My stolen dog

Vy, DL Student, Cabramatta

Hi everyone! I’m Vy and I am 22.  I come from Vietnam and have been in Australia for over two years. It was difficult at first for me to speak English with confidence so I started studying Distance Learning through Navitas College in Cabramatta. Thanks to my teacher, Frank, my English has improved over the past few months and I am starting to feel a bit more confident in English now. 

I’m now going to tell you a story about my dog!  I have a fluffy white dog and his name is Lucky. He’s nine years old and very intelligent. His responsibility in my family is catching mice in the house. After he catches a mouse, he runs around in circles and barks proudly.

He is the essence of my childhood. Every early morning, he would stand in the middle of the front door and wait for me to take him to the beach. He hates touching water but loves running around on the sand. He’s also my best friend. Whenever I feel sad, I talk with him and he looks me in the eyes. Probably he can understand my emotions. I love him so much.

One Sunday morning, I was washing my clothes in the backyard when I heard some loud shouting coming from my neighbours. Immediately, I went out to check what was wrong. I was shocked by what they said. They said my dog Lucky had just been stolen. There had been two men riding a motorbike. They had thrown a slip knot onto Lucky’s neck and by dragging him onto the street, had taken him away.

It was so terrible and cruel that I cried and shook with fright in the toilet. I was terrified and didn’t know what to do to get my dog Lucky back. In Viet Nam, there are a lot of bad people who steal dogs and cats for meat or for ransom. They steal someone’s pet and lock it up for a period of time. If the owner doesn’t pay a ransom for the pet they will sell the pet or kill it for meat. I was always worried about my dog Lucky.

All that morning, I cried. My Dad asked me to stop crying in the toilet. Then he went out. After the longest hour in my life, my Dad came home with Lucky. We had to pay 400 thousand VND to get him back. Lucky was badly injured. His eyes had changed to red. The skin of his bottom-paw was gone. His white hair was covered with dust and blood, but he wagged his tail happily and soon recovered!

Now I’m living far away from him and miss him so much!


Thanks Vy for sharing your beautifully moving story.  It is a great example of a narrative text.

• Have you ever had a pet that you had a special connection with?
• Why do people keep pets?
• What is the hardest thing about having a pet?

Share your comments below.

Traffic in the eye of a DL artist

'Falling Down' by Nancy, DL student, Hurstville college

My name is Nancy.  I used to study Fine Arts when I was at university. In the first 2 years of my studies I did a series of art work about the traffic problem in China.  I always thought the main problem that caused traffic jams was bad traffic facilities and imperfect traffic laws.  Later, however, I realised that the main problem could be people themselves.

Then I did an oil painting named Falling Down.  The size of the artwork is 100cm x 80cm which took me 3 weeks to finish . The picture describes a traffic accident. The black background of this painting makes the traffic accident seem like it happened at night. In the middle of the picture, many people jump off one side of an overloaded old grey truck which makes the trunk fall down soon.  As it shows in the picture, some of them have already fallen down on the ground.  Although you can`t see their faces you can imagine from their clothes that they could be some blue-collar workers, farmers or builders.

The main reason that I did this art work was to try and remind people of the importance of observing traffic rules.  I brushed the colour of the background very quickly and made the background rough and uneven everywhere to create the feeling of people being in a rush when you see it. I deliberately left people`s faces blank to show that the people in the picture could be any of us. Obviously, it is illegal for such a huge number of people to be on one truck, but it sometimes happens in China. Even though everyone knows that it`s very dangerous to jump off the truck, some will still do it.  However, the lame excuse that people use to explain why they don’t obey the traffic laws is that they are in a hurry. 

In my opinion, people who do not obey the traffic rules present the biggest traffic problem.

Congratulations to Nancy on such a wonderful and meaningful piece of art and thanks to her teacher Marina for sharing it.

This week is Road Rules Awareness Week in NSW.  What are the top 10 misunderstood road rules?  
Click here to watch the videos and learn about these rules.  

For discussion:

• Which rule do you need to learn more about?
• Nancy thinks that people's bad habits of breaking traffic rules contribute to accidents.  Do you agree that people have a big part to play in causing traffic problems and accidents?  Why/why not?
• What solutions could you suggest to solving traffic problems?

We'd love to hear your comments below.

Kim never gave up!

