Academic English reviews
My stay in Leicester
Hello! I’m Niruta from Barcelona in Catalonia and I’ve been staying two weeks in Leicester living with my teacher Karen and her family.
Long-lasting Friends
Just two weeks ago, I happily returned back home from Rushden, England. This happiness mainly routed in the satisfied feeling of having made four new friends. Family Robb from Rushden with the extremely experienced English teacher, Chris, his warm-hearted wife, Fernanda, baking astounding chocolate cakes and their two lovely children, Ashleigh and Chris (“Junior”) constantly contributed to harmony and great fun over the entire course of two weeks. From the first day on, I felt secure and welcome.
Originally planned as an English preparation for university and the TOEFL test, my stay in Rushden turned into a wonderful holiday experience. The quality of teaching was amazing so that I felt extremely well prepared for my TOEFL which later on had been successful. Meeting lots of family friends gave me numerous opportunity to communicate in English. Furthermore, spending a weekend in Bournemouth with more family friends from Brazil, I got to know a highly interesting insight in their colorful culture.
Looking back onto these two weeks, it does not seem irrational that family Robb has so many friends. They are simply lovely to everyone. That is why I am so glad and thankful to have met them.
3 weeks in paradise
Hello everybody!
We’re two 17 year old girls from Spain and Austria who already met last year at Michelle Miller’s place in Suffolk. So, as you can guess, we had a great time together and that’s why we decided to come back this year.
Last year we only spent one week together and we became good friends, so this year we wanted to lengthen our stay to 3 weeks. They’ve been, undoubtedly, the best weeks in our summer holidays!
We’ve done so many things that it’s impossible to list all of them. But we’d like you to have an idea of some of the amazing things we’ve done.
In the mornings, we had lessons, but don’t think they were monotonous or boring. Each day we did something different and had a large variety of things, so time passed very quickly. We learnt lots of new things, but not only from books, also in different ways, such as funny games, making up stories with the new vocabulary, treasure hunts in stunning places, cookery, watching the news and we also went to the court to watch a trial! One day we conducted an interview with a friend of Michelle’s, who made us a delicious tea with cucumber sandwiches, scones and chocolate cake! <3
In the afternoons, we had excursions in which we visited different places and did several activities. And the great thing is that we had lots of choices! Our favourites were the magic show, the archery, stately homes like Kentwell Hall and beautiful seaside places such as Frinton.
At the weekends, we had full day excursions. For the first one we went to Ipswich to the Fake Festival to watch tribute bands, which was a nice and enjoyable experience. For the second one we visited the castle of Framlingham and we also walked around the town. Afterwards, we went to other pretty villages which are nearby.
Michelle’s house is in a rural area, but not far away from Ipswich. It’s a lovely old building and it has the best accommodation you could imagine. We both have our own bedrooms and our own bathroom. Everyday Michelle cooked us the most delicious dishes in a huge variety. She also gave us the choice to decide what we preferred. In the evenings we were more than welcome to join Michelle and her husband Jeremy in watching TV. We had our beds changed every weekend and if we wanted to get clothes washed we only had to tell her.
The first thing Michelle told us when we arrived was “Feel like you’re at home”, and she also said “help yourselves!”. She lives with her husband, Jeremy, who is a very friendly, witty and funny man. They also have a cat called Tigger, who is very nice! All of them made us feel like we were part of the family.
In conclusion, we had a memorable experience at Michelle’s place and we’ll always be grateful for everything the family had done for us. We’re sure that we’re going to come back in the future, not as students but as friends. We know that we’ll always be welcome there.
Now we’d like you to see some of our memorable moments represented in the following pictures!
We urge you to go to Michelle’s place, to have an amazing experience as we had!
Marta&Katharina
The best stay in England
Food
The food was lovely, Daniela cook very well. We had three meals.
Breakfirst : we’ ve got milk, cereals
They were a lot of kind of cereals and we’ve got an orange juice.
For lunch we’ve got two sandwiches or pasta carbonara. The sandwiches was good but i prefer pasta carbonara she makes it very well.
For diner we’ve got some different meal everyday like pizza which i did it with her, we’ve got curry, chicken, risotto… . And some times for desert we can have ice-cream. We were never hungry because we can have as much as we want.
Excursion
The excursion was very good.
