Category: Student Services
Outdoor Ice Skating Rink in Coronado.

Break the Ice this Holiday Season

Category: Activities, Around San Diego, Student Services

The holiday season is finally upon us, which means Christmas music, decorations, movies, shopping and many opportunities to ice skate around San Diego! There are a few skating rinks to choose from in San Diego, some indoors, some outdoors, and they all vary in price. The closest to EC San Diego, UTC ICE, is inside the UTC mall and is the largest of the skating rinks. The link will provide you with skating times for the public and rental prices. The last three rinks are all outdoors, but much smaller than the UTC ice rink. Horton Square ice skating rink is in Downtown San Diego, near the Plaza Horton Mall, and costs $14 for adults and $12 for children. A new ice skating rink, Rady Children’s Ice Rink, just opened up in Liberty Station and all proceeds go to Rady Children’s Hospital. The cost is also $14 for adults and $12 for children. The last option is a bit pricier because it’s a beach front ice skating rink, Skating By the Sea, in Coronado at the Hotel Del Coronado. Skating is $30 per persona includes skates, so throw on a light sweater and break the holiday ice at one of these beautiful indoor, or outdoor, skating rinks in San Diego!

Halloween Party Lobby Deocrations

Halloween Party at EC San Diego

Category: Activities, Around San Diego, EC San Diego Profiles, learn english, Student Services

Last Friday, EC San Diego wrapped up October with a spooktacular Halloween party. The theme of the party was the Wizardly World of Harry Potter. On Friday, October, 24th, EC San Diego officially opened up its very own Hogwart’s School of International Wizards! Many teachers brought to life some of Hogwarts most beloved characters, such as “he who shall not be named,” also known as Lord Voldemort, Severus Snape, also known as potions master, the strict and stern Dolores Umbridge, the whimsical Albus Dumbledore and, of course, Harry Potter himself. The party commenced after graduation and consisted of tarot card readings, face painting, pumpkin carving, a costume contest and the return of the popular pumpkin piñata. After the party, the students went to their classrooms to continue celebrating with their teachers. On the night of Halloween, many students handed out candy with their host families and enjoyed the spirit of participating in an American cultural event! We hope you can visit EC San Diego in the future and be a part of our celebrations!

Cambridge Students Scavenger Hunt

Cambridge Class Scavenger Hunt

Category: Academic, Activities, Around San Diego, learn english, Student Services

Cambridge students in Marilyn’s class took part in a scavenger hunt throughout the village of La Jolla last week. Some of the tasks included asking someone what their favorite restaurant is in downtown La Jolla are, taking their photos where students asked the questions and then finding the restaurant and taking a photo in front of it. Other photos included taking a photo in front of the La Jolla Public Library, finding the La Jolla Recreation Center and taking a group picture in front of the building. Students also had to find someone wearing plaid and asking a group member take a picture with them. They were also required to find and take a photo of someone doing a “Passive Grammar” activity and then write a passive sentence to show they understand the meaning. For example, “The street is being swept by a man. After writing a conditional question, students were required to ask someone on the street to answer the conditional question, take a photo with them and record their answer. The winners were selected based on best completion time and most correct answers. Congrats to Flurin and Rina and Philip, Claudia and Jin!

Cambridge Students Teach Passive Voice

Category: Academic, Around San Diego, EC San Diego Profiles, learn english, Student Services

Last week, our CAE Cambridge Last week, our CAE Cambridge students taught the FCE class certain grammar rules, such as the use of conditional, passive or future tense. Every group taught their topic three times to three different groups of the FCE. We used music, games and the white board in the classroom to help them understand the basics of the grammar. After our class taught the same thing three times in a row, we understood the rules better than before. All in all it was a very helpful experience for both classes and we enjoyed to be on the teacher’s side for once.

Sara Corrales

Colombian Actress Studies at EC San Diego

Category: Academic, Activities, Around San Diego, EC San Diego Profiles, learn english, Student Services

A few months ago, Colombian Actress and EC Student, Sara Corrales, returned to our school for a month of English lessons. It was her second time at EC San Diego, but her experience this time around was completely different and unique. Sara’s second EC experience included advanced English courses, different core and special focus classes and, of course, new friends. Sara also had the opportunity to take surf lessons in Pacific Beach with her boyfriend, Alexis Meana, from D.F. Mexico, who joined her at school for a few weeks. Sara enjoyed the “host family” experience and participated in student activities. A videographer captured some of her most memorable moments at EC. Click on the link below to see Sara with her host mother, in her classes, with her friends, surfing at Pacific Beach, working out at La Jolla cover and graduating from EC San Diego: https://www.ecenglish.com/es/promotions/saracorrales.  

EC at Home

EC San Diego Launches EC at Home

Category: Academic, Accommodation, Activities, Around San Diego, EC San Diego Profiles, learn english, Student Services

At EC San Diego we know that learning English is more than the hard work you do in the classroom; it’s also about all those moments, big and small, that happen after the day ends after school. That is why EC has launched EC at Home, which is yet another opportunity for students to practice their English outside of the classroom. EC at home is a unique offer that gives students extra time practicing and learning English at their current residences. The San Diego homestay English courses are designed to give students up to 4 hours of extra time each week with their teachers in a casual setting. The benefits include 1-2 hours of structured conversation in residences during the weekdays and 1-2 hours outside, exploring the city and using English skills in real-life contexts. Students at EC San Diego meet with teacher Gary weekly, at their apartments in Pacific Beach, to continue the fun and engaging learning experience after school. Below are some photos of students enjoying lessons poolside, eating pizza and playing billiards.

