It might look like an ordinary small convenience store in the Financial District. But you can have great Kimbap (Korean style maki) and Kimchi burrito here. In small Kitchen John’s mother and some Mexican women cook 10 kinds of Korean food. When I heard of John’s Snack and Deli through Korean-San Francisco community, I was pleased I could get Korean food in San Francisco but I didn’t expect that I would see Americans waiting for food in line there. When I got there, I was surprised to see American – they didn’t look like Korean at least- filled with the small store during lunchtime.

After coming back home I googled and I found many Americans loved those foods, especially Kimbap and Kimchi burrito. You can try Beef kimbap, Spam kimbap, Vegetable kimbap, Tuna kimbap and Kimchi kimbap ($3,25-$3.75). They are rolled with carrots, pickled daikon, cucumber, rice and sesame oil and your choice (beef, spam, vegetable, tuna and Kimchi). When you get there, you could see John’s mother is always rolling Kimbap so you could get fresh Kimbap. I also found people loved the Kimchi burrito($5.95). The Kimchi burrito is stuffed with beef, chicken or pork, kimchi, rice, lettuce, salsa, onions and cilantro. Some people say that this burrito is better than any other burrito in this city and people love it calling getting it “Ultra spicy suicide kimchi burrito challenge” on www.yelp.com. As Korean, for me, it was not that spicy but I guess it’d be ultra spicy for American. Why don’t you try “Ultra spicy suicide kimchi burrito challenge” yourself?

Visit John’s Snack and Deli,
40 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111.

On December 5th, 2010 my plane landed in San Francisco. My booking involved four weeks studying in Converse International School of Languages and eight weeks Volunteer English program. Also, I am living for those three months in a home stay.

I spent Christmas and New Year’s Eve in San Francisco. I didn’t wait for white Christmas and not for summer. Here I expected mild temperatures between 35 ° and 55 ° Fahrenheit (ca. 0 ° to 15 ° Celsius) perfect for shopping and sightseeing. I also met up with my classmates and fellow students to take, for example, dinner in restaurants. To fill out the program, CISL offers variety of offerings.

I spent Christmas with my family. This was a priceless experience for me to celebrate Christmas outside of my family in another culture. I could find out differences and similarities between American and my German culture. My wonderful host family is of Filipino origin. They have four grown children and eight grandchildren aged two to eighteen years. The whole family comes together to Christmas, on 12/25. There I could share with all family members everything possible and I could enjoy Christmas in a different family.

New Years Eve I spent with my classmates, my fellow students and my new friends. You meet up with them at one of your host family, residence, apartment or in public restaurants, bars and clubs. At 11 pm you should go to the “Embarcadero” because at 00:00 clock there starts big fireworks. Perhaps I’ve never even seen so many people in one place and certainly I’ve never seen so many different cultures in one place.
Then the party was into the early morning hours.

Both Hillary and Condoleeza appeared at different days as part of the Commonwealth club event. Jean-Pierre Guittard made an announcement at the school during graduation letting all students know that CISL SF had bought free tickets for Hillary’s speech and for Condoleeza’s speech (enough for an entire class of about 8 people). Jean-Pierre wanted our students experience what it was like to attend speeches from very important people such as Hillary and Condoleeza and learn more about American politics and culture.

CISL SF student comments…

On October 18th, I attended the promotion event of Condoleeza Rice’s autobiography at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. She talked about her background which was written in her book. Though I didn’t know much about her before this event, I could know a little about her. She spoke about her family, her college life and her major at the university.

I’ve never attended this kind of event. My biggest surprise was the behavior of 5 protesters. In this event, they stood suddenly and shouted to her about every ten minutes. They were escorted out of the event by hotel security, but after the event they still stood outside of the hotel and repeated appeals. I recognized free speech in America by their behavior. This day was my first day at Converse. It was shocking and a good opportunity to observe a part of American culture. (By Jin Yoshikawa, Japan)

View Condolezza Rice slide show.

I’m so glade to have this opportunity to attend Ms Clinton speech at San Francisco’s Marriott hotel that Converse offered to me. In fact it’s the first time I attended a speech in USA I guess I’m lucky. Ms Clinton is popular and people like her , we were clapping for her a lot and she’s also so friendly she took photos with people. One week later the school also offered another opportunity to attend a Condoleezza rice speech. Both speeches were interesting I learned a lot about U.S. policy and the future of the USA . I have attended speeches a couple of times back home in Saudi Arabia but it was a different experience to be in the USA . Finally, I’d like to thank my school because they always offer a great opportunities for students! (Ahmed Alsomali, Saudi Arabia)

View video of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s San Francisco speech.

Hey,

My name is Julia, and I am staying in San Francisco for three months. At home in Berlin, Germany, I study English in order to be a High School teacher. Obviously, my English has to be very good and I am happy that I found the homepage of Converse by browsing the Web some months ago. For years, it had been my dream to spend some time in San Francisco because I had heard that it is the most liberal city in the U.S.

