International House Toruń Magazine - The Gingerbread Slice (issue 1)

By the students of International House Toruń
ISSUE 1 ● 2018
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Contents
3 Editorial
4 IH News
6 Daily Routine
7 Unicorn Asica
8 Into the Volcano!
9 Himalayan Adventure
10 The Natural World
11 Tale of the Titanic
12 Postcard Exchange
13 Teenage Problems
14 Crazy Sports
16 Interview with John
Hughes
17 Crossword Corner
18 Exam Club Dates
Credits
Editing
Glenn Standish
Contributors
Staff and students of IH Toruń
and IH in Inowrocław
Images
Pixabay www.pixabay.com
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Editorial
Welcome to our
first ever issue!
It brings me great pleasure to welcome you to our
very first issue of The Gingerbread Slice - the
student magazine brought to you by the students
of International House Toruń and International
House in Inowrocław. It’s challenging enough to
write articles and stories in any language and to
do it so well in English is no mean feat. So
congratulations to all our wonderful students for
contributing some really outstanding pieces of
work here.
This year is an extra special one for IH Toruń as it
marks the 25th anniversary since we first opened
our doors and started teaching English to the
Polish public! It’s been an amazing journey and we
haven’t looked back since. To celebrate our 25th
anniversary IH Toruń is organising a
special Teacher Training Day event on Saturday
21st April 2018. The event will take place at both
the school as well as the local Town Hall. Our
main guest speaker will be John Hughes who
many students will know as the author of the FCE
coursebook ‘Spotlight on First’. In fact on page 16
students from FCE1 have interviewed John
Hughes about many topics.
Enjoy reading!
Glenn Standish (Director of Studies, IH Toruń)
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Bowling Fun
On Saturday 27th January 2018, some of
our students and teachers met up for some
bowling fun in English. There were two
sessions. The first was for our YL classes
and the second was for our Teens and Adult
classes. Great fun was had by all! Watch
out in Spring for the next social event!
Hello James
Our newest member of the team arrives at the
beginning of the 2nd semester. James comes
from England, plays the violin and is looking
forward to teaching you all!
Happy Birthday
2018 is the 25th anniversary of IH Toruń. On
Saturday 21st April we will be celebrating at
the annual IH Torun Teacher Training Day.
This year it promises to be extra special with
the plenary session in Toruń’s Town Hall.
Goodbye Laura
Our teacher Laura has left IH Toruń for
sunnier climates in Spain. Thanks for all
your hard work Laura! Here she is with a
farewell photo on the bus with her LI adult
class.
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Daily Routine
Tosia Czyszka
(aged 9)
Maciej Jaros
(aged 9)
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A Day in the Life of Unicorn Asica
Written by Iza Czerwiak (aged 10)
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Written by Malina Streich (aged 10)
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Written by Alicja Szczepańska (aged 11)
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Our roving reporters in 4K3 and 4K4 tell us about some wild
and crazy animals that do (or at least DID) exist!
Am I a
horse? Yay
or neigh?
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Written by Patrycja Pągowska (aged 12)
The topic for this unit in 4K’s book was
undersea exploration. The students were
asked to practice the past simple tense by
writing a story about discovering a
shipwreck. Here is Patrycja’s story...
We found ourselves in the middle of the sea.
We decided to dive and a surprise awaited us at
the bottom.
One day, with a friend, we were at the seaside.
At one point a storm made a dreadful effect and
left us far away in the middle of the sea with my
friend’s water-based “pineapple” mattress.
We found the Titanic that had 10.000 euros on
its side. We swam closer, and two dolphins who
lived there flowed from the ruins of the ship. We
found a lot of coins there that we’ve never seen,
and various bands and chains. We kept it to
ourselves and we are visiting dolphins every
day.
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Article by Filip Groberski (aged 12)
International House has started a postcard
project with other International House schools
from around the world. This project is great.
People from International House all around
the world write postcards to International
House schools in other countries. This year
my classes (I transferred from 4K3 to 4K4)
wrote to IH Sabadell in Spain and IH Kiev in
Ukraine. You can see the excited students in
the photographs.
I think this project is good because students
can learn about other countries and learn
about other International House students.
Students from IH Sabadell
Students from IH Kiev
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Adam Dawidoski, 6K1
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Written by Mateusz Jabłoński
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John Hughes is the author of many well-known English
language coursebooks. IH Toruń is currently using his book
Spotlight on First with all the FCE classes. FCE1 in Toruń wrote
some questions for John and interviewed him!
If there was a zombie
apocalypse, which of your
skills would be the most
helpful to survive?
Writing about it, publishing it, and
showing the zombies pictures
and stories about themselves in
print. Maybe they’d leave me
alone if I did that.
Where in the world would you
still like to travel to?
There are so many places but as
I get older there are places I’d like
to go back to such as the
Bieszczady National Park. I had
a wonderful time there.
What is your favourite part of
speech?
Relative clauses – they are quite
tricky to teach and learn but
satisfying when you do.
Do you drink tea with milk at 5
o’clock?
No, but normally around 3 or 4
o’clock. (No sugar)
How do you feel about being
an idol to FCE students at IH
Toruń?
I didn’t know I was!! Are you
sure?
Do you have any advice for
young people learning English?
These days young people have
so much access to English .
I suggest choosing something you
enjoy doing like listening to
music and reading the lyrics. I
often really like the website
www.lyricstraining.com for that
very reason.
If you could be any animal from
your book which one would
you choose?
A gorilla
Where do you take your
inspiration from?
As a materials writer you are
always looking for ideas – you
never switch off from it. So it
might be from a train ticket, a
newspaper, a picture on
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Facebook, anywhere.
What do you think is the most
difficult part of FCE?
Sentence transformations
What is the most beautiful view
you have ever seen?
Walking in the Himalayas and
looking at Mount Everest.
If there was a Polish version of
FCE, would you pass?
I’m afraid not. I lived in Poland 25
years ago and so my Polish is
unfortunately very poor now. With
languages, you either use it or
lose!
How are the approaches to
writing an exam and non-exam
course book different?
With exam books you always
have to balance exam skills with
English skills. It has to cover the
things you need to know for the
exam which aren’t always the
same as everyday English.
What are you most looking
forward to about your
upcoming visit to Toruń?
Seeing Glenn. Seeing the town.
Meeting new people. I visited
Toruń in 1993 but I’m sure it’s
changed a lot since then!
John Hughes will be attending this year’s IH
Toruń Teacher Training Day on Saturday 21st
April 2018 .

Designed by Karolina Martyna (aged 14), Eliza Susmarska (aged 13) and Alicja Taratuta (aged 13)
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Free tutorial sessions every Friday for exam students!
Use of English 9th March 17.30 - 18.30
Reading 16th March 17.30 - 18.30
Writing 23rd March 17.30 - 18.30
Use of English 6th April 17.30 - 18.30
Listening 13th April 17.30 - 18.30
Reading 20th April 17.30 - 18.30
Use of English 27th April 17.30 - 18.30
Writing 11th May 17.30 - 18.30
Listening 18th May 17.30 - 18.30
Use of English 25th May 17.30 - 18.30
Speaking 8th June 17.30 - 18.30
FCE: Room 9 CAE: Room 2 CPE: Room 8
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FINAL DAY TO
SIGN UP FOR
FCE/CAE/CPE =
7th May 2018
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