Find out what’s happening in our school!
Come to reception after your English lessons to get your FREE ticket for our Student Christmas Party on Thursday 17th December 2009.
It’s at a internationally recognised London night club – see posters around the school for details. Well done to Geoff for organisnig such a fantastic venue for free !
Don’t forget we still have lessons on Friday 18th December before our school closes for two weeks !
Due to the terrible rainy weather we’ve had recently, today in coffee and conversation I wanted to talk about holidays. I asked Mayerly from Venezuela and Juan from Colombia to tell me about their ideal holiday; where they would travel to, who they would go with and what kinds of things they would do when they got there.
Mayerly chose an island in Asia near Thailand that she wasn’t sure of the name of. Apparently it is a beautiful tropical island and she would go there with her whole family to swim in the sea, eat delicious food and relax.
Juan would like to visit Japan with his girlfriend as it is a country with a completely different culture to the west. He would also like to go to Egypt again as he visited last year and really enjoyed seeing the pyramids and going on a boat down the Nile river.
My fantasy holiday is to visit Brazil for the carnival and then spend some time on the beach and visit the Amazon jungle. I would go with my best friend as we have had lots of holidays together and we always have a lot of fun and laughter.
Our conversation moved on to discussing our plans for Christmas and the differences between traditions here and in Colombia and Venezuela. The main difference is that in South America, as in many parts of Europe, Christmas is celebrated on December 24th, whereas in Brtain we celebrate it on the 25th.
There were lots of similarities however, the most important one being that Christmas is a time for families and we all said how we enjoyed spending time with family at Christmas. Another similarity is that lots of special food is eaten at Christmas and that a family meal forms the main part of the celebration.
Buying presents at Christmas can be very expensive, especially if like Mayerly and Juan you have lots of relatives. In Mayerly’s family they each choose names from a hat and everyone buys just one present for that person. This game is also played here, often with a group of friends or colleagues and is called ‘Secret Santa’.
Thanks to Mayerly and Juan for joining me this morning for a very enjoyable discussion.
The EOL* tests will be held on Friday 11th December. If you are not going to be in class that day, please tell your teacher in advance so alternative arrangements can be made for you. Speaking tests will be held during that week but more information will be available next week. We strongly recommend you read the level descriptor for your level and talk to your teacher if there are specific areas you would like to focus on before the test.
If you would like tips on Study Skills and how to be a better learner, why not attend our New! Social Programme Activity on Study Skills? If you would like to know how to be more organised when it comes to studying or make the most of the resources in the Study Room, why not come to the Study Room this Thursday, 2.30-3.30pm to find out more? Don’t forget to sign up for the class outside the Study Room – maximum 12 spaces available.
*EOL = End of Level Tests held at the end of each 12/13 -week cycle at EC London. An opportunity to see how much you have learnt and where you are in the level you are in.
Calling all Cambridge exam students! If you would like a practice exam with someone who isn’t your teacher, come to Reception and put your name on the academic request list. We’ll then contact you with a time to come.
If you have any questions about the exams or if you haven’t picked up your Confirmation of Entry yet, just come to Reception and we’ll be happy to help.
Wishing all our students the best of luck in their exams – but if you’ve put in the hard work, I’m sure you won’t need luck!
Sam and the team at EC London 
Dear All,
On Friday 20th of November EC London held a series of events for Children in Need, a national charity to help children who need help and support. Staff had to come in fancy dress with the theme being the first letter of your name deciding the costume that you would wear. eg Amanda = A = Angel
We also organised a donation box and a raffle which was highly successful.
We would like to thank all the staff and students at EC London for helping to raise the grand total of £118.10 for this most worthy cause. Please see some wonderful pictures of Laura ‘B’ as ‘Batgirl’ taking a payment from a walk in. Nothing can phase her!!! But the students did look a trifle bemused
In case you can’t quite work it our Rich is rambo and Sam’s the school girl…
Next up will be our Christmas party so watch this space.
Vocab Corner:
fancy dress = wearing clothes that make you look like another person/type of person
trifle = litte bit , bemused = confused but entertained , donation = giving something for free
After the threat of storms and gales, it was a great relief when Sunday morning greeted us with wintry sunshine. 11 of us set off from Victoria to take the 60 minute train to Brighton. The late autumn countryside was lovely to see and it wasn’t long before we were walking through the ‘Lanes’ and enjoying the shops and stalls.
The lure of the seaside then proved too strong but first we found an outside cafe to enjoy a seaside lunch of fish and chips. Feeling reinvigorated we then ventured onto the beach and some of the braver ones of our group even tested the sea…………but only up to their knees!
After some chat and relaxation we walked back through the town and looked at the exterior and gardens of the Royal Pavilion and then visited the art gallery next door. Further refreshments were needed before we took the train home but after 20 minutes on the train the train stopped and because of a problem on the railway line, we had to take a bus and then another train before we got back to London. A return journey of 2.5 hours!
Despite this we had a very successful and enjoyable trip.
Written by Geoff
This week in coffee and conversation I met Dongseung from South Korea. He spent 6 months living in Cambridge before coming to London in September. We talked a little about the differences between the architecture in London and in Seoul. Dongseung said he liked the historical buildings here as Seoul is made up of mainly modern architecture.
Our conversation moved on to discussing the political systems here and in South Korea and whether our governments were popular. I am slightly embarrassed to say that I was unable to fully explain how politics works in Britain! For example, I couldn’t really say what the Queen was for! (Anyone who can clear this up is welcome to add a comment to this blog.) Needless to say, Dongseung had a much better idea of how things worked in his country.
One of the language skills that is really important in conversation is expressing your opinions and we talked quite a lot about what we thought on a range of topics, including crime and the death penalty! Obviously, both these things are not usually discussed as part of small talk, but I felt very comfortable talking to Dongseung and I found the conversation really interesting.
As always, I am looking forward to the next coffee and conversation class and more interesting talks with students.
Saffron Holloway
This has been one of the years most keenly anticipated events and it was the first time that EC London, EC Brighton and EC Cambridge had competed against each other to prove their footballing expertise. Each school recruited 3 teams and the EC London teams contained a very keen contingent of pupils with a few staff eager to show they were still fit and agile.
The event was held in New Beckenham where the football facilities in the new venue were very good. It had taken a lot of organisation to schedule the games so that each team could play all the other teams in one of two groups and the arrangements worked really well. When the first match kicked off at 1pm, the noise from the supporters was deafening and it was clear that although the games were good-natured, each school was very competitive and keen to win.
Drawing on students from so many different countries, the camaraderie was excellent and there were some fine footballing moments. By 5 o’clock the semi finals were being played out and for us in EC London it was a very proud moment when our team got through to play EC Brighton in the final. The final game was close fought but EC London took an early lead and managed to score a late goal to seal the win just before the final whistle blew. The roar that went up from all the spectators did justice to the efforts that all the teams had made.
There was a lot of excitement as Laura presented the bronze, silver awards and the gold award to London Galaxy. Finally the match trophy was received by Michael on behalf of the EC London team.
By this time we were ready for the extensive buffet that had been laid on and which disappeared very fast!
Congratulations to our EC London team for their great win, to our other 2 teams for helping us to feel proud of EC London’s football prowess. And to Bernard who made it all happen.
The Diving Man
