Our dormitories are off-limits to us for now because tireless construction workers are working hard to make them look amazing for our students, who will be arriving in less than a month. Time does fly in the summer!
As we prepare for their arrival with remodeling the dorms and scheduling their classes, there is one crucial thing they can be doing to prepare for their own arrival in the United States: improving their English. “What can they do in a month?” you may ask. Read on!
My own native tongue, Turkish, is so different from English that even though I started to learn English at a young age, I struggled to understand native speakers. Even though I was completely comfortable writing and reading at a college level, fluency and comprehension without being immersed in the language would not come easy.
One summer, I was tasked with cat sitting for a family from Canada. They owned extended editions of all three movies of The Lord of the Rings. For a few weeks, I petted cats, drank lots of tea, and watched The Lord of the Rings in English with English subtitles. In the matter of a month, I noticed a significant change in my comprehension of native speakers.
So while we run around, getting ready in the heat of the sun, advise your students to cuddle up with some popcorn and put a movie on. Just make sure it is in English. Don’t forget the subtitles!
raven read 
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