EC Students Experience Luxury Movies

Category: Academic, Activities, Around San Diego, learn english, Student Services, Uncategorized

EC San Diego students experienced their fest-ever luxury movie-watching experience at The Lot San Diego. They watched the “Beauty and the Beast” with Teacher Autumn, who had an optional vocabulary activity to go along with it. The students were impressed by the reclining seats and gourmet food options offered at the movie theatres. Students learned new words a new meaning to beauty and love in the eye of the beholder.

Student Ambassador Spotlight

Category: Activities, Around San Diego, learn english, Student Services, Student Testimonial, Uncategorized

One of our Student Ambassadors, Sangdon Byun, otherwise known as Richard, shares with us his EC San Diego student experience: Although his full name is Sangdon Byun, he goes by the name Richard. Richard is from Korea and has been at EC for three months thus far. He arrived at the height of summer in August and was one of the students who attended our “Sunday Experience.” During the Sunday Experience, students are given a walking tour of the surrounding neighborhood of La Jolla, its shops and beaches, by an EC Staff member. After the walk, students are then taken to a popular, Mexican restaurant in the area, Jose’s, for some local, authentic Mexican cuisine. Richard started in an intermediate-English level course and has gone up to pre-intermediate in the three months he’s been studying at EC. His favorite class so far has been the Cambridge course, which he graduated from a few weeks ago. “I liked the Cambridge course the most. My classmates were from Switzerland, and I learned a lot from Swiss students because their English is very good,” he explained. He also enjoys classes with his favorite EC SD teacher, Brian. “Brian is very smart, he helps me a lot and explains things clearly,” Richard added. Since there are a variety of student activities every day and monthly at EC, I asked Richard what his favorite activity has been so far. “I  like Homework Club with Teacher Brian on Wednesdays after school. I also like Sports with Nick because I like to play soccer,” Richard said. On every first Tuesday of the month, the Acacemic Director, Nick DiZinno, rallies enough students to form a team and plays a friendly game of Soccer at the cove. This activity has proven to be one of the most popular activities and usually has the highest turn out. Another popular activity with our students is a volunteer opportunity at Casa Loma, which is a … Read more

Awesome Ambassadors

Category: Academic, Around San Diego, learn english, Student Services, Student Testimonial

It’s the day before you leave your home country to explore the beaches of California, and learn English in San Diego at a new school. It’s a long journey, a leap of faith and you have no idea what to expect on your first day at EC San Diego. The nerves are to be expected and they are a strange combination of excitement, fear and anticipation all wrapped into one. These are emotions many EC students know firsthand, including our amazingly, awesome Student Ambassadors! Student Ambassadors are students, who have been at EC San Diego for at least two months, or more, and are knowledgeable of San Diego culture and are very outgoing and friendly. They are the students you want to make friends with to show you around and answer many of the questions that you may be afraid to ask. However, don’t ever hesitate to ask an EC staff member, such as one of the Stent Services Coordinators, your Teachers, Center, or Academic Director. They are always happy to help in whichever way they can. The Student Ambassador, on the other hand, can provide a certain kind of insight, since they were once sitting in your exact same seat on their first day of class. They are well acclimated students and can help get you involved in the EC Experience and the San Diego lifestyle. Unfortunately, we said goodbye to a few student Ambassadors a few weeks ago, so we had to recruit more big personalities that we knew could take on the task at hand! Each student represents their home country and helps the EC team on our first day of school by joining new students on a walking tour of San Diego and provide translation when needed! As of right now, our Student Ambassadors are from the following countries: Korea, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Japan. … Read more

EC San Diego Welcomes New Intern

Category: Academic, Around San Diego, EC San Diego Profiles, learn english, Student Services, Student Testimonial

Meet our new intern, Kana Hamada, from Japan! Kana is joining us from EC San Francisco where she spent a year as a student learning English at EC San Francisco. The differences between San Diego and San Francisco are apparent, especially the city layout and weather. San Francisco is known for its cold, windy climate while San Diego is known for its year-round sunny weather. Kana enjoyed her time in San Francisco, but this is an entirely new experience for her, mainly because she’s returning to EC as an intern and not as a student. As an intern, Kana’s responsibilities include collecting student documents on intake day, following up with students for missing information, creating sign-up sheets and flyers for student activities, translating and other general admin duties. In her short time here, Kana has already experienced the San Diego Zoo with EC Students and Sea World with her friends. She also recently indulged herself in the American tradition of Black Friday shopping post Thanksgiving , which she very much enjoyed! We are very happy to have her as part of the EC San Diego family! Thank you for everything you do, Kana! We appreciate you! A few words from Kana herself, “Before coming to San Diego, I was a little bit worried. I felt like a complete foreigner and a bit intimated. I was worried about my English skills because I was staying in Japan for three months and during my stay in Japan I was a little bit scared because I didn’t speak English, or write English that much. I’ve been feeling more comfortable here because people are very friendly, nice and easy going. I am more confident speaking English with others, especially when talking to people at bars and cafes.Kana also loves animals, “I am pretty happy because San Diego is … Read more