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"today we are learning english for traveling abroad. the first scene is to go to the airport. the airport check-in we usually use is 'check in’..."recently, an english class tailored for the elderly in the ganjiakou street of haidian district was opened at the street citizen activity center and was welcomed by the elderly residents.

“i’m68i am 18 years old. people of our age didn’t learn english well when they were young. now we want to learn it, but we never have the chance. " "there are many english classes in society, but few are suitable for us old people." "it would be great if we could learn english at the citizen activity center. it is close and convenient." beading, chinese painting, dance, chorus... in recent years, residents in ganjiakou have enjoyed a wealth of cultural and artistic courses and activities at the street citizen activity center. at the beginning of the new semester in golden autumn, the elderly residents in the area made suggestions to the street again, hoping to open english classes specifically for the elderly.

after receiving the residents' suggestions, the street civic activity center immediately began intensive preparations. "we also held english classes during the beijing winter olympics. this time, based on the previous preparations, we will set up the classroom on the fourth floor of the activity center as the teaching location, and let the street staff with strong english proficiency serve as teachers. we also plan to hire professionals to supplement the teaching staff according to the class situation." li weiling, director of the civic activity center, introduced.

in order to make the course content more suitable for the elderly, before the course started, the citizen activity center informed the residents of the area about the planned english class and solicited their suggestions. the residents expressed their opinions and contributed many "good ideas". "when my wife and i traveled abroad, we couldn't communicate with foreigners and didn't dare to open our mouths. we wanted to learn something useful for traveling." "we elderly people don't need to learn too deep. we still want to start with daily communication in english." "don't teach too much content in one class. i'm afraid i can't master it." ...

according to the requirements of the elderly residents, the teaching content of the english class mainly revolves around daily life scenes, and the teaching time is once every two weeks, leaving sufficient review time for the elderly to ensure that most students keep up with the course progress. to this end, the instructor meng yingxin used her spare time to prepare lessons carefully, sorted out commonly used english words and sentences in different situations, made them into lesson plans, printed them out, and distributed them to the students.

at present, the english class has been held twice. the atmosphere of each class is lively, and more and more elderly people are attending the class. wang liyun, who lives in zhongfang community, always brings a notebook and takes notes carefully. "everything taught is very practical! we learn a little slowly, but the teacher is very patient. he leads us to read aloud over and over again. the learning atmosphere is very good, and we can practice with each other. it is really rewarding! i will come to every class in the future." aunt wang said happily.

source: beijing daily client

reporter: xu yingbo

process editor: u022