2014 China Tour Next September

Next September, I will be organizing a group of 32 people who wish to partake in a 21 day tour of seven provinces of mainland China. The tour will encompass all four quadrants of China. This will be the third tour that I have organized and my fourth visit to China since 2008. I have added a customized twist to the 2014 tour by building into the tour Optional business tours and hiking tours that will cost extra. The optional business tours include: Visit to a cow farm (Xian);Sichuan International Cooking School (Chengdu); Lenovo computer factory (Shanghai);Heshan Textile Factory (Shanghai); Radio Frequency Identification Chip factory (Shanghai), Real Estate company and on site development (Xiamen). The hiking tours will include: Hiking different locations of the Great wall (Beijing); Hiking in the Yellow Mountain with an overnight stay in the mountains (Shanghai). Since I book directly with the tour operator in China the land package tours and much more luxurious and more reasonably priced that the tours booked from a Canadian travel agency. The tours are all inclusive tours that includes: return airfare, internal air flights, all meals, five star American hotels, all admission fees, local English speaking guides, Tour leader for entire tour, air conditioned coaches and drivers. Not included: passports, visas, vaccinations, travel insurance, medical insurance, tips . To see the detailed itinerary go to the following blogsite: http://alltheteainchinatour.blogspot.ca

Sienlok Park: The Golden Mountain

In Sienlok Park which is west of the Centre Street Bridge and beside the Bow River is the Golden Mountain Monument that tells the story of the Chinese building the railroad in Canada. The monument is made from a 10 ton granite block that was brought from Hoiping China where the majority of the Chinese laborers who built the railroad originated.

Tea Funny Tea Shop

A new tea shop just opened at 1809 Centre Street North. If you follow the Calgary Tower and head due north, cross the Centre Street Bridge before reaching 16th Ave. North you will see Tea Funny between the Bank of Nova Scotia and Tim Horton's.  The tea shop stays open until 2:00 am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The unique features of the tea shop is that you place your orders from an IPAD set into the tables. One can use the IPAD's to surf the internet. There is also free WI-FI.  The tea shop has a large selection of hot and cold teas, and assorted slushes.  There are snacks that are made on the premises such as a variety of chicken wings, desserts, dim sum and even fried rice dishes.  The shop is run by Ray and Queenie a husband and wife couple who came from Toronto. The décor of the shop is light and modern with an assortment of music that ranges from Chinese pop rock to Western pop.  There are booths and tables with the implanted IPAD's.  There is plenty of parking available.

Hungarian Partridges

I stepped outside my house to see a flock of Hungarian Partridges walking across the street into my neighbour's yard. At first I thought the birds were sharp-tailed grouse because of their summer coats looked like sharp tails. However, on a closer look, I could see the winter feathers that showed the distinctive red feathers on the wings and the bird's crest.  The Hungarians in my neighbourhood live in the valley by the Elk's golf course a kilometre away. Nose creek flows through the golf course and birds live in the brush on the sides of the valley.  The birds leave their sanctuary in the fall to pick gravel on the streets and to forage for different berries and seeds in the residential neighbourhood.

TOEFL VERSUS ELTS

TOEFL VERSUS ELTS

TOEFL is the standard English competency exam that tests the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills required by a foreign student to enter an American post-secondary institution or for foreign workers to fulfill a language requirement to be employable.  The TOEFL is an American based language test and as a result has an American bias in terms of content.  The TOEFL acronym stands for Teaching Overseas English as a Foreign Language.

ELTS is the British based English competency exam developed by Cambridge University  that tests the reading, writing , speaking and listening skills required by foreign students to enter post-secondary English institutions situated in Commonwealth countries.  Quite often TOEFL  is not an accepted language test by an institution so one must check the admission requirements to see what English competency exam is acceptable.

I needed to take an English competency exam to qualify to write the ICCR government immigration exam even though I possess an Honors Degree in English and I am a native born Canadian.  The registration form stated I needed a recognized language competency exam.  I took the TOEFL only to find out that I had to take the IELTS to qualify to write the Immigration exam. 

Comparison and Contrast between TOEFL and IELTS

TOEFL                                               IELTS

Similarities

Both test Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking

Types of listening questions : examples and illustrations, formal definition, cause/effect, classification/differentiation

Listen to a passage:  Conversation between two people or a  short lecture on a specific topic. Passage is played only once.

