gold. She said she was proud

to be a Trojan.

See Football on p. 8

Language Academy stu-

dents attended the Trojan vs.

Cal football game on Satur-

day, September 22.

The campus was filled

with tailgate parties before the

game as loyal Trojans en-

joyed food and drink before

the kickoff at 3 p.m.

The bleachers were packed

with fans in cardinal and gold

making waves across the sta-

dium and cheering on the

players as they entered the

field.

Robin said, “I didn’t real-

ize that football was so popu-

lar. Actually, it’s more excit-

ing before the game—all the

people marching to the sta-

dium. I couldn’t even find the

ball on the field!”

Miya was asked at the

Subway station why every-

body was wearing red and

Venice Beach Friday, September 28, 2012 12:30PM-6:00PM, meet at JEF Venice Beach is an iconic Califor-nian destination lined with art ven-dors, beach activities and diversity. Meet Blaire and Luke on Friday at 12:30pm in the JEF courtyard for a day that is sure to be memorable in your Los Angeles experience!

Los Angeles Zoo Friday, October 5, 2012 12:30PM-6:00PM, $5 payment Join us on our trip to the Los Ange-les Zoo, home to more than 1,100 mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles representing more than 250 different species. There is a $5 pay-ment, so be prepared to pay in cash when you sign-up today!

Fight On! USC Trojans Defeat Cal 27-9

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Language

Labs

2/

3

Healthy

Lunch

4

Mid-Autumn

Festival

5

Romantic

Restaurant

6

iPhone 5

Review

6

True Love

Story

7

Movie

Review

8

UP C O M I N G AC T I V I T I E S

The Academy News S E P T E M B E R 2 8 . 2 0 1 2 V O L U M E 5 5 , I S S U E 3

Check out The Academy News online at www.usc.edu/langacad.Go to “Student Information” and then click on “The Academy News.”

Moran learns to cook for himself. See p. 4.

Americans and Chinese: Differences in Diet, p. 5.

Language Academy students show their school spirit at the USC-Cal game.

P A G E 2

Writing to Impress (Levels 5-6): Impress your Language

Academy teachers and your USC professors with your academic style. Learn how to use aca-demic sources to power-fully support your ideas and enhance your schol-arship. GRE/GMAT Prepara-

tion (Levels 4-6): Find out the best ways to suc-ceed on the new exam Statement of Purpose

Workshop (Levels 4-6): Learn how to write an amazing SOP for gradu-ate school. Bring your draft statement of pur-pose to every session. Speak English Flu-

ently (Level 1-3): KNOW THE CODE! Maybe you can speak some English, but when you hear Americans talking so-cially, they use different English. This language lab will give you everyday English phrases so you can understand what Americans are saying, answer quickly, and make new friends. Conversation Groups:

Practice speaking Eng-lish by level with USC students. This is an inter-active discussion in which you will participate in groups about several interesting topics. This is your opportunity to prac-tice and to ask questions to native speakers.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Time Location Description Facilitator

11-12pm

JEF 124 Writing to Impress (Levels 5-6) Heather

DRB 265 GRE/GMAT (Levels 4-6) James

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 1 & 2 Rachel

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 3 & 4 Jackie

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 5 & 6 Luke C.

12-1pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1-3

Luke C.

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 4-6 Jackie

VKC 202 Statement of Purpose: Introductions (Levels 4-6) Marisa 1:30-2:30pm

THHB10 Writing to Impress (Levels 5-6) Heather

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Time Location Description Facilitator

11-12pm

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 1-3 Luke C.

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 4-6 Rachel

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 1-3 Luke C.

12-1pm

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 4-6 Joyce

JEF 203 Speak English Fluently (Levels 1-3) Diana

1:30-2:30 VKC 202 GRE/GMAT (Levels 4-6) James

GRAD OPENHOUSE USC School of Architecture

Monday, October 22 at 5:00 p.m. Master of Architecture (Post-Professional, +2) Master of Building Science Master of Heritage Conservation Master of Landscape Architecture (Post-Professional,

+2, +3) Learn about our programs, connect with faculty and current students and tour our facilities. We are committed to an interdisciplinary approach to graduate studies and look forward to meeting with you.

RSVP: Laarni Cutidioc at archgrad@usc.edu or (213) 821-2168

P A G E 3

Statement of Purpose Workshop (Levels 4-6): Learn how to write an amazing SOP for graduate school. Bring your draft in-troduction to this weeks session. See more detailed description online. Reading Power

(Levels 1-3): Do you want

to become a better, faster reader? Attend this lab to get tips and tricks on how to improve your reading skills.

