{"id":38934,"date":"2017-11-16T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=38934"},"modified":"2017-11-11T17:14:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-12T00:14:38","slug":"saits-conversation-club-offers-a-comfortable-place-to-learn-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2017\/11\/16\/saits-conversation-club-offers-a-comfortable-place-to-learn-english\/","title":{"rendered":"SAIT\u2019S Conversation club offers a comfortable place to learn English"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span>s part of the Student Engagement programming in the Library, a Conversation Club was created in 2014 to provide practice and interaction space for SAIT students and community members learning the English language.<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he Conversation Club<\/a>, which is run by club facilitators Pablo Zanetta and Janis Rapchuk of the SAIT library staff, meets Mondays and Thursdays from 5-6 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is twofold,\u201d said Zanetta.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo provide a practice and interaction space for SAIT students and community members learning the English language, and to introduce participants to the library\u2019s resources, staff and space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zanetta graduated from the SAIT Library Information Technology program in 2008 and started working at the Reg Erhardt Library in 2009 as part of the Evening and Weekend team.<\/p>\n

Zanetta said his status as a first-generation immigrant to Canada prompted him to join this project.<\/p>\n

Spanish is his first mother tongue and his love for languages also influenced him to be a part of this project.<\/p>\n

Zanetta said he also wanted to be of assistance to SAIT students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had travelled, so other cultures interested me,\u201d said Zanetta.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I also knew what it was like when people can\u2019t understand what you\u2019re saying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On average the attendance is about 5-7 participants per club meeting, with the most being 20 participants in a day.<\/p>\n

The conversations take place in the library, in the MC008 classroom, which can take up to 30 participants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reception of the conversation club has been generally quite good,\u201d said Zanetta.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always have regular participants and regular requests for more sessions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think mostly we want to expand the number of sessions if possible,\u201d Zanetta said.<\/p>\n

Luis Ojeda, one of the participants in the Conversation Club, moved from Venezuela to Calgary last spring.<\/p>\n

Ojeda who is currently doing the English Language Foundations (ELF) program in SAIT, hopes to enter the IT program once he\u2019s done in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now I\u2019m focused on perfecting my English,\u201d said Ojeda.<\/p>\n

Ojeda said it\u2019s easier for him to read English than it is to have a conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI joined the conversation club because I want to improve how I speak,\u201d Ojeda said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWriting isn\u2019t a problem but communicating has always been tough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ojeda said they talk about anything and everything at the conversation club.<\/p>\n

These conversations include things on sports, weather, food and education.<\/p>\n

Right now I\u2019m focused on perfecting my English. – Luis Ojeda<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ojeda said these conversations have helped him learn about Canadian culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been able learn about some Canadian cultures and it has been quite pleasing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ojeda believes language is the key and this small class is where he can tackle that challenge, where a sense of belonging can be nurtured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of the Student Engagement programming in the Library, a Conversation Club was created in 2014 to provide practice and interaction space for SAIT students and community members learning the English language. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":404,"featured_media":38935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S2 Conversation club","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,2,510],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-campus-2","9":"category-saitsa","10":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38934"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40193,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38934\/revisions\/40193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}