • Three people dancing in front of a tall tree.
  • Someone with sticks for fingers.
  • Someone holding the sun.
  • Someone walking on water.
  • Two people doing karate with a tree.

Our students had a great time talking about how to take each picture. They also had a great time in nature! Now that spring is finally coming, we love to take English learning outside to discover what Utah has to offer.
 

To learn more about Nomen Global and Utah, visit our website.

Money

On April 4, 2011, we blogged about how Nomen Global offers cheaper tuition and cost of living than other English schools in Provo and the United States. This blog post is to make sure you know how to use all that money that you’ve saved by coming to Nomen Global Language Centers.

Often when going to a new country either for business, pleasure, or to study, people don’t consider learning about the money system. The denominations might be confusing at first, but with this quick lesson and a little practice, you’ll be able to buy those souvenirs for yourself and your friends and family back home.

First off, we have one dollar.  Here is an example of a dollar bill.  However, there are also dollar coins. The two most recent dollar coins are the Sacagawea Dollar and the Presidential Dollar coins. You’ll hear people refer to a dollar is a “buck.” For example, “It cost me 20 bucks.”

Now, there are different denominations of bills. There’s a one dollar bill. 
But there's also a 2 dollar bill,

a 5 dollar bill,

a 10 dollar bill,

a 20 dollar bill,

a 50 dollar bill,

and a 100 dollar bill.
Now anything less than one dollar is counted in cents. 100 cents make one dollar and they are represented by coins. One cent is called a penny, 5 cents is a nickel, 10 cents is a dime, 25 cents is a quarter, and 50 cents is a half dollar. The math is pretty straight forward: 5 pennies equals a nickel, 2 nickels equals a dime, 2 dimes and a nickel equals a quarter, etc.



And there you have it, a quick guide to United States money. Now here’s a riddle for you: A woman has two coins that equal 30 cents in total. One of them is not a nickel. What are the two coins? The answer will be in one of next week’s posts!

To learn more about Nomen Global Language Centers visit our website

Student Spotlight: Sandra Ruiz Torres


Sandra Ruiz Torres is a student from Mexico City, Mexico. She has been studying English at Nomen Global for 4 months. She loves improving her speaking ability while living in the United States by participating in Nomen Global activities.

When Sandy finishes studying at Nomen Global, she plans to continue improving her English and to study business. Sandy considers moving to Utah and studying English her most important decisions because this experience will help define her future.

In her spare time, Sandy enjoys watching movies and going out with her friends. She has goals to master English, study at a university, and get married. Sandy loves her family and considers them the most important thing to her.

To learn more about Nomen Global students and what they enjoy, visit our website.

ComedySportz

Last Friday a handful of Nomen Global students experienced one of the best comedy shows in Utah! ComedySportz is a popular improv show in Provo featuring two teams of comedians. The teams battle against each other using audience suggestions to generate as much laughter as possible!


Could you create a conversation based on a random text message from a stranger? Well, this challenge was one of the favorite sketches from Friday's performance. A member from the audience read a text message they had received, and the teams had to use that text message in their dialogue. Then the audience chose which team performed the best and funniest sketch.


"I really like the show because they interacted with the audience. Being involved made it more interesting," reports Jinseon, an English student from Korea.


ComedySportz is a great activity for students learning English because it challenges their listening ability. It also gives them a valuable cultural experience. A basic understanding of humor can give insights into the culture. Someone once said that you become more fluent when you can understand and tell jokes.


Nomen Global students enjoy learning more about and living in American culture. Our English school plans and participates in great activities to enhance the education of our students. To learn more about Nomen Global, visit our website.

Speaking, Listening, and Vocabulary Strategy: Games!

Many students ask about ways to improve speaking and listening. Even more students ask about ways to improve vocabulary. One extraordinary way to practice them all is through games! At Nomen Global, many students enjoy playing games together to practice these difficult skills in a fun and interactive way. Games not only help you use your English, they force you to use your English quickly and efficiently! There are many games that are great for families and parties. Here are a few of Nomen Global's favorites and where to find them.

Speaking and Listening Games
Backseat Drawing allows team members to improve their listening and speaking skills as one team member describes how to draw something while the other team member must follow the instructions! Other team members laugh as they try to guess what is being drawn. Both speaking and listening skills are a must!