So I applied for an internship at Converse San Francisco and learned that I had to take a language course as well. At first, I was a little bit reluctant because I had had some bad experiences with other language schools. However, my skepticism was soon proven wrong. I was placed in the right course level, had an excellent teacher, and never had the feeling that I wasn’t being challenged. Furthermore, this was also a good way to meet new people.

Now I am finished with my language course and working at Converse part-time as an intern. I am learning a lot about the American workplace, and the staff is very friendly and constantly helps me improve my English skills. And I still have got enough time to explore the city, to participate in the great free-time activities and to have a lot of fun.

How Would You Describe Your Study Abroad Experience?

Hello, I’m a businessman who came from Hiroshima, Japan. I have been studying business English, TOEIC preparation, and the other all English skill which I need at CISL in San Francisco, USA from this April. During this time, even though studying English is quite tough for me because the linguistic system is completely different from Japanese, I’m pleased to say that I have rapidly and constantly been able to improve my English proficiency. For example, my TOEIC score was improved by over 100 points for the short terms despite of the fact that it was about 700 points before beginning the lessons. It was an unexpected delightful miscalculation, and I sincerely appreciate the hospitality CISL showed me during my English study. Mere words could never express my gratitude, yet I will try to explain how grateful I am for everything that CISL has done.

In addition, I enjoyed an extremely wonderful life in San Francisco because CISL could always offer fantastic and dedicated entertainment after school. For instance, when  I asked that I wanted to see the baseball game between Oakland vs. Seattle, CISL immediately planned that excursion. As a result, I was able to see the single to left which Ichiro made in Oakland. Honestly speaking, never did I see such a positive and excellent language school which showed fancy footwork. Moreover, I think that these exciting activities were very good chances to talk with not only other country’s students but also native speakers outside of the class. I could really use these interesting opportunities I preferred. Thank you very much!

Five students from Wendy’s Level 9 class wrote about their cultural experiences and we are proud to announce that the winner from her class is Eva.

Below is Eva’s blog entry:

What did I know about San Francisco before coming here? First of all, I knew that it was a big city with a lot of streets going up and down – like those pictures you see in films – and that on these streets there were driving the famous cable cars. Of course I had also seen pictures of the famous Golden Gate Bridge furthermore friends had told me that America was the best place to go shopping and that you could meet a lot of friendly and multicultural people. I think that was more or less my background information when I got on the plane to San Francisco.

One of the most important things you learn very quickly is not to think about European scales. Also distances may seem very small on a map. You will soon realize that in reality they are much bigger than expected.

Actually when you look at a map of San Francisco the distance is not the only thing to worry about. As I mentioned before, the city is not flat at all. When you take one of the cable cars or the buses, better listen and “HOLD ON”. You will also soon notice that the Americans are very friendly people for instance a complete stranger starts talking to you on the bus to tell you that he likes your shoes… however could arise some subject comprehension problems considering the differences between American slang and our European school English. I was quite surprised when the receptionist at the hotel told me that he couldn’t “break” my dollars after having asked him if he could change my money. So here my hot tip: listen to what your teacher tells you and do the pronunciation exercises (even though they bore you silly…). After a few days you will discover how easy it is to sound like an American: just use “like” at least twice in a sentence and pronounce the whole sequence as if it was one word.

Once you get more confident about the language you are ready to discover the many beautiful and interesting sites of San Francisco, one of the most liberal and gay friendly cities of the Unites States, go to the Ghirardelli Square and enjoy of the of world’s best chocolate or go watching the sea lions at the famous Pier 39. If you get too stressed with all the sightseeing, you can relax in the Japanese Tea Garden and refresh your energy drinking a cup of Jasmine or Green tea in the tea house or you can take some sun at Ocean Beach.

San Francisco has so many sites that you will need at least a week to get a full impression of its variety of people of cultures, of sexes, of shapes, of fast food restaurants and of so much more.

Have fun and don’t hurry around. If you take it easy you can make the best out of your vacation in S.F.

Our Intern Alexandra, started her internship at CISL San Francisco yesterday. Please see her blog entry below.

Greetings,

My name is Alexandra. I’m 21 years old and I’m from Vienna, Austria. Right now I’m studying Journalism and Communication at the University of Vienna.

I came to San Francisco about one and a half months ago and all in all I’m staying three months. In Europe it is very important to know many languages and the first thing a company would ask you in an interview: “Can you speak English?”. So English is very significant for me and that is the reason why I have choosen to go to school and have an internship in San Francisco.

Why San Francisco? The city is known for its hills, the Golden Gate Bridge or the fascinating Jail Alcatraz. I’ve seen so many movies playing in San Francisco that I just wanted to be a part of it.

I attended Converse International Language School which was a really good choice because it manages to combine a high disciplinary study level, with a bright and friendly environment including making new friends from all over the world. The teachers are so friendly and you can really feel that they want to help you improving your English knowledge.The school also helped me find an internship to reach my goal, which is able to speak fluent English.

I hope you are getting interested in this beautiful city and want to come here. 

All the best,

Alexandra

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