Kim, Navitas, Sydney City

Kim started his Distance Learning course two years ago.  He chose DL because he works full-time and DL allows him flexibility with his time schedule.

To Kim, he has come a long way as far as his English is concerned.  Kim never did any English courses before starting with AMEP DL. He learned to speak English only through talking to his customers at work.  So when he started the course his speaking was fairly functional but his objective was clear: to learn to read and write in English.

Nearly 6 months ago, Kim completed his Certificate of Spoken and Written English (CSWE) 1 and moved up to level 2.  He is now able to read texts with around 300 words from Your Call level 2. “I am thrilled by what I have achieved with my reading and writing” Kim says.

Kim is dedicated to his learning even though the whole journey has not been easy.  “I could have given up a number of times” Kim comments.

Kim and his wife migrated to Australia in 2013 and they both are working long hours. Kim is working in a restaurant as a chef and, sometimes by the time he gets back home, he is exhausted to do anything.  Incredibly, he always overcomes barriers and gets himself ready 15 minutes before his lessons to do his spelling routine which has continued for the past two years throughout his DL course. Kim agrees that the individualised lessons and the extensive support definitely have pushed his boundary.

As Kim’s course is coming to an end, he acknowledges that where he completes the course is where he starts building his Australian dream with a strong sense of being confident and competent.  His DL teacher, Michelle, cannot be happier to see that this program has helped Kim achieve his goals.

Congratulations to Kim and well done for working hard and staying focussed on your goals.  

• What barriers are there to learning English and how can you overcome them?
• What routines can help you improve your reading and writing?
• What helps you keep going if you feel you want to give up?

Why not leave your comments below!

Teacher Shaoming Celebrates Chinese New Year

Shaoming, DL Teacher

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I come from Guangdong, south of China. I was an English teacher in China before I came to Australia 28 years ago.  I have two children who were born in Australia and my older son is starting university this year.

When did you join Navitas?
I started in 2011 as a classroom teacher and I've been with Distance Learning (DL) since February 2015.

What do you enjoy about working with DL?
I teach mostly Chinese students.  As a bilingual teacher, I can help students with low level English to understand and improve more quickly.  It is very rewarding to see them gain more confidence in asking questions and using English in their daily lives.

How do you celebrate Chinese New Year in Australia?
We usually have a few families get together and have a special dinner - it is really more like a feast! We can never finish the food that we've cooked because we bring a lot!

What kind of food do you usually eat?
In China, I remember my mother used to cook traditional dishes that took a long time to prepare.  But unfortunately we cannot have the same food or follow the same traditions in Australia.  Instead we have seafood.

What message would you like to give to your students?
I wish them a Happy Chinese New Year of the monkey.  The monkey is a smart animal so I hope that this year brings everyone great success in their lives.

Did you know that students from a Chinese background were the largest ethnic group in our DL program last year!

• What is the most important festival in your culture?
• How do you celebrate it and do you celebrate it the same way as you did in your country?
• How important it is to keep your cultural traditions in a new country? 

Share your comments below.

We All Need a Vision

Muhammad, Auburn

Hello! My name is Muhammad and I'd like to tell you how important it is for all of us to have a vision. If we don't have a vision there will be no meaning in our lives. My vision is to integrate into Australian society the best way I can because I'm a migrant. However to do this I need good English. I migrated from Bangladesh four years ago and wanted to continue working in my field as a qualified engineer. However I realised that the key to success in the workplace is to improve my English.

I was lucky to find work as a technician in a medium-sized manufacturing company. I had to communicate with my colleagues on a daily basis, however to communicate effectively I needed clear pronunciation.

So when I became a permanent resident I went to Navitas English at Auburn and enrolled in Distance Learning (DL) as I was working. My DL teacher Annie set me in the right direction to improve my English and speak clearly. She taught me pronunciation and we practised conversations in different contexts. She also taught me formal and informal email writing and assisted me to update my resume and cover letter. I found the environment in Navitas DL to be so friendly and supportive.

Now I am able to communicate more easily with native speakers and they can understand me. My DL lessons have also given me confidence to converse with colleagues at work.

So moving to Australia was a very big change, but it has been a good change. I'm happy here and the future looks bright. Whatever position I end up choosing, improving my English has been the first and most important step to achieving my vision in my new home Australia!

Discussion
What is your vision for your life in Australia?
How is your DL teacher helping you achieve your vision?