Month: March 2015

Learning English – A Testimonial by Christophe

Category: Uncategorized

Our student Christophe Mazerat writes about his time here at EC Covent Garden. Christophe is very much a valued customer of EC; he has been coming to our schools since 2011! A dedicated fan indeed. He took his first course at EC Malta, then found out about our 30+ centre in Covent Garden, London and studied here for the first time last April. He then returned to EC Covent Garden for his second time and was with us for one week. He hopes to return again in a few months and we look forward to him coming back! Enjoy his testimonial…  I chose this destination because I enjoyed the first time I came here, last year. I find the school very good. Excellent teachers, this year Matt and Georgia. I definitely will recommend EC Covent Garden to friends. Christophe Mazerat (French) – General English 20 Lessons March 2015    Learning English on a regular basis like Christophe is doing, is a fantastic way to keep up your level of English.  If you’re thinking about learning English for a short week or longer, please visit our website.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Category: Learning English outside class, Learning vocabulary, London trip, Uncategorized

Hello all! So, as it is St. Patrick’s Day and I am Irish, I have decided to share a little of the history of St. Patrick and his day. After 15:45 today all of our students in the school, doing a general English course will know everything there is to know about him as I will be giving them a lecture on the topic but for any students who miss it or who are not in the country, read on! St. Patrick was actually born in Britain, however, when he was very young he was kidnapped by raiders and brought to Ireland, where he was kept as a slave and forced to look after sheep on a hillside. According to his own book about his life, called the Declaration,  he heard the voice of God, who told him how and when he could escape from Ireland. He fled back to Britain and became a priest just like his father. After some years, he decided to come back to Ireland and he brought Christianity and the written world to Ireland in the 5th Century. Before that, the only form of writing in Ireland was called the Ogham, which was a series of lines on rocks that could be used to write names. This for example, would be my name (David) in the Ogham alphabet…I think, maybe I need a course in the Ogham like your English course.     According to legend, St Patrick kicked all of the snakes out of Ireland and went on to be the first Bishop of a county called Armagh. These days, in Ireland, we remember him by having a day off work, going along to the St. Patrick’s day parade and drinking Guinness.   Today, after my lecture, I’ll be taking our students out for … Read more

What is Comic Relief?

Category: Charity, Learning English outside class, Special days, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , , , ,

  This week at EC Covent Garden school for Adult English courses we are organising an event for Comic Relief. We hope that our students will help us to raise money for this special charity, which is quite popular in the UK and everywhere in the city people work to help raise money for this organisation. The famous Live Aid concerts in 1985 saw rock ‘n’ roll royalty come together to raise awareness of, and money for, starving people in Ethiopia. Entertainers from the world of comedy were inspired by the success of these events and established Comic Relief to do a similar job using laughter instead of music. Over the following thirty years Comic Relief has become a biennial institution with millions of participants raising an impressive £1 billion for good causes in the UK and the developing world. Every penny of that £1bn. has gone to charities that help disadvantaged people as the administration costs of the organisation are all paid for by corporate sponsors. That alone would make Comic Relief a special charity, but what really makes it such an enduring success is its way of combining very serious issues with a light-hearted approach. People are encouraged to wear ridiculous clothes and perform ludicrous stunts in sponsored events that raise money for important causes. In this way the general public have come to see donating time and money as a positive, enjoyable thing rather than an onerous obligation. You can join in this celebration of silliness this Friday, the 13th of March. Put a few coins into our collection bucket, buy a raffle ticket or put on a red nose –the symbol of Comic Relief- and get your fellow students, who are taking Adult English courses at EC Covent Garden, to sponsor you to keep it on all … Read more

English Lessons for Adults in the UK : Student Review

Category: Testimonial, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , ,

  Geundong, from South Korea, studied at EC London 30+ for 8 weeks, attending English lessons for adults in the UK. He took a 7-week General English course and a 1-week Intensive English course. We have just said goodbye to him and we truly hope that we can meet him again at EC Covent Garden in the future. He has very kindly given us a brief description of his English experience with us and his lessons.   I’m very happy to be here. When I was studying in EC London 30+ I learned a lot of expression in English and I was very happy. If I stay in London more time I would like to study at EC London 30+ I’ll keep to study English constantly after I’ll go back to Korea. Absolutely, my EC study will be helped. Thanks for your teaching and supporting.   Geundong Bae from South Korea. Geundong took a 7-week General English course and a 1-week Intensive English course at EC London 30+.    If you’re thinking about studying English in the future or doing English lessons for adults in the UK please visit our website.

English Classes for Adults in the UK

Category: Uncategorized

I choose this school because a friend suggest me. I was very happy being here. David is very flexible and so it makes my time great there, it was possible to change the course during my stay very easy, so I could choose the right course for me. I loved all the teachers, but my favourite two was Jess and John. Soooo amazing! Thank you both for your passion, patience and really funny and helpful teachings. Also I will thank Sarah at the reception, making my evenings special with her suggests for events and food and shopping. Especially Bill’s Afternoon Tea was amazing! What a trip! We see each other again… Sara Herzog – Greek/German – Intensive English 30 Lessons    If you’re thinking about studying English in the future or doing English Classes for Adults in the UK please visit our website.

Grammar Question: How do we tell stories in English?

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The most important thing about telling a story is making it interesting. Nobody wants to sit there and listen to a boring story. Check out this one for instance. I woke up this morning. I jumped out of bed. I closed the window. I went to work. I came home and went to bed. Yawn, snore! What an awfully boring story; past simple, past simple, past simple! Terrible. But let’s make it a little more interesting and then have a look at the grammar behind it. I woke up early this morning. Outside music was playing loudly and the wind was blowing through the trees, the noise had woken me up earlier than usual. I jumped out of my bed, it was freezing in my room because I had left my window open the night before. I was so tired that I had fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I closed my window quickly and ran to the bathroom to have a shower and get warm. See, with just a few changes, this incredibly boring story starts to come alive. Let’s take a closer look at just how we did that. (1) Past continuous “Music was playing loudly” We use past continuous here to describe actions happening at the same time as the main action. They are in progress. Some people call them background actions. They can add atmosphere and information to your stories. (2) Past Perfect “The noise had woken me up…” We use the past perfect here to describe actions that happened before the story or before the main action. These give your stories some background and make them more interesting. Can you find any other examples of these tenses in the story? Can you see how they work? Check our website if you’re … Read more

Vanessa tells us a little bit about her English lessons!

Category: Testimonial, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , ,

Just last week we had to say goodbye to one of our students, Vanessa. It was wonderful to have Vanessa at the school; she really threw herself into her English lessons and according to her teachers, she was a pleasure to teach. She has very kindly given us a brief description of her English experience at EC Covent Garden 30+ and her lessons:   I chosed this destination because I was interested to learn English for the holidays with my family and my travel agency “Sprachen ch” recommendet it. I learned at the same time interesting topics , I learned to have confidence to talk. I improved my pronunciation, and my favourite Ec activity was to speak with my group in the scholl.I like this sistem to learn because is profesional and easy. I would recommend my friends this scholl. The staff in Ec have a nice relatiochip and are very helpful.I’ll remember the moments where we laugh together.   Thank you for everything Vanessa, good luck with all of your future holidays and your English practice. We hope to see you again in the future.   If you’re thinking about studying English in the future or doing adult English courses in the U.K., check out our website.