Tag: English only

Monster Jam in Miami 2020.

Category: Academics, Activities, Celebrations, City, EC Miami Students, English Courses, Event, Field trip, Sports, Student Testimonial, Student Writing, Study, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The Monster Jam takes place in the USA every year. It’s a worldwide entertainment event that has been going on since 1992. In each country it’s possible to watch this fantastic American cars show on TV. However, on this occasion instead of going to a baseball game at the gorgeous Marlins Park of Miami, fans made a little exception in order to attend to the roaring Monster Jam hosted in our always sunny city . Actually, three of our students coming from Switzerland Ronny, Matthias and Michele did, and they had tons of fun as long life fans last February 22nd and 23rd . Around our English school in Miami they constantly point out that in Switzerland the Monster Jam is a big deal. They couldn’t wait to go to this one and make a dream come true. Cool way to spend your free time when you are not in class, huh guys? For them, this was an awesome opportunity to be in touch with the culture of American entertainment.     The Stadium was packed with most of the public who were children wearing a t-shirt or a hat of their favorite cars, and they could all feel the typical atmosphere of the American culture. Well then, so this time enjoying watching all those heavy pound trucks driven by high performance pilots can not be passed up. Countless feats of dirt hitting and grinding are the delight of the show. Also, the booming roar gets you those thrilling goosebumps. Actually, the Monster Jam features three events: Racing Competitions, Skills Challenge, and Freestyle. At 7:30 pm the show began. All the cars came into a field full of obstacles and hills for the jumps. There was a quick presentation of the cars and it was time for the first competition, … Read more

Little Havana Tour with Sandy

Category: Academics, Activities, Celebrations, City, EC Miami Staff, EC Miami Students, English Courses, Field trip, Lectures, Study, Tips, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

        When you study English in the USA, hanging out out of school is a plus. Bearing this principle in mind, our beloved teacher in Beginner class at EC Miami, Sandy, came up with a great activity once again. Last Friday night on February 21st she decided to take our students on a tour around the Little Havana area in Miami. The idea this time was to experience a cultural start of the weekend over there, and around 25 students joined the party!! Everything began at the Little Havana’s Cigar Factory on the corner of Calle 8 and 15 Avenue of the south west. That was the spot where students had the chance to listen to one of the shop speakers giving a short but fruitful presentation on the relevance and history of tobacco in Cuba. Students took advantage of the moment to enjoy a tasty “colada” kind of coffee and do just a little bit of souvenir shopping. Right after that, they all hit the Azucar Ice Cream Company just next door to get a free sample of amazing ice cream.     They had it while a pick up truck swarming with Cuban dancers was pulling over and sparkling the entire atmosphere of Calle 8 to the sizzling hot sound of Salsa music.  Later on, the group took a walk on Calle 8, which is the light of the party in Little Havana, literally. They walked past the famous Tower Theater, one of the oldest cultural landmarks of the area. They also enjoyed taking pictures with the well-known rooster statue wrapped in the Cuban flag of El Pub Restaurant. Then, this short but sill enjoyable walk led the group to one of the so many delicious restaurants-Salao Cuban Bar and Pescaderia- for grabbing dinner. The … Read more

Miami Heat in the NBA All Star Weekend.

Category: Activities, beach, Celebrations, City, EC Miami Staff, EC Miami Students, English Courses, Event, Sports, Tips / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

So far, this season has been incredible for the Miami Heat, which is a team that you can see if you come to the USA to learn English in Miami. Actually, ever since Lebron James left South Beach to go back to Cleveland and join the Cavaliers in 2015, the Miami Heat have not been able to out-stand. These days, though, the basketball team of Miami is making the difference as we are in the fourth position of the eastern conference. Thus, the team has a huge chance to make it to the playoffs! Also, three of our players participated in the NBA All Star Weekend hosted in Chicago from February 14th to 16th,  and they simply shined! They were: Bam Adebayo-number 13 making part of the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, Derrick Jones Junior-number 5 making part of the Slam Dunk Contest, and Jimmy Butler-number 22 making part of Team Giannis in the All Star game.   However, this time we want to make a special mention of Bam Adebayo. Wearing his Miami Heat jersey with the number 13, Bam participated in the Skills Challenge event last Saturday night. This competition is about testing ball handling while swerving through 5 posts up to the end of the court. It also includes making a really precise “pass” into a hole. As a final step, it tests three-point shooting ability. So, a player has to pull all of these off before his competitor, who is doing the same thing on the other side of the court in the mean time, to win a round. In the first round of the competition he beat Spencer Dinwiddie from the New Jersey Nets. Then in the semifinal round, he beat Paskal Siakam from the Toronto Raptors. In the final round, he beat Domantas Sabonis form … Read more

Bad Boys For Life in Miami!

