Hello again to all our friends and partners around the world. This is the October edition of GEOS Ottawa’s international newsletter. We send out this information every month, to help you get to know the Capital of Canada, our school, our staff and students. We are looking forward to welcoming some of your clients very soon, so they can experience it all firsthand.

It really has been a great sunny summer and fall. August was warm and sunny. September was a little cooler (between 20 and 25 degrees most days) and we had a lot of sun. Of course by the end of the month we started to see some of the beautiful colours of fall.  It’s a great time to be here.

	Niall Campbell School Manager		Sara (Yoonkyung) Kim Operations Coordinator
	Cathy Tat Academic Coordinator		Janaya Greenwood Student Services & Accommodations Officer
	Hiroko Iguchi Administrative Assistant

Please find below an introduction about one of our English teachers. Her name is Nadia Shamray:

My name's Nadia and it means “hope” in Russian. So, I try to look into the future with hope, i.e., I try to be optimistic!

I'm from Russia, but I don`t drink vodka, although it`s a good drink and could be useful in the Canadian climate.
English has always been my passion and I`m really happy to be able to teach it here, at GEOS. I have been teaching with GEOS in Ottawa since 2006.  I`ve been a teacher since 1991 and I still enjoy my job very much. I hope you enjoy my classes as well. Take care.

I'm from Italy and you know how nice it is but Ottawa and Canada are too. For two months I have forgotten my country because Ottawa and Canada are very nice, with a lot of opportunity for fun and discovering a new culture through its museums and landscapes.

I think that I will never forget the day when we went rafting, it was amazing, thanks GEOS.

I'm sad because my little experience has ended and that I have to say good bye, for me this is not fun. I hope to see my new good friends from different countries again.

Ok, I'm ready, good bye and good luck to everyone.......see you in Italy.

Marco Bellomo
Italy

And GEOS – amazing! In 1 month I think I learned more English than my whole life. I also like my Homestay. My parents are fantastic people. A funny culture difference is in Brazil sometimes I take a shower 4 times a day. In Canada people take only 1.

Thanks.

Talita Monteiro de Araujo
Brazil

Fall and Winter Enrollments
The busy summer season is quickly passing us by, so it’s also important to start thinking now about student’s plans to study in the Fall. There are a number of good reasons for planning ahead in this way:

- The visa process often takes more than a month, and embassies may be slower because of summer vacations;
- Many universities and colleges have January start dates. Advanced level students who start with GEOS in the fall, may be finished level 6 by January and therefore able to use the GEOS Pathway Program to enrol in a college or university program.
- Work and Study program students need to study a minimum of 12 weeks. January and February are good times to get seasonal jobs in Ottawa

So let’s start the process now and hopefully we’ll be welcoming students from around the world starting in November and December.

Coming up in October

The fall is a beautiful time in many places but especially in such a natural city as Ottawa.  It’s a great time for hikes and relaxing walks in the park. Just across the river from Ottawa in Quebec is the beautiful Gatineau Park. We’ll be organising a sight-seeing bus trip. Don’t forget your camera.

Here’s a link to find out more about the annual Fall Rhapsody festival held in Gatineau Park - http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/bins/ncc_web_content_page.asp?cid=16297-16298-24562&lang=1.

Holiday – Please note that all the GEOS schools in Canada will be closed on Monday, October 10th for the Thanksgiving Day holiday. We will be open as normal on Tuesday, October 11th. That is the intake day for October. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. To find out more about this special time of year check out the following culture link : http://www.twilightbridge.com/hobbies/festivals/thanksgiving/canada/

You can’t talk about October events without mentioning Halloween. It’s an amazingly fun celebration of all things spooky. GEOS has a party every year and the students have a great time. Here are some pictures from past years. Also check out this website for more information on the traditions of Halloween.
http://www.halloween-website.com/history.htm

GEOS Halloween

Currently we have 38 Nationalities represented in the school among our 113 students.

Saudi Arabian: 31.8%
Korean: 12.4%
Brazilian: 6.2%
Italian and Canadian: 4.4% each
Vietnamese and Swiss: 3.5% each
Taiwanese: 2.7%
Others: 31.1%

As you know GEOS has joined the Sprachcaffe Languages Plus Group and we will now be known as GEOS Languages Plus. It’s an exciting time for us as we prepare for next year and the new opportunities this brings for us and our students.
We have just finished our 2012 information – please find the brochure in the following link. Make sure to check out the Ottawa information in the Canadian schools section.
http://www.sprachcaffe.com/fileadmin/Redaktion/downloads/EN-2012/GEOS-EN-2012.pdf
In September we started a new session of our TOEFL iBT program. The session start date was September 12th. It’s not too late to join up, however, as we have continuous intake and students can start any Monday. It really is the best possible preparation for the challenges of the TOEFL iBT test.
We also started a new session of our Grammar Elective class for levels one and 2, and the Intermediate IELTS preparation elective for levels 3 and 4.
In addition, we started a new session of our job skills seminars for students in the Work and Study Program. So it really was a back-to-school kind of month.

Intensive English – 24 academic hours –
Communicative Method of language teaching that is second to none! GEOS is the only private school in Ottawa to operate 6 levels of ESL year-round.
Our morning course, called Integrated Skills (IS) allows students to develop their ability in all four skills of English (reading, writing, listening and speaking). Our afternoon program is called Active Listening (AL) and focuses on improving the practical communication skills of listening and speaking.

Super Intensive – 31 academic hours –
Many of our students choose to enhance their studies with an extra elective class (7 hours per week). Our current elective classes are:

Levels 3&4 – Grammar Works (Intermediate)
Levels 5&6 - IELTS Preparation (Advanced)

Super Intensive Plus – 36 academic hours
A quite recent addition to our course options, our Writing classes are available for all levels and are designed for students who need extra practice with spelling, written grammar and composition.

Full-time TOEFL iBT Preparation Program (Advanced) – 24 academic hours
GEOS Ottawa is the perfect choice for the more serious student who is thinking about applying for university in Canada. Our very popular TOEFL iBT program prepares students in all aspects of the test to significantly increase their chances of passing.

Private Instruction / Closed groups
In addition to our regular scheduled group classes we also offer private and small group lessons in English and French with flexible schedules and class content to suit the needs of the student.

GEOS in September
This year we started working with a great student travel company called ISX. Recently, some of students have gone on great trips to Toronto and Niagara Falls, Montreal and Quebec City, and also New York City! Ottawa’s central location makes it easy to visit some seriously cool places.

Summer is Canada is all about being near water and in September we had another fantastic white-water rafting trip.

Ottawa is well known for its world class museums. Every Thursday, we go to different one because most of them are free between 4 and 9 PM on Thursdays. We also had over 20 students  go to play laser tag with our teacher Andre, which was fantastic fun.

Esprit Rafting

Nature Museum

Canadian Prime Minister in South America!
In August the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper left Ottawa for a week to meet with the Presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Honduras. The purpose of the trip was to improve business relations with those countries. For example, he completed a free trade agreement with Colombia and Honduras, and made a number of trade and travel agreements in Brazil.

All this could mean easier travel for students from those countries to visit Canada and study with GEOS.

There’s always something free to do in Ottawa. For 3 months each summer parliament hill has an amazing multi-media sound and light show. Please have a look at the promotional video on the following link. It’s a really breath-taking show. http://www.mosaika-sl.ca/mosaika.asp?lang=en

We hope you have enjoyed our newsletter. Please let us know your comments by email at info@geosottawa.com. We would love to hear from you.

Until the next issue you can keep up with GEOS school life by becoming our facebook friend.