Our lovely Academic Year Coordinator Claire would like to share a message with you. My name is Claire, I am the Academic Year Coordinator for EC Bristol.  My job is to ensure that our long-term students (24 weeks+) are making progress, achieving their goals, and having a great time in Bristol! Academic Year students will have a 1-1 meeting every 6 weeks with their own personal tutor.  If you are an Academic Year student, you can come to my drop-in session every Tuesday from 2:00 – 3:00.  You can use this time to ask for advice about learning English, get help with any difficult language, discuss any worries you have, ask about exam strategies or just practise speaking English! The lectures are part of the Academic Year programme and are a great way to practise academic listening and writing skills.  If you would like to suggest a topic for a lecture, let me know and I’ll try to arrange it! Please come and see me if you have any questions, my office is behind reception.  I will be happy to help you. Book your English Language course today!

If you like live music, then Bristol is the city for you. Many students and members of staff of EC Bristol are going to gigs. Gigs are always very enjoyable and the atmosphere is exciting, thrilling and inspiring. Every night a pub will be holding amateur and professional open mic nights where anyone can perform. The Louisianna, Thekla, Start the bus, The Birdcage, Big Chill, The Lanes, The Fleece, The Canteen, Motion, The Full Moon and many other venues host great bands. Rock, Reggae, Indie, DubStep, Ska, these will be the sounds you will be able to listen to. Closer to summer, Bristol has many music festivals such as Dot to Dot Festival, Love Saves The Day, The Clifton International Festival of Music, Bristol Harbour Festival, Bristol Proms and much more. It attracts people from all over the world. We are lucky to have at EC Bristol many students & members of staff with musical talents. It is always nice to see students playing guitar in the lounge, singing not only international songs but also English ones. And what better than seeing EC Bristol teachers playing with their bands at some venues in the city. That is also the advantage to be an Academic Year student because you will be able to enjoy more nights out and festivals of Bristol!  

The most popular activity at EC Bristol is by far Football. Angolans, Arabics, Colombians, Brazilians, Itallians, Swiss meet up every Fridays to go to the sport centre and compete between each other. We will soon see them at the Premier league ;D  Recently, the Director of Studies Dan, the teacher Louis and the Angolan students went to play football for a fundraising event. They played 7 games! It was a very long, intense but fun & sunny day!  The fundraising event was called COPA SANDINO and was organised by the association BLINC. Bristol Link (BLINC) with Nicaragua was set up in 1985 in order to promote solidarity with Nicaragua and to develop a link between Bristol and Puerto Morazán. BLINC aims to strengthen the ties between Bristol and Puerto Morazán, to offer solidarity to our Nicaraguan friends, and to enable our community to benefit from cultural, educational and commercial exchange. But the football adventure is not finished yet for our wonderful students. They will be playing at Clifton College Sport Ground on Sunday 1st June as a charity event. The charity is called Hammer Brain Tumours Out. The matches will start at 10:00 am. So go and support them all on Sunday! They are counting on you!  SUPPORT OUR EC BRISTOL TEAM! Our Angolan students are enrolled on an Academic language course. For more information about that course, go on that link: http://www.ecenglish.com/school-locations/learn-english-in-bristol/english-courses/academic-year-programme  

Our wonderful Panamanian student Nicole Ruiz, who went from Beginner to Intermediate level during her stay at EC Bristol, would like to share her testimonial. I came to Bristol, to improve my speaking and listening and I could achieve it thanks to EC School, one of the best English schools in England. You just have to try your best and you learn a million things. Being in EC was better than I imagined, I never thought I would meet special people and learn so much in just 6 month. Here you will not only learn English, you also learn from other cultures besides teachers introduce in their lessons interesting topics to interact and discuss with classmates from different countries. With the teachers help, I improved my English in a fun way as EC School has an excellent methodology to teach in a practical, fast and interesting way. I am infinitely grateful to this great school for all the knowledge I acquired there. Thanks to EC I am now able to write this letter and to speak and listen much better than before. All your advice to improve my English I will put in practice. It was a great learning experience, I learnt a lot with each of you. Every course, every classroom, every teacher, every classmate, every gesture, every smile, every laugh…I’ll always remember it, it will always be in my heart. For further information please visit our Academic English course page.

Our EC students: Manon, Roberto, Daniela, Laura, Marion and Manuel, all studying in Intermediate class at EC Bristol, wrote their favourite recipes and kindly advise us to try them all. PASTA SAUCE RECIPE (for 5 person) * 3 big potatoes * 1 scallion * 2 courgettes * 1 carrot * 300g of Parmigiano * 150g of Bacon * A small glass of milk * A pinch of pepper * A pinch of nutmeg * A pinch of salt * A glass of water Put the potatoes in a pot with water and let them cook for about 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile cut up the courgettes, the carrot and the scallion. Put in a pot oil and scallion. Sauté the scallion for about 3 minutes and after add courgettes and a glass of water and cook until the courgettes become soft. Meanwhile mush the potatoes in a plate. When the courgettes are almost cooked add the potatoes, the milk and the Parmigiano. Mixture over a low heat, add the bacon and cook the whole until it becomes cream. At the end add carrots, a pinch of pepper, nutmeg and salt. The sauce for the pasta is ready!   CARI CHICKEN You need: * A chicken * 5-6 tomatoes * 5-6 onions * 1 root of ginger * Curuma * Salt * Water 1. You cut and slice the tomatoes and the onion with ginger. 2. At the same time, you fry the chicken. 3. After, you mix the chicken with the seasoning (tomatoes, onions and ginger). 4. In the end, add the curcuma. 5. You can serve this meal with rice and a mix of vegetables: tomatoes, onions, ginger, lemon and mango.   PANAMANIAN CHICKEN RICE Ingredients: * 1kg white long rice * 300 g sweetcorn canned * 250g petit pois canned * 100g … Read more