The review of PE100: Co-ed Volleyball

By Tomomi Hirose

The PLU class that I am taking is P.E. This class is not too difficult, if you have played volleyball before. I think it had a well-balanced ratio of males to females so we mostly helped each other when someone missed the ball or shot. The professor decides what team you belong to and how you can make good serves. The class focuses not on your skills, but on your participation and effort.

Even if you don’t play volleyball well, you do not have to worry about it too much, because the professor checks how much you try and the result or skill it is not very important as the process in PE class. Of course, attendance is necessary to get a good grade. What is more, playing sports with American students creates a bond through strong sportsmanship. Actually, I’ve met one American girl who belongs to the volleyball club and she always tries to teach me how I can make a good serve and play better.

Some people suggest that this class is hard because you have to move quickly and it is easy to get tired but I think you will enjoy playing volleyball if you like to do exercises and play sports. The professor does not require a written paper, so it is easier than other classes. I am sure that playing volleyball will make you feel refreshed and released from your tiredness of studying. Be an active international student and take PE 100: Co-ed Volleyball!!!

Psychology 110: Study Skills

By Yuya Shinozaki & Ryoji Hanakaata

Study Skills is a class at PLU where we learned how to study in college from a psychological perspective. First, we learned how to increase and keep our motivation, and how to set our goals. Then we studied the consequences if we don’t manage our time. We learned how to read textbooks and increase comprehension. We learned what good notes are and how to take good notes. The professor also taught us about how to use critical to increase our memory. We learned how to learn, how to prepare for tests, and how to take tests.

In the Study Skills class there are three different assignments that are due bi-weekly. One type of assignment is Internet-based research about the particular facilities in PLU. For example, where each facility is located, what their function is, and how we can locate or find their office. The other assignment is to meet a tutor and ask the tutor questions such as, how tutors prepare for examinations and what tutors usually do for a day-off from PLU classes. The third assignment requires students to meet the professors who teach them and ask the professors what the professors expect from students, what pitfalls the professors see students most consistently fall into when the students take classes, how the professors feel about the progress of the students, and what the interests or research of the professors are.

The students have to give a presentation about what they learned. In addition, they are required to use official speaking skills in their presentation, and the contents and purposes of their presentations should be very logical. I recommend taking this class to students who are not confident about study methods or do not know how to study. This class will help you be successful in all your future PLU classes.

I will be better

By Amy

(lin Min)

I don’t want to treat myself too tough, so I hope I’ll be better rather than best and I believe this is possible.

After 13 hours of flight, I arrived in Tacoma, Washington, USA which I had been dreaming about for a long time. It was a good opportunity for further education; meanwhile, it was full of challenges, for everything was new for me---new culture, new friends, and new environment.

When I first came to America, I suffered from culture shock and I couldn’t get used to the food here. One day I didn’t eat anything for the whole day, I felt hungry and homesick, but fortunately, my host mother was very kind and cooked some Chinese food for me. Most of the time, she cooked American food. Gradually, I could enjoy it, especially pizza and cookies.

There are many chances for me to meet new people at the bus station, Tacoma Mall, Embassy classes, and PLU classes. My classmates are from China, South Korea, Japan, America, Vietnam, etc. But I find it’s easier to communicate with Asians than native speakers. No matter what languages they speak or what cultures they are familiar with, it seems there’s a gap between native people and myself. Regardless of this gap, I try to make friends with them. Most of them are kind and help me a lot. I am still on the way. There’s no short-cut, but I believe it will get better.

I take Embassy and PLU classes at the same time. On the one hand, I learn my English skills; on the other hand, I practice English more in the PLU classes. I take three courses; PE 100, Math, and Volleyball. For PE 100, I always need to do many exercises. For instance, one mile walks, two mile runs, push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping. Sometimes the teacher speaks too fast and I can’t even follow her, but luckily, some kind classmates help me to understand, so I feel I am the part of them and enjoy the participation very much. The same case happens to other subjects. I feel better than my first time in the class.

I like this sentence from “This I Belief” on NPR, “I believe that if you can laugh at yourself, it probably means you like yourself, deep down inside, and you know that you’re no better and no worse than anybody else. The beginning is always hard, but compared with the past, if you do better job, you’re the winner. So take action, don’t make your dream be dream.”

PE100 - Personalized Fitness Program

By Yuka
In fall term 2007, I took Personalized Fitness Program for Physical Education class. This class is the most difficult class of all PE chasses, but it is very helpful for my future at the university. I want to introduce what I did and what I learned in the class.

Generally speaking, students move and do exercises in Physical Education class such as playing basketball, dancing, and doing yoga. However, even though Personalized Fitness Program is a PE class, we have assignments like presentations, reports, and essays. I had to prepare a presentation about food nutrition labels. All students should choose one food label and check the nutrition. We searched about Recommended Daily Allowances listed on the food label and presented in front of native speaking students and teacher. Research was the easiest assignment for me. I recorded what I ate every day for a week and calculated how many calories I ate these days. The final assignment was a Personal Program which means creating my own program for making my body healthy. In the class, I had already learned exercise modalities, nutrition, and weight management, so I had to think about what I learned in this class and make personal program and write about it in an essay.

When you read what I did, I guess you feel Personalized Fitness class is too difficult to pass, but I think this class is very good for international students. In the future, we might present in front of native speakers in a more difficult class than Physical Education. If I have a presentation in business class, I might feel more nervous than PE’s presentation. PE’s vocabulary is more familiar and PE is only 1 credit. Also, it is a good opportunity to display our presentation or writing skills. We have learned in language schools how to present and write. We need to give presentations and write essays, not only in language schools, but also in the university which is our purpose to study English.

In conclusion, I learned a lot of things in Personalized Fitness class. Even though it is not so easy for us, we should be challenged to practice our skills. Although you feel you cannot do the assignments well, you can ask your kind teachers and friendly classmates for help. I also asked many questions Don’t hesitate to speak English in front of native speakers. Don’t be nervous about grammar mistakes. I believe that all students have the power to succeed. If you are interested in Personalized Fitness class, please try. I hope you can do it!!

Happy Halloween Party

By Izumi

Our school has a Halloween party, which is a big event, once a year. Most of the Embassy students join this party. There are some interesting events, such as a costume contest, karaoke, and eating party food.

Firstly, the costume contest is the most characteristic event. We not only wore costumes but we also enjoyed face painting at this Halloween party. Actually, some of the students dressed up as clowns and others dressed up as film characters. In addition, we had a costume contest and the students chose the most striking person. Therefore, we could also call it a costume party.

Secondly, we also enjoyed karaoke at the party. This party was held in the residence of Embassy. We sang karaoke in a big room where there is a big screen like at the movie theatre. It made the people have more fun.

Finally, delicious food was served at the party. We enjoyed eating food, such as salad, chicken, and pumpkin pies. All of dishes were delicious!
As mentioned above, this Halloween party was really nice and fun!! The students that went to the party, made great memories and also good friends! We had a great time on October 31st! “Trick or treat!!”