Types of Reading question: Vocabulary (synonyms), inference (inductive reasoning),  main idea and topic sentences,  Example Not included,  factual recall, compare/contrast, exposition

The reading questions consist of multiple choice questions,  true /false, Not given/ Choose correct response from a list of several choices, main idea/topic sentences

Writing questions

Comparison/contrast essay by analyzing a chart or graph

Personal response/ argumentative essay—agree/disagree,  for/against, cause/effect

Evaluation of writing based on content, organization, grammar and style

Speaking Questions

Develop a point of view—for or against, agree or disagree, cause/effect

Differences

The TOEFL content is American based with an American bias.  Reading topics include: American history. The IELTS content would include: British topics or topics from the Commonwealth.

The listening exercises have an American pronunciation in the TOEFL while the IELTS has the British Queen’s English clipped accent.  British accents may prove a little confusing for foreign students . The British pronounce the endings of their words while Americans tend to drop their endings. For example the word “running” would have the final “g” sound pronounced by the British speaker while the American would drop the “g” and would sound like  “runnin” .

The TOEFL is now computer based so one has to have keyboarding skills. One does have the option of writing out the essay by hand .  However, the reading, listening and speaking are done on the computer. For the speaking exam, one has to record your response from a question proposed online.   The IELTS speaking exam is performed live in front of an interviewer who poses the question and may even interrupt your response to pose a secondary question that is recorded on a digital recorder.  The face to face speaking portion allows one to use facial expressions and a more personal interaction with your examiner while the recorded TOEFL response is more impersonal and one tends to speak in a monotone voice.   The TOEFL speaking requires one to respond to a written passage, a listening passage and a question posed so it requires a synthesis to reading, and listening to your spoken response.

The IELTS exam is all handwritten.  There are two written booklets---one booklet is a short answer/ multiple choice booklet and the other is an essay booklet with two essay assignments---

one essay requires a comparison/contrast response while the second essay is an argumentative essay that requires the development of a point of view.  

The scoring or evaluation for TOEFL is scored out of 120 and broken down into the four categories of reading (30) , writing (30), listening (30) and speaking (30).

Reading skills: High = 22-30  Intermediate 15-21 Low 0-14

Listening skills: High = 22-30   Intermediate 14-21  Low 0-13

Speaking skills: Good = 26-30  Fair 18-25 Limited 10-17  Weak 0-9

Writing skills: Good = 24-30  Fair 17-23  Limited 1-16 

The scoring or evaluation for IELTS is scored on bands.

Band 9 = expert user  Band 8 = very good user  Band 7 = good user  Band 6 = Competent user Band 5= modest user Band 4 = limited user  Band 3= extremely limited user Band 2 = Intermittent user Band 1= non-user.  It is possible to score .5 between bands such as 8.5, 7.5, 6.5 5.5, 4.5.

The format for both the TOEFL  and the IELTS can be confusing and cause the person writing the exam to panic.  I found the IELTS exam to be much more difficult to write than the TOEFL.  On the TOEFL , I had an overall score of 105 out of 120 and scored in highest category in every level. In the IELTS exam , I had an overall band score of 7.5 with a high band score of 9.0 in speaking and a Good user 7.00 band in writing and a 6.5 in Reading and a 7.0 Band in listening.  I found the multiple choice questions in the Reading section of the IELTS exam to be the most confusing. 

For a person who is not a native born English speaking person the TOEFL and IELTS exam is difficult to pass with a high TOEFL score or a High IELTS band score.  Simply taking the exam over and over again does not guarantee improvement. For foreigners needing to improve their score they need to buy a good TOEFL or IELTS study guide and do the practice exercises and practice tests and read the exam writing strategies. Moreover, use the audio CD’s that simulate the speaking, reading and listening exercises.   Taking the exam is expensive and it costs $300 to take the exam each time.

These two study guide books can be purchased from Chapters Indigo. These two study guides explain the exam format, study strategies, practice exercises and practice tests. Using these study guides will help you to successfully prepare to write the exam. If you still have trouble, I suggest you hire a qualified tutor to help you with the study guide.