Journal #2 First Impression with ALP

This is my first semester studying at ALP. My first impression with ALP is that I felt everybody working at ALP is unfriendly and stuck-up. I felt they are not helpful because they always told me to go different departments, and the next place refer me to another place, then next place do the same, and finally I ended up coming back to the first place. It was wasting time and inefficient since I couldn’t get any things done right away. Moreover, when some problems of my registration status occurred between ALP and university due to technical difficulties, ALP didn’t take care for me right away even though they told me they would. I was disappointed at first.

However, after a while, I realized I was totally wrong about ALP stuffs. In fact, they are very nice and willing to help. They actually contacted to a person who in charge of the department and requested for the modifications. They care anything happen to not only me but also all international students. When I need help for tuition and status problems, Christine and Lincoln tried hard to contact other departments figuring out any procedure that can help me and kindly advised me the alternatives for resolving the situations. I’m really grateful to them for the effort. In addition, I like Jessica very much because she is a sweet and warmhearted lady. I’ve never met anyone who work at school would shed tears for me. She worries and cares for me. I was greatly touched by her kindness. My condition getting better and I’m glad that I’ve taking her suggestions. I really appreciate her help and all the effort she did for me.

I also like ALP teachers because all of them are very nice and friendly, especially Mrs. Russell. She is very pretty and fashionable. But, somehow, I thought she is sort of cold at the first. Perhaps because we didn’t know each other and I was shy. Yet after I got to know her, I found out she is not cold at all, in fact, very sweet and kindhearted. She is always willing to help students. When I have problems, she helped me as much as she can to ensure my situations getting better. She has fine not only appearance but also personality. She is also earnest about teaching students writing skills. Although her class is tough due to heavy load of many assignments, I’m actually getting much better writing essays compared with the beginning of this semester. I like her the most among all ALP teachers, and I’ll be more than happy to take her class again.

I didn’t have any friend here at first, so I felt very lonely. I worried if I couldn’t get alone with anybody. However, all my classmates are very friendly and kind to me, so I don’t have any problem about getting alone with them. Sadly, I won’t be able to see some of them because they are going to transfer to other schools. On the other hand, I’m also happy for them because they accomplish the requirement test scores for the schools where they want to study at. I hope I can get desirable scores of GMAT and TOEFL to meet the requirements for Cal State Fullerton graduate school by Fall 2009 semester application deadline. I think ALP has good English programs that can help internationals students improve English skills rapidly, certainly, and steadily. I absolutely will recommend ALP to every international student who seeks good language, TOEFL, GMAT courses.

Journal #1 Self-Introduction

Hi, This is Wendy. I came from Japan. I have a Japanese father and Taiwanese mother. I was born in Taiwan, but I grew up in Japan. My family only speaks Japanese because my dad can't speak Chinese. My mom taught me some Taiwanese, so I can understand some of them. Since I don't know how to pronounce the words, I don't speak Taiwanese at all. When I studied at Daito Bunka University in Japan, my major was Chinese language. I got a B.A. degree in Chinese language. After that, I studied at Beijing Foreign Language University for a year. Therefore, I can speak Standard Chinese-Mandarin since then. My first language is Japanese, second language is Chinese, and third language is English.

My future goal is becoming a CPA and working in the US. I hope I can work at big four accounting firms' international division because I want to use my language skills to do accounting job. In order to be a CPA, my plan has four steps. First, go to graduate school to study accounting while persuing Master of Science in Accountancy. Second, do internship during graduate school and study for CPA exam at same time. Third, pass CPA exams and work at accounting firm for two years. Finally, obtain the licence of a CPA. Thus, I need to prepare for GMAT and increase the score of TOEFL. I hope I will be able to improve my score by the end of this semester.

I love to go to national parks for hiking and wonderful sights with my friends. The U.S. has spectacular views. I was always impressed with the beauty of the nature. I've been many national parks, such as Yellowstone, Teton, Devil's Tower, Olympic, Mt. Rainer, Grand Canyon, Arches, Natural Bridge, Zion, Rocky Mountains, Death Yalley, Yosemite National Parks. I love Yellowstone National Park the most. Besides national parks, I love watching movies. I watch many types of movies-action, Sci-fi, comedy, romance, horror, fantasy, human, and adventure. I don't like watching documentary and war movies.