When ears ring, hearts sing and spirits soar!

Join “the second most popular teacher in ABILITY” Andrew on 7th of August (7pm) at Cafe of the Gate of Salvation. The African American Gospel sounds promising. When the choir takes to the stage under the dynamic musical direction of Dynes Austin, ears ring, hearts sing and spirits soar!

Find out why Deborah Cameron calls us “An Australian Treasure” (702 ABC radio). With sacred music from the African American Gospel & Spiritual tradition, along with original compositions, the choir’s sound is an exhilarating mix. Rock, pop, funk, R&B and calypso rhythms have also found their way into the Gospel genre.

It shoots from the heart its message of Love, Joy and Hope!

For more information contact Andrew

Gordon Uniting Church
18 Cecil Street (cnr Pacific Highway)
10 min walk from Gordon station

It may not rank with Scorsese’s best work, but Shutter Island’s gleefully unapologetic genre thrills represent the director at his most unrestrained.

3rd August 2010 @ 3.30pm – Room 16

Shutter Island is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese. The film is based on Dennis Lehane’s 2003 novel of the same name. Production started in March 2008. Leonardo DiCaprio  stars as U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels, who is investigating a psychiatric facility located on the island named in the title.

DVD Club with Melissa

This week movie is a high concept romantic comedy, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson “The invention of lying”

Tuesday 27th July at 3.30pm, Room 16.

DVD Club with Melissa

Plot

The film is set in an alternate reality  in which there is no such thing as lying, and everything said is the absolute truth. In this world, people continually make very blunt and often cruel statements and remarks that people in the real world would normally keep to themselves. The concepts of fiction, imagination, and speculation do not exist, resulting in the movie industry being limited to lecture-style historical readings, television commercials being straightforward, and an absence of religion.

Mark Bellison is an unsuccessful lecture-film writer, who is cursed with writing for the 14th century, a “very boring” era to write about. One night, he goes out on a date with Anna McDoogles. She bluntly states to Mark that she is not attracted to him due to his looks and unsuccessful financial situation, but is going out with him to satisfy her extremely prejudicial mother. After the date, she admits that she had a better time than she thought she would.

Want to know more ? Come and watch this movie this Tuesday on Melissas’s DVD Club!

10 outrageous clothing items

One of our hunters in action!

Last week was Fashion week at Ability Melbourne.  Students from all levels discussed everything from Fads and Faux Pas to prints and fabrics. What better way to end the week then a good old SHOP!! So we decided to organise a scavenger hunt! Students were put into teams of different levels.  Their challenge: To find 10 outrageous clothing items on a shopping list, try them on and be photographed for evidence. This would give the students the opportunity to practice the vocabulary they had learnt during the week.

The modern gods of fashion

Off we went to Smith Street in Fitzroy, the second hand clothing hub of Melbourne. If you want outrageous, you’ll find it there! The students set off in their groups accompanied by a teacher. After rummaging through racks, tossing clothes about, changing outfits and laughing our heads off we emerged from the changing rooms as modern gods of fashion. People posed, cameras flashed and there was an air of triumph and satisfaction over breaking the personal boundaries of fashion.

Oops ?

As our time came to and end we carried our weary shopping bodies to a local café and settled into some comfy chairs to share our photos and experience. The scavenger hunt was a success and we had a lot of fun. The best team received prizes from our bag of op shop must haves!

That’s all from me…for now!!,

Kajal (Teacher, Ability Mebourne)

Sydney Campuses

ABILITY Education Nationality Mix in Sydney - July 2010

Melbourne Campus

ABILITY Education Nationality Mix in Melbourne - July 2010

Profit went to Westmead Children’s Hospital

World Cupcake Day Action Team!

On June 16 2010 the Business Class at ABILITY held their sales day for a three-week business task. The course is based around real-world tasks, and this one concerned the creation, production, marketing and selling of a food product to the other students. The Business Class formed two teams, and each team sold a product. One team chose ‘Paspussa Day’ which was a traditional Saudi Arabian cake, while the other team chose to connect the day to the Football World Cup, coming up with ‘World Cupcake Day’. Both teams invested their own money, created financial plans with projected expenses, turnover and profit, made the products and sold with gusto. Both teams sold out and made a profit. The cupcake team donated a portion of their profit to Westmead Children’s Hospital.

World Cupcake Day Poster and Cakes .. yamm

This task is designed to allow the students to become entrepreneurs and reap the benefits of their investment. Also, it trains essential business skills such as leadership, teamwork and showing initiative. The teams composed members from different countries, in this case Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Japan, Spain, Poland and Italy so everything was negotiated in English. According to research, this type of language learning is very powerful due to the use of the target language in an authentic context. Additionally it is fun and brings language out of the classroom and into areas with real consequences.

Overall the day was a great success.

These days contribute to the culture of ABILITY Education, which prides itself on its innovation and commitment to language development.

Culture Day in Melbourne was a huge success!

On the 24th of June, Ability Education had its first ever Culture Day in Melbourne and it was a huge success!  Students came in from 9am and worked hard to prepare their decorations and food, then waited for the judges, Nicola and Aaron, to come around and judge each room.  After all that work, the students were free to go and try each other’s food, learn about each other’s cultures and listen to all the different kinds of music.

Brazilian student in her aussie hat.

There was a choice of guava paste and cheese from South America, chocolate from Switzerland, pad thai from Thailand, handmade dumplings from Taiwan, sushi from Korea and a whole feast from Brazil that they had prepared to celebrate “June Day”, a traditional festival in Brazil, which included corn cake and popcorn.  Everything was delicious, and while the Brazilians thought the Thai food was too spicy and the Thais thought the Brazilian food was too sweet, everyone found something that they loved!