Catch Phrase is a Nomen favorite! This game features a word wheel that contains a variety of words. One team member must describe this word semantically as the other team members listen and try to guess the word. You must speak fast! The timer will be ticking! You must be able to speak well in Catch Phrase.

Mad Gab is a hilarious and entertaining game of sounds and meaning! As one team member reads non-words that are totally unrelated, the other team members must try to decipher the meaning before the time is up. For example, DEW WINO HUE sounds like "Do I know you?" Test your listening with Mad Gab!

Story Cubes Actions allows your creativity to soar! The cubes in this game depict the most important English verbs to help you practice telling new stories every time you play. Practice your grammar and vocabulary in this clever educational game.

Table Topics will get you speaking about all topics with your friends. This creative conversation starter allows you to get to know your friends better while practicing your English. You will practice speaking on a wide variety of topics!

Taboo is another favorite speaking game! You are challenged to describe words to your teammatesbut don't say the taboo words! You will exercise your vocabulary as you try to figure out more creative ways to explain your word to your teammates with Taboo.

You've Been Sentenced tests your grammar and speaking skills. You first create sentences with the cards you are given, but then you must explain your sentence to your teammates! Your friends will judge your sentence, so you better explain yourself well.

Imaginiff is the hilarious game where you ask questions and discuss answers about your friends. "Imaginiff your friend were a fruit. Which would he/she be?" Take turns voting on and talking about funny and creative answers. Imaginiff increases your vocabulary and speaking skills!

Vocabulary and Spelling Games
Apples to Apples has won numerous awards for a great family and party game. Take turns judging crazy comparisons of people, places, things, and events. Increase your vocabulary in the funny and entertaining Apples to Apples.

Bananagrams challenges your skills with letters and words. Create your own crossword puzzles with letters drawn from the pile. Race your friends to see who can come up with the mostand bestwords before all the letters are gone! A large vocabulary and good spelling skills are a must in Bananagrams.

Boggle is the timed word search game that has been a favorite for years. You create new word search every time you play when you shake and twist the letters in the cube. Your vocabulary and spelling skills will be tested as you race your friends to find the most words before the time is up.

Last Word makes you think quick before the random timer goes off. You are given a category, a beginning letter, and a time limit to think of as many words as you can. Your vocabulary will be challenged as you strive to have the last word.

Name Five challenges you to think of 5 things on a multitude of topics. Can you think of 5 things that make you sneeze? You will laugh with your friends as you share your answers. Improve your vocabulary with Name Five!

Pictionary is a the classic drawing game. Challenge yourself to draw a given word as your teammates try to figure it out. If you want to practice vocabulary, you will love Pictionary!

Scattergories is a cousin to games like Last Word and Name Five. You are challenged to think of words that fit into 12 different categories beginning with the same letter. Another Nomen favorite, Scattergories, will spark your thinking and vocabulary skills.

Scrabble is the classic crossword game. With your 7 letters, can you create words that build on the rest of the puzzle? The more difficult letters you use, the more points you receive! Your spelling skills will improve as you play Scrabble with your friends.

Nomen Global students enjoy finding out new and fun ways to practice English. If you want to know more about Nomen Global, our programs, and our activities, contact us today!

Student Spotlight: Mario Xaverius


Mario Xaverius is a student from Indonesia. He has been studying at Nomen Global for a few months and is making some rapid progress in his English skills! Mario came to Nomen Global to improve his English and gain international experience. He hopes to use his English to work in the tourism industry on his island in Indonesia.

Mario loves Nomen Global because he is making new friends from many other countries! He attends many school activities—including the Ski/Snowboard Adventure where Mario went snowboarding for the first time! Mario also loves the English teachers because they are different and more friendly than other teachers he has had at other English schools.

Coming to the United States and traveling by himself is one of the most exciting things that Mario has done in his life, but his family is still the most important thing to him! In addition to studying English and hanging out with friends, Mario spends his time thinking about, learning about, and planning for his future. Mario plans to learn many more languages after he masters English so that he can easily travel to other countries. 


Meet Mario and other great students like him at
Nomen Global

Cheaper Tuition and Cost of Living in Provo, Utah

Money is one of the most important things students consider when choosing a school to study English. Nomen Global students get a great deal for their money. In addition to cheaper tuition, cost of living is much less expensive in Provo, Utah, than most cities in the United States. Let's take a look at some numbers.

