Going to College
May 12 2014
Intro
College. A magical place where crazy teenagers go and, four years later, leave as responsible adults. Right?
Depending on your collegiateexperience, this educational rite of passage may have helped you gain independence, or it may have taught you life lessons about what not to do. In retrospect, it’s always easy to see what went wrong. As long as you can use that experience to make better decisions in the future, it’s OK to say you screwed up.
While almost everyone makes some mistakes in college, most people also do earn a degree. They spend enough time in lecture halls and the library to learn the information needed for a job after college. It’s just a single piece of paper, but it is very important!
Of course, study life isn’t everything at university. Most people also make life-long friends on campus. Playing sports or having adventures with other people who are doing the same thing you’re doing is a great way to find friends.
Listen to Brian and Marni’s conversation about the ups and downs of college life in this English lesson about higher education.
Depending on your collegiateexperience, this educational rite of passage may have helped you gain independence, or it may have taught you life lessons about what not to do. In retrospect, it’s always easy to see what went wrong. As long as you can use that experience to make better decisions in the future, it’s OK to say you screwed up.
While almost everyone makes some mistakes in college, most people also do earn a degree. They spend enough time in lecture halls and the library to learn the information needed for a job after college. It’s just a single piece of paper, but it is very important!
Of course, study life isn’t everything at university. Most people also make life-long friends on campus. Playing sports or having adventures with other people who are doing the same thing you’re doing is a great way to find friends.
Listen to Brian and Marni’s conversation about the ups and downs of college life in this English lesson about higher education.
Dialogue
Brian: Did you go to college?
Marni: Yes. I went to a very large university, and it was OK. In retrospect, I should have looked a little bit closer at maybe some smaller schools.
Brian: Oh, really?
Marni: Those giant lecture halls. It was difficult for me to learn that way.
Brian: I went to a small college, and I was kind of thinking I kind of wish I knew what it was like to go to a bigger school and have a little more independence. You know, make it on my own. I lived with my parents throughout college, so I didn’t feel like I really went through that rite of passage.
Marni: Interesting. Yeah, I definitely lived in the dorm, and did the wholecollegiate experience. It was all right, but I kind of screwed up on some classes, and didn’t go, and didn’t do very well. I guess I learned from my mistakes the next year.
Brian: Yeah. My nephew’s thinking of going to college, and I just don’t know if it’s necessary anymore. If a degree matters as much now as it did ten years ago.
Marni: That’s interesting that you say that. I think an educational experience is very important, but it’s so expensive.
Brian: Yeah, I think that’s the hard part.
Marni: Yes. I went to a very large university, and it was OK. In retrospect, I should have looked a little bit closer at maybe some smaller schools.
Brian: Oh, really?
Marni: Those giant lecture halls. It was difficult for me to learn that way.
Brian: I went to a small college, and I was kind of thinking I kind of wish I knew what it was like to go to a bigger school and have a little more independence. You know, make it on my own. I lived with my parents throughout college, so I didn’t feel like I really went through that rite of passage.
Marni: Interesting. Yeah, I definitely lived in the dorm, and did the wholecollegiate experience. It was all right, but I kind of screwed up on some classes, and didn’t go, and didn’t do very well. I guess I learned from my mistakes the next year.
Brian: Yeah. My nephew’s thinking of going to college, and I just don’t know if it’s necessary anymore. If a degree matters as much now as it did ten years ago.
Marni: That’s interesting that you say that. I think an educational experience is very important, but it’s so expensive.
Brian: Yeah, I think that’s the hard part.
Discussion
Brian and Marni are talking about their collegiate experiences. They both went to college, but not the same one.
Marni went to a large university, lived in the dorms, and made some mistakes in the beginning. Even though she didn’t like everything about her college, such as the large lecture halls, she said she learned a lot from the times she screwed up. And, in the end, she got her degree.
Brian, on the other hand, had less independence during his college years. He lived with his parents and went to a small school, so he had less opportunity to do things by himself. Because his college experience wasn’t exciting and didn’t seem very important, Brian’s not sure if college is necessary for everyone.
Marni tells Brian that an educational experience is definitely important, but she admits it’s quite expensive. Brian agrees that paying for college is something that makes higher education difficult.
Did you go to college? How would you describe your collegiate experience?
Marni went to a large university, lived in the dorms, and made some mistakes in the beginning. Even though she didn’t like everything about her college, such as the large lecture halls, she said she learned a lot from the times she screwed up. And, in the end, she got her degree.
Brian, on the other hand, had less independence during his college years. He lived with his parents and went to a small school, so he had less opportunity to do things by himself. Because his college experience wasn’t exciting and didn’t seem very important, Brian’s not sure if college is necessary for everyone.
Marni tells Brian that an educational experience is definitely important, but she admits it’s quite expensive. Brian agrees that paying for college is something that makes higher education difficult.
Did you go to college? How would you describe your collegiate experience?
Grammar Point
Past Progressive Tense
Remembering his college experience, Brian says he was thinking that he wished he knew what a bigger university was like. He uses the past progressivetense.
The past progressive tense (also sometimes called “past continuous”) is formed by using was/were + main verb + ing, as in, “We were eating dinner when the phone rang.”
We use the past progressive tense to talk about actions that were already in progress when another action took place in the past. (At the moment the phone rang, we were already in the process of eating dinner.)
It’s also common to use this tense to talk about two on-going actions that were happening simultaneously in the past, as in, “While Axl Rose was finishing his new album, his fans were waiting anxiously for it to come out.”
The past progressive is also used to talk about single ongoing actions in the past. Although Brian went to a small college, he thought about attending a bigger school often. He thought about what a large university would be like more than once. For him, it was an ongoing idea.
Which sentence uses the past continuous, “I was living in Germany last summer,” or, “I lived in Germany last summer”?
Remembering his college experience, Brian says he was thinking that he wished he knew what a bigger university was like. He uses the past progressivetense.
The past progressive tense (also sometimes called “past continuous”) is formed by using was/were + main verb + ing, as in, “We were eating dinner when the phone rang.”
We use the past progressive tense to talk about actions that were already in progress when another action took place in the past. (At the moment the phone rang, we were already in the process of eating dinner.)
It’s also common to use this tense to talk about two on-going actions that were happening simultaneously in the past, as in, “While Axl Rose was finishing his new album, his fans were waiting anxiously for it to come out.”
The past progressive is also used to talk about single ongoing actions in the past. Although Brian went to a small college, he thought about attending a bigger school often. He thought about what a large university would be like more than once. For him, it was an ongoing idea.
Which sentence uses the past continuous, “I was living in Germany last summer,” or, “I lived in Germany last summer”?
Quiz
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