Month: July 2017

30+ Farewell or cake party!

Category: Uncategorized

At EC London we like to keep it in the family, and we are lucky to have some amazing connections in the cake world. From our teacher Katie and her Malarkey Cake company, to Saima’s cousin’s ButterCream Cake Boutique.   And we like to share this fortune with all of our students and staff, so at the end of your ESL course in London, at our EC London 30+ leaving ceremony all students can share the amazing baking skills of our friends and families, and – literally – have their cake and eat it!!    Just one of the many bonuses you can profit from when you take ESL courses in London 🙂   Happy Friday everyone!!     And here’s some useful cake idioms – do you know what they mean? – it’s a piece of cake! – selling like hot cakes – it’s the icing on the cake  – he’s a fruitcake!! – to have your cake and eat it ?

Isle of Wight, what a wonderful Surprise! Part 1 :)…

Category: Excursions, fun, London trip, Uncategorized

Let me talk to you about my great discovery here in England. Who would think that there is beautiful beaches in England? To be honest with you, not me……. Until that day.   I discovered a wonderful place with some of my friends a month ago.   Isle of wight is a small island in the south of England. It is not close to London but it worth the journey. My friends and I went with Anderson Tours company,they sell a day trip to Isle of Wight or week end trip.   We left from London and had about 3 hours journey by bus and then we took the ferry. What surprised me first is when we arrived at Southampton, the air was so nice. You can smell the sea air whaouuuuuu amazing!!! We loved the impression. Then we took the ferry, the crossing is about an hour.   We were on the ferry outside enjoying nice fresh sea air!! And then amazing feeling we’ve seen the isle :). We almost felt like explorers when they discover a new island. From the ferry, it looks quite big J!!! But it is not so big, Isle of Wight is 380 km².   We went back in the bus and started our visit of Isle of Wight!!!!! If you are curious about what we’ve done and discover in Isle of Wight, stay tune on EC London 30+ blog 🙂 !!!!   To be continued…

Ivan’s testimonial or how to enjoy London by walk!

Category: English as an International Language, Excursions, fun, London trip, Secret London places, Testimonial, testimonials

Ivan’s testimonial, an EC London student.   My name’s Ivan. I’m 34 years old and I come from Spain. My expectations before arriving to London were learning english and stay in a good city to visit things, and during after 2 weeks in the academy… All my expectations were covered! Probably better than I thoguht . I am going to explain all arguments that I’ve considered interesting: – Choosen city: London. It’s amazing place. Easy to walk, walk and walk… And during your travelling around the city you are continuously discovering some interesting places. It’s multicultural, restaurants everywhere, theatre, cinemas, monuments, and a very good artist singing on the streets! – Academy: EC Learning. I am really satisfied. The location is very good, safe (you feel safe everywhere), good connected with diferent parts of london by: underground, train (connected too with another cities of London), buses… And walking! EC workers (teachers and assistants) are continuously helping you and you’ve never been alone. In my case I needed to manage changes in my allocation and they were be ready to help me and manage everything. Media resources were correct and the academy provides you everything: usefull rooms to learn, to stay with collegues and they offers you some cultural activities to spend your time in london better. – Intensive Course (English for work). I was in the intermediate level for 2 weeks and I was really happy with collegues and the level of the class. You feel very safe because everybody is like you, traying to learn english…. It’s a very good experience too to speak with people with different accents, different culture,… I had three different teachers and all of them were perfect ones! All of them had a very good attitude to helps you and work to have good … Read more

Siham, EC London 30+ new intern

Category: English as an International Language, London trip

Let me introduce you to Siham, our new beautiful intern at EC London 30+.     Name: Siham Age: 26 Nationality: French Mother tongue: French Studies: Master`s Degree in Consultant and in Charge of Socio-Economics studies specialized in Market research and Marketing. Home: In France, I live in a Paris suburb and in London I will live in Oval. Job at EC English School: Student Services Intern 30+ How long are you going to stay at EC? Until October Other languages: French, Moroccan and Egyptian Hobbies: Learning languages, Travelling, Cooking and Footing. Family: I have two sisters and three brothers. One of my brothers is studying to become an engineer in finance and computer science. And one of my sisters is studying to become a teacher. The others are still young. My father is a cook. And my mother is a famous and wonderful woman who does not work because my little brother is still young. Studies and future plans: I have obtained my Master Degree in September. For the time being, I really want to improve my English oral and have a good time in London. Favourite food: Raspberry macaroon Favourite place in London: Tower Hill at night, very wonderful What is your favourite serie? I do not have a favourite serie but I keen on Turkish and Asian series. Otherwise, I love Prison Break and Breaking Bad. What is your first impression of London? I feel good in London because I used to live in a big city where everything goes fast. Why did you choose London? It is the second time that I come to London. I really like London. For me, it is my endearing city because I feel very well in London. Indeed, I like the English culture, the food and the tradition. In addition, … Read more

The sound of “ schwa”, black belt and taste of marmite

Category: English as an International Language, Film, Food, fun, Learning English outside class, Testimonial, testimonials, Uncategorized