Our first little excursion it was when we visit the village with Andrew ( the son of Daniela).
The second we went to two museum which was cold Fitzwilliam museum and the second polar museum. In cold Fitzwilliam my favorite things were mummies and in the polar museum it was the model of boat. After visit museum we went to shopping it was very fun and at the end we went visit a lot of colleges and climb up an tower with the tight spiral staircase.
But my favorite excursion was London because we went to London dungeon it was very fun and scary. After we went to Buckingham palace but they were a lot of people so we went to Westminster and we had a tour of boat in the river. Later we went on tower bridge, we climbed up and up there the were floor that was made with window. the view was beautiful, we took a lot of picture and we went at the front of the bridge because it was going to get up and open to have more place so the boat can pass. A few minutes later we went to Piccadilly Circus and we went in to Hamley it is a very big shop just for toys.
I want to say thank you to Daniela for all the excursions, lessons and food. You are a good teacher you get me have fun into this trip. It was my favorite stay with Living Learning English.
Hugo
Two Awesome Weeks With Daniela
Hello! My name is Ivan Bokhan. I’m 15 years old and I’m from Belarus. I staying in a nice two-story house in Cottenham , Cambridge. I will be here for two weeks, with Daniela, Deryck (her husband) and two nice children. I stay here with another student called Hugo. I’m really happy that I can stay with so nice family.
Family
The family is really polite and funny. I think that is good that I can talk with native speakers. They have a children, Emma and Andrew (7-years old and 11-years old) and they are very nice and polite kids. I’m spending a lot of time with Andrew and we become a friends. I didn’t expect that in these family they have a children and I thought that it will be worse that without them but later we started to communicate very well.
Lessons
This is very good that in our lessons we can decide the time of the lesson per day (we choose 5 hours per day) .
In our first lesson Daniela show us the fat book called “Phrases, Saying, and Quotation” and every lesson we need to take two frappes from these book and explain it. In the beginning it was hard but later it became easier.
In our lessons we work from the book as well as discussing exercises with my partner. And that was interesting and fun. Daniela reproduced texts for us and we listened to it. We had a lot of reading, speaking and working with exercises. I think that the main reason for this improvement is that I’m speaking English all the time. In lessons, with the children, on the excursion and with the partner. And I think that is important to think in English. I’ve been in England twice before, but this time was the best.
House
I was really impressed when I arrived. I went upstairs and I saw my room and it was awesome because the room is very big and we have our own bathroom. I shared the room with Hugo(my partner) but there is more than enough space for both of us. Our bedroom looks very big and clean and there are two windows so the room is nicely lit up the whole day.
But not only our bedroom is really comfortable. We live here in a big house, the sitting room as well as the dinning room are quite big.
Sometimes we have dinner in the big, nice and comfortable garden.I was extremely glad when I saw our house.
Food
I’ve been in England twice before, but this time i had the best meals. We have three meals a day. In the morning we always have cereals with milk and orange juice. After lessons we usually have a lunch. Sometimes it is something lite like omelet or sandwiches. Near seven o’clock we have a dinner. Daniela always cooking something nice and tasty for example pizza, pasta, risotto, fish or chicken. And sometimes we can try very tasty desert like chocolate cake or “pavlova” cake.
Excursions
Excursions was really interesting. One time we were in London and the other days we stayed in Cambridge.
In Cambridge we visited many different Colleges. For example the St. Johns college impressed me because it looks like the Hogwarts from Harry Potter. We had many activities in Cambridge, like visiting tho shopping centre, the Fitzwilliam Museum, swimming pool, aqua park, and I really enjoyed the boat ride in King’s University.
When we went to London we had the possibility to decide what we want to visit. So we decided to go on the London Dungeon. After this attraction we did a short boat ride which was very beautiful. We left the boat near the Tower Bridge so we climb to the top and took some beautiful photos and went by metro to the Picadilly Circus. The excursion to London was absolutely lovely.
In the end I want to say that the house, people, food, excursions was really great. Thank you “Living Learning English”!