Speak English Flu-

ently (Level 1-3): KNOW THE CODE! Maybe you can speak some English, but when you hear Americans talking so-cially, they use different English. This language lab will give you everyday English phrases so you can understand what Americans are saying, answer quickly, and make new friends. Conversation Groups:

Practice speaking Eng-lish by level with USC students. This is an inter-active discussion in which you will participate in groups about several interesting topics. This is your opportunity to prac-tice and to ask questions to native English speak-ers. Special Conversation:

Election 2012 (Levels 4-6) Americans will be

choosing their next Presi-dent on November 6th. Learn more about the process and the candi-dates.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Time Location Description Facilitator

11-12pm

JEF 124 Statement of Purpose: Introductions (Levels 4-6)

Marisa

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 1 Megan

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 2 Anastasia

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 3 Luke P.

JEF Courtyard

*Special Conversation: Election 2012* Levels 4-6

Blaire

12-1pm

JEF 124 Reading Power (Levels 1-3)

Marilyn

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 1,2 Anastasia

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 3 Luke P.

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 4-6 Blaire

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Time Location Description Facilitator

11-12pm

JEF 124 Statement of Purpose: Introductions (Levels 4-6)

Jeminah

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 1,2 Megan

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 3 Luke P.

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 4-6 Blaire

12-1pm

JEF 124 Speak English Fluently (Levels 1-3) Marilyn

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 1,2 Blaire

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 3 Anastasia

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 4-6 Luke P.

P A G E 4

Recipe of Healthy 5-minute Lunch for One

Yiqing Lin (Claire)

Are you tired of choosing sand-wiches, burgers or pizza for your lunch? Are you worried about your health( or your body shape) when you are eating those meaty, high-calorie foods? You may only need five minutes at night to prepare your-self a delicious, healthy lunch for to-morrow. Follow the recipe and find it out!

You only need a cucumber, a can of tuna, a lemon, and ¼ teaspoon of seasoning salt for this meal. You can start by strictly following this recipe, and then make your own version by being creative.

Directions: 1. Peel the cucumber, or wash it

thoroughly before use. Cut the cucumber into half at the long way, then cut the two pieces again into fourth. Then, cut them

into small pieces freely. (Tips: I usually cut the cucumber into bite-size because it feels better when you eat.)

2. Put the cucumber into your lunch box.

3. Open up a can of tuna, and drain

all the juice inside the can out. Drop the tuna into the lunch box too.

4. Cut the lemon into half. I prefer

picking out all the seeds before the next step. Then squeeze all the juice into the container (Enjoy SQUEEZING!!).

5. Sprinkle the seasoning salt onto

your meal. This step adds extra flavor into your lunch. So feel free to try different seasonings and choose your favorite!

6. The last step: mix all things up

with a fork and take it with you to school.

Notes: The ingredients are not nec-essarily fixed. You can add almost anything you want into the meal: e.g. fresh strawberries, raspberries, or even mixed nuts. The secret of this recipe is the lemon juice. With a hint of that, everything feels fresher.

You can find more of this kind of quick lunch ideas at Youtube. Search “Quick lunch” in the website, watch the videos and try your favorites out. If you are inspired by some of them, you can also videotape your creative recipe and share it with everyone else.

Moran Pei

My First Cooking

Experience in LA

It was not until last weekend

that I cooked by myself. In the past

21 years in my life, I never cooked

but just dined with my parents, or-

dered delivery or went to restau-

rants with my friends. When I ar-

rived in LA, I tried to do the same

thing in the first week; however,

soon I found it was much more ex-

pensive eating in a restaurant here

than in China, and obviously I

couldn’t bear to have every meal in

Burger King or Wendy’s. So finally

I decided to cook for myself.

On a lovely Saturday I went to

Ralph’s to buy some ingredients.

After wandering the supermarket, I

added chicken, shrimp, beef, three

kinds of vegetables (I don’t know

their names), and a lot of spices

into my cart and checked out.

Thanks to modern technology, I

googled something like “how to

cook chicken,” “how to cook beef,”

and “a complete collection of cook-

ing shrimp,” when I arrived home,

but suddenly I realized that if I

cooked all kinds of meats and vege-

tables, I would need to wash a lot

of dishes. I hate washing dishes, so

the plan A, making a feast, turned

into plan B, making one course.