Thomas testimonial and advice on how to keep your good level of English. How can I improve my English when I’m back home?   That was my last question during my hard work at EC London. The right answer was given to me by one of my four teacher’s over these 4 weeks. Every day I should invest 25 minutes in English practice listen and speaking exercises. I do this now with BBC 6 minutes English and watch series on Netflix. First watch and listen a short sequence without subtitles to trainee my understanding in a listening practice and then for verifying the same with subtitles. For BBC 6 minutes English I found an app on the store. The benefit here is the listening and reading from the transcript. For speaking practise I’ll speak to my new friends I met during the EC study. What are the meanings in my headline? This are my terms I’ll join every time to this amazing time at EC London. Did you ever have a teacher who has a black belt in martial arts? I predict to everyone you’ll do the homework every day. I did the same (mostly). The most important thing what I learned was the sound of “schwa”. How is the really pronunciation the triggers to understand the fast-talking English natives. Schwa (/ə/) is the phonetic writing rule that men’s over 40 definitely couldn’t understand ?, but it’s very helpful. In a lesson unexpectedly with closed eyes I had contact with the famous English brown food taste. The teacher said to us please close your eyes and trust me. I thought what the hell will happen now. Could I trust this miraculous teacher? Sometimes he sat on the ground 🙂 and let students in a way of free choice to play the guitar. … Read more

A Great Learning Experience for Life – Delvair’s Testimonial

Category: Uncategorized

Delvair’s Testimonial, a Brazilian student at EC London 30+     In First I would like to say thank you for your bright classes. I am really enjoyng it! I came to London looking for improve my English, but also have a great lifes’s experience. I choose EC because was recommended in Brazil for my Interchange Agency and really was a very great choice. I saw some reviews about EC recomending the school specially because your modern and dinamic learning method. In the first three days I was really scarried and thought about what I was doing here, but after ten days I can say that I am enjoying the classes and specially the differences between classes and teachers. It´s very important. London is very special because your diversity and the oportunities that offer for your visitors, including know people of different countries with different accents and cultures. I knew special friends and we enjoyed together many activities. EC is organized and the teachers are constantly helping us with our doubts and knowledge. I have been here for 10 days and will be here for more 18 days. It’s important to study very hard if you really want improve your English. Grammar lessons are very important as do the activities and homework is essencial. I will recomend EC to my friends like a great learning experience for life. Congratulations and thank you so much for make part of my student life. Best Regards. Delvair Mortari (Brazil) Find out more about English lessons for adults at EC London.

Astrid testimonial

Category: Excursions, fun, Testimonial, testimonials

Astrid’s Testimonial, a German student at EC London 30+   I choose EC because I want to go with Erasmus+ and search for some school. I search in the internet and find EC. I looked at the comments, they were good.   About London and the school: It’s a lively city. There are very old and interesting buildings. The school has a very good organisation and nice people.   I really liked the organisation outside the school especially the Sunday. So, I got to know a lot of people on the first day. That was a great help.   Yes of course I would recommend EC. The organisation is good.   We are in Soho. It’s nice to hang out in the evenings I go back in Sunday afternoon. But on the first day the organisation by EC was good.   If you want to join us for the Sunday activity and learn English at EC London, check our website.  

How to enjoy a full movie in English from Luciana

Category: English as an International Language, Film, Learning vocabulary, Teacher Training, Testimonial, testimonials

Wonderful testimonial of Luciana, Brazilian student at EC London. So, first I will talk about the EC. Without a doubt, I’ll indicate this course to other people, because, I liked the reception, the structure, the people that I had ‘contact’ working there were always polite or educated with me, (sometimes I don’t know the better word hehe) the teachers (I will do a specific “review” about it), the location was important thing, it’s near a terminal and underground, just perfect (and near Camden Town too, it’s amazing, hehe just a joke).   And another detail (in my opinion) to keep separate the 30+ class, I thought it important, because I felt the people could interact more (not really sure, but I felt it) So, for the experience at EC was perfect, more than I expected.   And I need to tell you about an own and exciting experience, when I was coming back, at the flight, I saw 3 movies, completely in english and without subtitle, woooww for me it’s very nice, I remember, I felt so happy, because, of course, some words or sentences I couldn’t understand, but I got the message, some jokes, conversations, I thought it really nice, and a wanted to share with you.   And now about my teachers, hehe…   I liked the way you teach. I could learn, and you can hold our attention because this way is interesting. We can see that you like to do it and it facilitates to learning and teaching when you do something that you like. Probably I’ll never say again words like ‘sidewalk’ ‘subway’ or ‘soccer’  I promise FOOTBALL, and study (definitely) for understanding the exactly moment that I could use “I have been here for….” But now I ask myself “What’s the British people problem with words that beginning with a letter “S”? (I’ll investigate) … Read more

Christophe, French pilot and student at EC London 30+

Category: English as an International Language, fun, London trip, Longterm student, Testimonial, testimonials

Christophe a French student left us his testimonial. he was a student for 16 weeks.   I have chosen this school because EC London has a department dedicated to adults aged 30 years and over. Which is great! It’s really easy and fast to go to London from Paris. London is a lovely beautiful city which offers something for everybody: parks, museums, shopping, pubs, nightclubs, theatres… and EC 30+ ?. The list is large! Obviously, I like the 30+ side and the Breakfast Club, the free lessons which are very interesting and useful and the Dinner Club!   My most unforgettable memory of EC is my Intensive Class with Frits. He is an amazing teacher. Of course, I would recommend this school because teacher are competent, motivated and all staff fuss over students.   Camden and Shoreditch are my favourite places to hang out in the evening. Parks and museums are a good idea!   If you want to experience EC London 30+ and our English lessons for adults, visit our website.