Nomen Global Language Center
Provo, Utah
Nomen Global has a great tuition rate for 1 semester. If you study for 2 semesters, each 16-week semester of intensive English costs only $2,370. Cost of living associated with Nomen Global is $2,460. Nomen Global students enjoy a full schedule of classes as well as school-affiliated activities on the weekends.

BYU English Language Center
Provo, Utah
The ELC at BYU also has a great value of $2,325 per semester. The ELC has three set semesters with enrollment in January, April, and August, whereas Nomen Global has open enrollment all year. The ELC also recommends a $2,800 cost of living.

Selnate International School
Provo, Utah
Selnate is another school in Provo, Utah, but their tuition is $2,800 for levels 1-5 and $3,150 for level 6. Homestay cost of living at Selnate is $2,850 per semester.

DePaul University
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago is a popular city to visit, but cost of living is almost twice as expensive! Tuition at DePaul University costs $3,295 for only 10 weeks, wheras Nomen Global offers a 16-week semester.

Seattle Language Academy

Seattle, Washington
Seattle Language Academy offers intensive English courses on 4-week terms. For 16 weeks, tuition costs $5,050.

UCLA American Language Center

Los Angeles, California
Though one of the most popular cities to visit in the United States, Los Angeles cost of living is also one of the highest. Tuition at UCLA is $4,605 for only 12 weeks. Students at Nomen Global are close enough to Los Angeles to visit, but have a much lower cost of living.

Yale University English Language Institute

New Haven, Connecticut
Yale University offers 6-week intensive English courses for $4,250! Nomen Global students receive almost 3 times more time for almost half the money! Cost of living in New Haven is also $3,165.

Wayne State University

Detroit, Michigan
Finally, Wayne State University offers a semester of intensive English for $7,866.25. Cost of living in Detroit is $3,600.


Nomen Global students really do enjoy a quality education, world-class surroundings, and everyday fun for what seems like pocket change! To learn more about Nomen Global and the programs we offer, visit our website.

Units of Measurement: Feet, Pounds, Inches, and Ounces

The United States is a great place to study English; however, the United States uses a different measuring system than most other countries in the world. Rather than the metric system that uses meters and grams, the US customary system of measurement uses feet and pounds. Most students who come to the United States to study English find the US system challenging. Today we will discuss how to convert between the metric and US customary systems of measurement for distance and mass.


Distance
Historically, the US system of measuring distance has been based on measurements of the human body. The inch is based on the thumb, the foot is based on the foot, and the yard is based on the distance from the nose to the tip of outstretched fingers. The word for "inch" in many other languages, interestingly, is related for the word for "thumb." 

Here is a list of the most common US units of distance:

1 inch (in)
1 foot (ft) = 12 inches
1 yard (yd) = 3 feet
1 mile (mi) = 5280 feet

To convert US distance to metric distance, remember that 1 inch = 2.54 cm. That means about 30 cm fit in 1 foot. 1 yard is, then, very close to 1 meter.

For example, let's say you are 168 cm tall. 
If you divide 168 by 2.54, you get approximately 66. (168 / 2.54 = 66.1)
You are 66 in tall. 
Then, divide 66 by 12 and you get 5.5. (66 / 12 = 5.5)
You are 5.5 feet tall or 5 ft and 6 in.

Mass
The pound has been used since the Roman Empire. European traders divided the pound into 16 ounces. That way, the traders could divide by half, quarters, or eighths. 

Here is a list of the most common US units of mass:

1 ounce (oz) 
1 pound (lb) = 16 ounces
1 ton (T) = 2000 pounds

To convert US mass to metric mass, remember that 1 pound is 454 grams. There are 1000 grams in a kilogram; that means that there are .45 kilograms in 1 pound or about 2.2 pounds for 1 kilogram.

For example, let's say you weight 59 kg.
If you multiply 59 by 1000, you get 59,000. (59 * 1000 = 59,000)
You weigh 59,000 grams.
Then, divide 59,000 by 454 and you get 129.9. (59,000 / 454 = 129.9)
You are 129.9 lbs or approximately 130 lbs.

Nomen Global students get a lot of practice converting metric units to US units because they live in the United States! Learning how to convert units is a great skill! To learn more about Nomen Global, visit our website.