Eventually I decided to make

fried chicken with vegetables, since

it seemed like a simple and nutri-

tious one. Surprisingly, the process

of cooking was pretty painless. I

thought that I might cut my finger

or burn the chicken into coals, but

actually nothing happened.

I followed the online guidance

step by step and made a really nice

and yummy course (at least I think

so). “I should apply for chef

school,” I told myself.

Moran learned to cook for himself here in L.A.

P A G E 5

Dan (Iris) Mu

Culture Differences in Diets be-

tween China and America

In China, there is an old saying: Food is the paramount necessity of the people. That is to say, people regard food as their prime want. As a result, my friend thought that knowing food well is the best strategy for me to quickly adapt to a new life. He took me to the university cafeterias, surrounding restaurants and local supermarkets. As a Chinese woman who is here for the first time, I strongly felt the subtle differences in diets which are due to dis-parate cultural backgrounds. There are many differ-ences in cultures which are reflected in diet.

One of the culture differences in diet is the time options for dinner. In China, people normally have three meals per day, breakfast, lunch and supper. They place emphasis on breakfast and lunch be-

cause they consider this habit as a regimen to keep healthy. They eat break-fast very early in the morn-ing, and they have lunch at noon. However, I find that American people just drink coffee in the morn-ing, and they eat lunch a little late (at 1 o’clock) in

the afternoon. Alternatively, they sometimes combine breakfast and lunch together as brunch which occurs at 10 or 11 o’clock in the morning.

The other culture differ-ence in diet is people’s attitude towards dinner. In China, the dinner’s proportion of all day’s food-intake is only 10% -20%. For health concerns, a lot of people usually eat less food than at lunch, and the choices of food also focus on easily digesti-ble, such as porridge or vegetables. On the other hand, Americans eat more energy food at night, and they also prefer to hold a formal banquet in the eve-ning while in China the banquet is usually held at noon.

Besides, under the far-reaching influence of tra-ditional medicine, one aspect of China's health life style is diet. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) believes the human body is a balanced system, and food is the most natural and safest drug when the body loses balance. TCM always encourages peo-ple to eat vegetarian and to have a limitation on the intake of meat. Therefore, most of the food in China mixes the appropriate proportion of coarse grains with meat and vegetables. Unfortunately, most peo-ple like to eat junk food which contains high-calories in the United States. Therefore, the cultural differ-ence is an indispensable factor which exerts a pro-found influence on different eating habits.

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival Christy (Qiong ZHU)

This September 30 is a very important day for Chi-nese people. It is the Chi-nese traditional Mid-autumn Festival, which Chinese

named "中秋节".

Traditionally, this festival is for those farmers who had toiled on the soil to celebrate their harvest. However, with the advancement of agricul-ture and industry, this festi-val has been transformed into a one-day holiday in order to gather family mem-bers for dinner and join in

activities together. These activities include

eating mooncakes while en-joying the beautiful full moon, appreciating decora-tive lanterns, and burning incense.

The mooncake is a deli-cacy that is an integral part of this important occasion. Usually, the mooncake has a round shape with approxi-mately 3.9 inches in diame-

ter and 1.8 inches in thick-ness.

The filling, which is wrapped by a thin mooncake crust, is made from many different types of food, such as the lotus seed paste, salted duck egg yolks, sweetened bean paste, ham, sesame seeds, and abalone. Hence the flavor of moon-cake can be sweet or salty based on personal prefer-ence.

If you love ice cream, you cannot miss the various fla-vors of ice cream moon-cakes, like vanilla, choco-late, strawberry and so on. For those meat eaters, fresh pork mooncake is the best choice! The fresh pork mooncake is different from the other mooncakes in size, ingredients and taste.

Though its size is much smaller, it is much more popular with the people who live in the Yangtze River delta because they regard this kind of mooncake as freshest and best tasting. It needs to be eaten immedi-ately after it has been baked.

The crust tastes like puff pastry, and the filling is all pork which is still hot and even contains its delicious juice.

On the Mid-Autumn festi-val day, you can easily find the stores selling this type of mooncake because people line up for them. It is often said where there are fresh pork mooncakes, there are long queues.

Mooncakes are a special treat for the Mid-Autumn Festival in China

P A G E 6

iPhone 5 The Most Advanced—but Boring

Bovard Auditorium is the

venue for many concerts dur-

ing the academic year.

Zhonglan (Panda) Lin

Perhaps the biggest thing that has happened to the technology industry recently is the launch of iPhone 5.