Category: Academics, Activities, beach, City, EC Miami Students, Event, Student Testimonial, Tips, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The city of Miami has been constantly remembered for the franchise movie Bad Boys, and this is no secret to anybody, now is it? It must be that Miami has the excitement and the pizzazz that the series needs. In this regard, Will Smith points out that “the movie is all about friendship. It’s about having somebody through the good times and through the bad times, no matter what happens. Friends fly together, friends die together”. Anyways, it’s just another decade and another Bad Boys film is out. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back on Miami Beach after filming scenes here in April at the Broadmoor Hotel and the Mac Arthur causeway. The production of the movie could not have picked a more appropriate hotel inasmuch as the Broadmoor hotel is located on 7450 Ocean Terrace.  It is just across the street from a beach along the Atlantic ocean, and  it is the perfect example of what Art Deco represents.   As a matter of fact, the city of Miami concentrates the biggest collection of Art Deco architecture. It displays 900 historic buildings usually characterized by bright colors from pastel blues and pinks, to bright oranges, vibrant yellows, greens and more. On the other hand, the Mac Arthur causeway, which is one direct land route between mainland Miami and the barrier islands of Miami Beach, is possible to be spotted on many of the action-packed scenes from this awesome film. By the way, one of our students in Intermediate from Saudi Arabia, Nawaf, watched Bad Boys For Life, and he was obviously thrilled. As he came from his country to live and learn English in Miami and South Beach, he saw these two and even more quintessential elements of the city of Miami in the movie. He was positively … Read more

An Ocean Adventure

Category: Academics, Activities, beach, EC Miami Students, English Courses, Field trip, Holidays, Student Testimonial, Student Writing, Study, Tips, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

There is nothing like sharing an interest that you have with your partners at our EC English school in Miami. Likewise, we appreciate any written work our students want to post on our blog. This time and inspired by the ocean view through the airplane window seat upon his arrival, Lukas Anrig (coming from Switzerland) was willing to share his dream come true of sailing across the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. So there we go! Here is his testimonial:     “I bought a sail yacht in 2012 and started a big adventure with my family. With my wife we have two children, Nick and Laurelle, and my dog, Nina. We set off from Venice, Italy because in Switzerland we don’t have the sea. So in the summer of 2012 the adventure got started. We crossed the Adriatic Sea from Greece back to Italy. After many days, we were on the Balearic Islands. We learned a lot about handling the boat. Sometimes we had bad weather, big waves and strong winds. Our kids helped us direct the sail yacht and the dog was a nice company. After six months we arrived in Gibraltar, the door to the Atlantic. We had to wait for three weeks until the weather was fine. Then, it was possible to start heading towards Canary Islands. Five days later our anchor goes down in Lanzarote-a very nice bay. We visited different islands of the Canary Islands chain. We bought a lot of food, water, beer, and wine to be on board for such a long time. La Gomera was our last point in Europe. After eight days we arrived in Mindelo, Cape Verde. For five days the weather was really bad with storms and big waves up to 25 feet and 35 to 50-knot … Read more

Super Bowl LIV Events Hosted in our Building!!!

Category: Activities, beach, Celebrations, City, EC Miami Staff, EC Miami Students, English Courses, Event, Field trip, Interviews, Sports, Student Testimonial, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

One of the most popular sports in the USA is American Football. It might be number one, actually. What do you guys think? This year in Miami we have the pleasure to host the amazing Super Bowl LIV (54), which is in reality the final game of the NFL (National Football League). The champion will be decided between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs. Although the “big game” is taking place in the Sunlight Stadium, we gotta let you know that the super cool vibes around South Beach are off the charts. One  of the very simple reasons why this is happening is that the awesome management in our iconic building 1111 Lincoln Road is hosting a series of Super Bowl events from January 29th to February 1st. . They are doing a really great job in anticipation to the “big game”. This kind of events  includes meetings and greetings with NFL players, such as James White, Cameron Jordan, Josh Allen, Derrick Henry, and Larry Fitzgerald. Also, there are going to be live media broadcastings, fan games, tasty food, and refreshing drinks. The best part is that all of this is free of charge for our students and members of the staff! How cool is that, huh?   Last Wednesday, though, it was the opening of this series of events, and we were all really curious about meeting the NFL player of the day, James White-a running back player for the New England Patriots (the one right in the middle of the picture below). Our students at English school in Miami were in line with a lot of excitement and expectation. To be honest, we all had waited for a little kind of a while until all of a sudden we got access to the seventh floor. … Read more

Wynwood Tour with Sandra Falcon, the host.

Category: Activities, City, EC Miami Staff, EC Miami Students, English Courses, Event, Field trip, Tips, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

As a really important aspect of being a student at EC English School Miami, we consider that social interaction is a must, and we also think it is a pretty good idea to interact with our teachers out of the classroom and the school itself. Besides, it is no secret that such social interaction would gladly take place while going around places in town. This is the very reason why we came up with the idea of having our amazing students enjoy a tour around the Wynwood area in Miami Downtown on Friday night. Wynwood district is a zone of the city characterized by its lively, colorful, and urban vibe. At some point, Miamians have heard that Wynwood has murals full of color and that it is one of the most action-packed districts, if you know what I mean! Street Art is also one of the features of this cool area. The idea was to have students out of the beach picture, and this time, we had Sandra Falcon, our beloved teacher in the Cambridge class, as our awesome host.     According to Sandra, it was a fantastic tour thanks to Veza Sur which invited our EC Miami students to a 20-minute ride on their party bus around Wynwood featuring their own Vezasur Latin Lager. Second on our stop, was the iconic brewery, Wynwood Concrete Beach, which generously invited our students to a complimentary 1-hour ultimate craft beer experience featuring their malty golden Pilsner, So, on behalf of EC Miami, we extend a warm Thank You to these two local breweries. Our next visit included the graffiti walls which featured the new Art Basel derived street art. Finally our students hit the Friday music scene at places like Dirty Rabbit and 1-800 Lucky Bistro, where the DJ injected life … Read more

Let’s go HEAT!!!