Superbe séjour à Cambridge
Food
It been one week when I arrived and the food is really good. We have three meal every days. For the breakfast we have cereal with juce a de sometime hot chocolat. When we have a little break between the lessons we have the lunch. We usually eat spaghetti carbonara or soup after that we usually play in the garden. When we are out we have fresh baguette sandwich. For the diner Daniela cook different dishes every evening, like a pizza, risotto, curie, ships, meat and many other things. She cook very well and we can eat as much as we like. The meal are so tasty and really delicious Arrivée et logement
Quant je suis arrivée, j’ai été très impressionné par la beauté de la maison. J’étais la première à arriver donc j’étais très timide avec Daniela et Derik, mais ils ont été très accueillant et chaleureux avec moi se qui ma tout de suite mise à l’aise. Je suis donc allée voir ma chambre. Celle-ci est très grande et très lumineuse. Moi et ma camarade avons un lit chacune avec une table de nuit chacune. Il y a une grande armoire et deux buffets ainsi qu’un bureau. Notre chambre comporte aussi une salle de bain toilettes ce qui est très agréable au quotidien. Nous avons trois fenêtre dont deux donnent sur le jardin. Celui-ci est très grand. A l’intérieur il y a un trampoline, des balançoires, un bassin avec des poissons ainsi qu’un porche avec une table et un hamac. Nous mangeons en général dans le jardin car c’est un endroit magnifique.
La nourriture
Cela va faire maintenant une semaine que je suis arrivé en Angleterre et la nourriture est vraiment bonne. Nous avons trois repas par jours. Pour le petit déjeuner nous mangeons des céréales et nous buvons du jus d’orange et parfois un chocolat chaud. Quand nous avons la pause déjeuné, entre deux leçons nous mangeons des spaghettis carbonara ou une soupe. Après sa, nous allons en général nous amusez dans le jardin. Quand nous sommes en sortie à l’extérieur nous mangeons des sandwichs dans de la baguette fraîche. Pour le dîné Daniela cuisine différent plats tous les soirs comme des pizzas, un risotto, du curry, des frites, de la viande et bien d’autres choses. Elle cuisine vraiment bien et nous pouvons manger à notre faims. Ses plats sont vraiment bon
Les leçons
Les leçons commence à 9h du matin. Au début de chaque leçons nous avons un test sur les verbes irréguliers. Pendant les leçons nous faisons en général 15 pages dans le cahier d’exercices. Si nous n’avons pas fait 15 pages pendant là leçons nous les avons en devoirs. Daniela est vraiment gentille avec nous et les leçons ne sont pas ennuyeuse car nous parlons beaucoup avec elle. Les leçons ne sont pas du tout stressante. Nous faisons aussi beaucoup de jeux avec elle. En une semaine nous avons appris beaucoup de choses et nous avons fait beaucoup de progrès
Nos Sortie
Nous sommes très heureuses par ce que nous aimons beaucoup les sorties et nous en avons fait beaucoup.Pour notre première sortie nous sommes allées à Cambridge où nous sommes allées au Cold Fiz Wiliam Museum. Nous y avons vue de magnifiques porcelaines et des tableaux de peintres célèbres telle que Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Degas, Renoir ainsi que beaucoup d’autre artiste. Par la suite nous sommes allés à Peimbroke College. Nous avns donc mangé dans les jardins de cette université. Ceux-ci sont très agréable et beaucoup d’étudiants viennent y manger, étudier ou juste se relaxer. Après ça nous sommes montés en haut de la tour de l’église St Marie d’où nous pouvions admirer le panoramas et la vue imprenable sur Cambridge. Par la suite nous avons pris une barque sur la rivière Camb, nous avons vue plus d’université et grâce au guide nous avons appris des choses sur l’histoire très riche de ces universités.
Le second jour de sortie nous nous sommes rendus à Londres où nous sommes allés au London Aquarium (l’aquarium de Londres). C’était vraiment magnifique ! Par la suite nous avons pris un bateau touristique sur la Tamise. Nous y avons vue beaucoup d’immeubles parfois un peu étrange mais se fut une très belle balade où nous avons enfin pu voir le Tower Bridge. C’était incroyable !
Pour notre troisième jours de sortie nous sommes allés à Wimpool Estate. Il y avait un jardin vraiment incroyable, avec beaucoup de magnifique fleurs. Wimpool Estate comportait aussi une ferme où nous avons pu y voir un cheval, des ânes, beaucoup de porc des chèvres, des lapins et bien d’autres animaux. Il y avait aussi un grand palais vraiment magnifique.