According to Apple, within just 24 hours after the release of iPhone 5, pre-orders had reached 2 million, which doubled the record of iPhone 4S. However, as a big fan of Apple products, I’m a bit disappointed in iPhone 5 - it doesn’t astonish me as their previous products used to. I’m not saying iPhone 5 is not a top smartphone. In fact, the processor of iPhone 5, A6 chip, is twice as fast as the last genera-tion. And the use of liquid metal makes it 18% thin-ner and 20% lighter than its predecessor. So “the

thinnest, lightest, fastest iPhone ever” of course becomes the official slo-gan of iPhone 5. But the updated hard-ware of iPhone 5 seems to be boring and under-whelming. Recalling previ-ous surprises, such as the fresh multitouch interface of iPhone 3GS, or the to-tally new outlook of

iPhone4, or the smart voice-assistant of iPhone 4S, we expected another surprise this time, espe-cially when Apple is in a very competitive techno-logical industry in Steve Jobs’ absence.

To my surprise, the lar-ger but lighter and thinner phone is nothing about revolutionary changes but

more like a regular techno-logical development.

It seems like there will be the “thinnest phone in the world” every one or two months. After a time, is there anyone who cares that his phone is 0.5mm thicker or 20g heavier than

others’？ I would rather make use

of this space to extend the battery life.

I still ordered an iPhone 5 anyway. As I said before, it is definitely the most ad-vanced phone at this mo-ment. But what if the next generation of iPhone is launched without any sur-prise?

Many other smartphone producers, such as Sam-sung, Nokia, Blackberry and so on, are all doing very well, and they are closely keeping their eyes on the smartphone market.

Yamashiro is a good place to date

and even propose to your girlfriend. If

you have never been there, you had bet-

ter go. Otherwise, you will regret it.

Yamashiro has a long history. It

means “Mountain Palace” in Japanese.

It was the dream of the Bernheimer

brothers in 1911 to build a hilltop man-

sion 250 feet above Hollywood Boule-

vard to house their priceless collection

of Asian treasures. Hundreds of skilled

craftsmen were brought from the Orient

to recreate an exact replica of a palace

located in the “Yamashiro” mountains

near Kyoto, Japan.

Now, Yamashiro is a Japanese restau-

rant which is located in Hollywood. It is

famous for its romantic atmosphere

there. Even though you have never been

there, you still can find it on the web-

site. There is software called Yelp. It is

such popular software we can use it to

find a best restaurant around us.

Yamashiro has five stars in Yelp. Its

reviews increased to 1298 in one month.

People who have been there for dinner

always take a picture and upload to

Yelp.

In order to share their happiness, they

usually write good recommendations on

the website. The food there is also fabu-

lous. Sushi has changed to American

ways. Some desserts there are not too

sweet, but they are made of cream.

Here are some pictures from Yama-

shiro. I hope you will have fun in Ya-

mashiro.

Life in L. A.

Yamashiro: A Romantic Restaurant in Hollywood by Xurui (Christy) Wang

Yamashiro was built in 1914.

Diners can enjoy a

panoramic

view of Los Angeles at

Yamashiro.

Movie Review

Resident Evil: Retribu-

tion by Rui (Christina) He

The fifth “Resident Evil” series came

out on September 14, and it successfully

ruined my two hours in a sunny Friday

afternoon. You don't have to watch the

four previous ones to understand the

movie, because it’s a totally empty-head

film with terrible acting, few storyline

but only simple scares.

As always, our unstoppable, half-

human, half–viral heroine Alice (Milla

Jovovich) has come to save the world,

again. This time, in order to stop the

Umbrella Corporation’s zombie plague

from spreading, she has to destroy their

evil underground facility, which dupli-

cated Tokyo, New York, Washington,

D.C, and Moscow to improve the virus

effectiveness.

Moreover, she also discovers an as-

tonishing fact that the Umbrella has

been using her and her allies as basic

cloning model of the virus experiments.

Suddenly, every friend seems suspi-

cious.

Although the “Resident Evil” series

at first was set as horror movies with

zombies and terrifying creatures, you

have to think twice before buying tickets

if you expect to be scared this time.

It seems that Paul W.S. Anderson’s

imagination has dried up because there’s

nothing new on the screen: zombies, a

big disgusting dog-like spider with

brains, aliens with axes, and nothing

more. However, if you are a big fan of

the “Resident Evil” video game, you

won’t regret it because it's actually a

first-person-spectating record of the

game in a real human version.