After everyone had eaten too much, it was time for the performances.    There was traditional dancing and some kickboxing from Thailand, salsa and song from South America, and Brazil gave us their June Day dance, a typical country dance where all the girls paint their cheeks pink.  Then we had a very cute children’s song from Korea about a family of bears, and finally a Turkish dance and a magician from Turkey who wowed us with his amazing tricks.  There was also a beautiful performance on a traditional flute from Japan.

How did he do that thing with the rope??

How did he do that thing? Turkish magician.

It was a difficult choice to make for the judges, but finally the decision was made.  Best decoration went to South America for their vibrant room, best food went to Brazil for their feast, and best performance had to go to Turkey, both for their terrific dancing and for the amazing magic – how did he do that thing with the rope??

The party kicked on at the Lion Hotel with some well deserved free drinks for all the students and the teachers.    Next party will be in one month – we can’t wait!

Author: Nicola

UniCollege: World Cup theme party, HOME nightclub

World Cup Party

To keep your lives in Sydney exciting, to make it easier to make new friends Ability Education offers monthly parties. Once a month we have an end of month party either at Side Bar in Central or at the Gaff in Darlinghurst. At these parties we hope to welcome new students and farewell graduating students. The E.O.M Parties usually have a fun theme with costume competitions. Recently we have added another party to our social schedule with Sollarium Production. The reason being that Side Bar is a backpacker bar, The Gaff offers food, bar and club but we didn’t have a really big club in the mix. Hence, we have joined forces with three other big English language schools to host a monthly party at HOME nightclub in Darling Harbour to provide a more authentic clubbing experience with laser shows, DJ’s and special guests.

World Cup Party

On the 10th June we decided to organise a Pre-World Cup party, encouraging everybody to wear the colours of their flag and party. 500 students were united in the one place from countries all over the world. However, Ability Education had the best nationality mix: Mexicans, Germans, Colombians, Brazilians, Czech, Saudi Arabian, Japanese, Thai etc, etc. The party started officially at 9pm, but really kicked off around 11pm. It seems like that was when the night birds all arrived. The music played varied from R’n’B to dance music/house to trance. Students mingled and had a great time until the early morning. I’m looking forward to the next party organised by Sollarium on July 15 as there will be a cash prize of $1,000 for the most beautiful English student at the club. Sorry boys, the prize is just for girls but you have a part too- you can vote!!!

Meanwhile, the next E.O.M party is scheduled for the 24th June at the Gaff on Oxford Street, Darlinghurst from 8pm. The theme is: 911,Operator Help! Costume party. So you need to come as a policeman, fire-fighter, doctor or nurse to win the special prizes on the night. There will be a drink special and a cheap dinner provided for those who are hungry.

Don’t forget to look at the Activity Calendar every month to be updated with what is happening at Ability Education. Hope to see you and your friends at the next party!

Author: Adriana

End Of Month Party

The next scheduled “End of Month” party will be at the Gaff, 24 June from 7:00pm. Dress code: police men, fire fighters, doctors and nurses. Music: half R’n’B and half top 20’s! Happy hour from 7:00 to 9:00pm. Don`t forget your ID 18+ !!!

On the 17th June Ability Education celebrated its annual Culture Day party at Central Campus in Sydney. This tradition started many years ago as an expression of the fantastic cultural diversities we are fortunate to have in our college. Students can freely interact and meet friendly new faces, appreciating all the differences and similarities together. Currently with 35 different nationalities present at Ability Education, Culture Day is a great way for everyone to join as one and have fun.

The day was broken into 3 parts: morning-decorating each room into a different country using pictures, DVD’s and music; noon- food preparation and food sampling followed by performances from Latin America, China & South-East Asia, Japan, Turkey, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Europe. Level 5 was converted into theatre spaces; each room had a teacher who was the presenter too: Adriana, Lee and Ashley.

While the students waited eagerly for the performers to arrive to each room, the teachers gave out prizes: pens, soft drinks and candy, to students who answered the trivia questions correctly. Spelling Australian towns and suburbs was extra tricky for some students! Then the performances began and trust me, the rooms all got suddenly hot- for everyone! The Salsa dancers from Latin America picked people from the audience to join in their craziness and soon everyone else was doing the same! From Europe’s Macarena, Turkish Belly Dance, Saudi dance- everyone danced! The Japanese performance was dynamic. It was a cross between Karate and Dance with shouts of SOYA. Even the black and red costumes were cute.

Latin American Dancers

The only group that didn’t dance was China & South-East Asia. The group, made up of students from Taiwan, China, Thailand and Laos performed a play based on the Adventures of Monkey Magic. It had a moral too- never judge a book by its cover. Korea’s performer was brave as she played a traditional Korean aria alone on the flute. The song is very popular in Korea and makes some people even cry!

Time passed very quickly because before you knew it it was time to announce the winners for Best Food; Best Performance and Best Room Decoration. Anticipation hung like a cloud in room 21, who will win, everyone wondered. Best Food- Turkey; Best Performance- Latin America and Best Room Decoration- Saudi Arabia. Everyone accepted their award and gifts with great pride, even giving serious acceptance speeches (Turkey).

Japanese Dancers

Then, mass hysteria broke out with everyone chanting: ‘Ability! Ability! Ability!!!’ Luckily we had foreseen this excess energy and had organised an after party at Side Bar from 4pm with free drinks for students. Seeing so many happy smiling faces it was a pleasure to offer such a day to our students and look forward to our next BIG Day in September with the famous Ability Education Talent Quest.

Author: Adriana