After completing an English course for adults at EC LONDON 30+, one of our recent students kindly wrote some advice for new students coming to the school which we’d love to share with you. These are her words, completely unedited by us and I think they are very sensible and helpful. Thank you very much, Sandra!
- Don’t lose your name sticker given to you on your first day, if you intend to leave the building only temporarily that day! Otherwise, the friendly, suited guys on the ground floor will refuse to let you go upstairs again. Been there, don’t that! It’s safe, as soon as you’re in possession of your student ID.
- Don’t immediately questions your ability to keep up with your class mates at the level you’ve been sorted into. People at school usually know what they’re doing…Besides, everybody’s weakness is a different one. In my case it was feeling like a complete idiot while speaking, whereas I felt quite comfortable with grammar. I’ve improved a lot – and finally included newly learnt words in conversations (and my writing) without even thinking about it.
- Even though you’ve been warned about the alarm going off every Tuesday at 5pm, you WILL get a heart attack anyway! Don’t fight it, embrace it instead.
- Conversation class is fun (and useful by the way). Don’t wait too long to try it out (same goes for Dinner Club)…
- If an English sentence sounds wrong to you, it usually is. Unfortunately teachers tend to ask you for the grammatical reason…
- Funny thing about English grammar: there are always terms I haven’t heard of yet! My class, for instance, dealt with “cleft sentences”, that obviously needed a very important name to intimidate already confused language students! Just don’t pay attention to those names. Grammar, hiding behind it, is usually not as bad as it sounds…
- It might be advisable to take better notes in class than I have done! Meaning, make sure you’ll still be able to understand the next morning, what your notes are about.
- If people in your class start talking about green houses, gardens and the jungle, just trust that it probably has something to do with the English language. That’s actually nothing I had to learn. I just felt with the new students coming in, that hadn’t known what this nature talk was all about…
- You can ask for a taste of some beer in the pub before actually ordering! Had a lecture on English beer two weeks prior to the end of my stay. I would have liked to know that much earlier…
- Apparently, teachers can be creative, motivating and encouraging (me still writing in English should be proof of that)! It’s just a shame, I had to get older than 30 and go to another country to experience that…
created by Sandra Friehlinghaus (Germany)
Once again, thank you very much for your advice, Sandra. These incredibly well-written points would be invaluable for any new students joining an English course for adults at EC LONDON 30+.
If you’re interested in coming to study with us, please check out our website for more information about our courses.