There’s a new face: Bingbing Li, a

well-known Chinese actress, partici-

pated in it and did a fair job. She played

Ada, an agent of the White House who

helps Alice escape from the facility.

As far as acting, she did well and she

obviously put much effort into practic-

ing her spoken-English so that you can

barely notice the Chinese accent. But

due to the script and the limited showing

time, she didn’t have the ability to win

the audience .

All in all, “Resident Evil” is a movie

with great special effects but no story-

line at all. Therefore I won’t recommend

it to anyone that I care about. But if you

insist, all that I have to say is “buy dis-

counted tickets and prepare to be

bored!”

P A G E 7

Media Highlights

Mengyao (Miya) Cheng

Several days ago, I saw a blog

named" A Love Story in 22 Pictures"

which has been reposted thousands of

times and has moved many people

around the world.

The story is about a 23-year-old

young man Taylor Morris and his girl-

friend. In the first photo, handsome

Morris is smiling in a navy uniform. It's

his first day in the army as a bomb dis-

posal officer. Unfortunately, his hard

work didn't bring him good luck. Dur-

ing a mission in Afghanistan, Taylor

lost all his four limbs.

Lying in the bed, he looked so weak

and tired. No one knew if he could sur-

vive, nor did anyone know how this

young man was going to live the rest of

his life without limbs. However, it was

always his girl friend, Michelle, who

encouraged him to never give up. And

she never gave him up.

When Taylor was under treatment,

she was right beside the bed. After he

was discharged from the hospital, she

carried him on her shoulders and went

everywhere they planned to go before

that accident.

In those pictures, they played on the

beach ; they went to concerts together;

they hugged as usual; they took photos

with smile. And finally, they stepped

into the church holding hands with

blessings from all the family and

friends.

Someone told me that love nowadays

is all about detachment. People are say-

ing “Goodbye" almost every second in

some corners of the world.

It's the true love between Taylor and

Michelle as well as their optimism that

gives everybody a life lesson. That is,

you can plan out life as much as you

want, but life has a plan of its own.

What you have to do is just look for-

ward, no matter what destiny may throw

at you.

To see the whole 22 pictures, visit:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/txblacklabel/

true-love-in-pictures-only-28m7

A Love Story in 22 Pictures

Taylor’s girlfriend Michelle never gave up on her sweetheart and gave the blogsphere an

important life lesson.

Music

Jazz Night

Thursday, October

4 7:00pm

Ground Zero Per-

formance Cafe

Free

This ongoing series of contemporary

jazz features top players in Thorn-

ton’s jazz programs performing in a

variety of student ensembles.

Film

Screening of "Assignment:

China" - China Watching

Thursday, October 4

4:00pm to 6:00pm

Annenberg School for Communica-

tion & Journalism

204

Film screening of “Assignment:

China,” China's new segment China

Watching, which tells the story of

American journalists' in Hong Kong

following the Communist Revolu-

tion in China. Led by USCI Senior

Fellow Mike Chinoy. Please go to

this website for more information:

http://china.usc.edu/

ShowEvent.aspx?EventID=3957

USC Language

Academy

Rossier School of

Education

Phone: 213-740-0080

Fax: 213-740-0088

Web: www.usc.edu/

langacad

EVENTS CALENDAR: SEPTEMBER 28-OCTOBER 4

The Academy News is a weekly newsletter pro-duced by students in the Journalism Elective of the USC Language Academy. All students in the Lan-guage Academy Program are encouraged to send news stories and photos to Sonja Lovelace at slove-lac@usc.edu.

Check out The Academy News online at www.usc.edu/langacad.Go to “Student Informa-

tion” and then click on “The Academy News.”

P A G E 8 S E P T E M B E R 2 8 . 2 0 1 2

FREE EVENTS Enjoy free events on campus dur-ing the semester. Please go to the Arts and Events Calendar for more details at http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/32/feature/2819

Football continued from p. 1

Panda said, “I couldn’t under-

stand the rules and didn’t know

why there were so many breaks

[in the game.]

Moran said, “It really

shocked me because it didn’t

look like a match between two

colleges. It looked more like a

professional league—huge sta-

dium. In China, the matches,

they just have a few hundred

people. The people behind me

were cheering for Cal, but they

didn’t have too many times to

shout for their team.”

True. USC walked away

with a big win. Fight On!

The USC Marching Band entertains spectators before and during the game.