Category: Academics, Activities, City, EC Miami Students, Event, Sports, Student Testimonial, Student Writing, Study, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Of all the popular sports in the US, basketball has a special meaning in Miami. It’s because the Miami HEAT have been champions of the NBA three times so far – 2006, 2012, and 2013. That’s why we cannot forget about our beloved player Dwyane Wade. With the number 3 on his jersey he made outstanding contributions to win these valued championships. What a thrill it is to go to the American Airlines Arena. For all these reasons, Oleg Diukel, who is in the Intermediate level and coming from Russia, was really excited to go to one of the regular season games. This time against the San Antonio Spurs, and he was willing to surprise us with his awesome testimonial:    I can’t believe it was my first time in a basketball game in the US. It took place on January fifteenth of 2020. And you know what? This event was even better than I expected. There are many reasons why I had a wonderful time. For starters, the game was a thrill. There were many occasions in which the HEAT was down on the score, but at the end during the fourth quarter they pulled the win!! Secondly, the spectators were cheerful all the time, and their vibes were super contagious. Also, the athletes’ plays were just spectacular- there were dunks and three point shots. Even the fast food was a yummy bite. Finally, I have to say that I was impressed by the short performances before and during the game. That performance was like a real show with great music and well performed support team. There were even some funny competitions during the half time. And the funny thing is that I was watching these competitions with the same curiosity that I was watching the game. So anyways, … Read more

Monday Welcome Activity at EC Miami

Category: Academics, Activities, beach, City, EC Miami Students, English Courses, Event, Field trip, Student Testimonial, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

It is the first full week of the year 2020, and it looks like many people have made their resolution to Learn English in Miami. What a better way to do it than come all the way to lively South Beach, right? As a first step, students are welcomed early on Monday morning and invited to step on our orange carpet towards the front desk. That is where they receive an orange folder with easy forms to fill out. In the mean time, they enjoy a delicious snack with fresh and hot coffee to keep going. After that, arrivals receive a couple of orientations – one on accommodation, and the other on academic information about our center. Also, they take a placement test at the computer lab to know what level they are going to learn from. Then it comes the best part!! Our new students take a tour that actually starts by going up to the rooftop of the 1111 Lincoln Road iconic building. It is all led by our cool student ambassadors: Bader, Osama, and Mohamad, from Saudi Arabia. The three of them taking care of our thirty new students this week. It is just awesome to observe most of the Miami Beach area from there, just as you guys can see in the great picture below.     Later on, the fresh tour goes on in the area of EC Miami. With its always radiant combination of bars, restaurants, and stores our students enjoy the walk up to a really nice spot. The whole crew ended up visiting the Yard House restaurant in Miami Beach on Lenox Avenue for special lunch with the new students. “It is one of the best American restaurants I have ever tried. The atmosphere was amazing and lively. They have a big … Read more

Christmas in South Beach

Category: Academics, Activities, beach, Celebrations, City, EC Miami Staff, EC Miami Students, English Courses, Field trip, Holidays, Student Testimonial, Student Writing, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Well, here we go again. It is the most special time of the year. Christmas time!!! Now, isn’t it? At EC Miami the USA School of English we are aware of what the deal is when it comes to Christmas. For our cool students being far from home is not a problem. Not at all if they ever want to come up with some fun plan to do with a friend or partner in Miami South Beach. This year, during the entire Christmas eve students and staff members of EC Miami kept in touch on our super awesome whatssap group in different ways. One of them was by sharing positive vibe Christmas messages wishing the best from one to another. Another way, was by uploading pics and videos we took along the way as Christmas Eve day went by. There was something truly unusual that we ran into on the group conversation thread, though. It was a wonderful pic with our students from Switzerland, Robin and Lars, on the beach. Here is how they have their say on their experience: “What’s better than a Christmas candlelight dinner at the beach with your best friend? All you need is a table with a nice tablecloth, a beautiful Christmas tree, a candle for a pleasant atmosphere and a delicious meal. (Unfortunately we only had enough money for one potato. Miami Beach is quite expensive…). Combined with a wonderful view of the ocean, the evening can only be great! Granted: The whole thing was a bit strange, but for the picture and the smiling faces it was definitely worth it!” Greetings, Robin and Lars. We just love the contrast between the pine Christmas tree, the sand, and the ocean. Anyways, as you can see, this is a perfect example of how our students … Read more