UK

Hello Everyone!

It has been a long time in the making, but a brand new film for The Learning English Video Project will be available soon! Encounters in the UK was a film project that we started work on way back in September 2008. Since then, we have released films from Morocco, Romania, USA, Spain, China and Brazil, and we have kept the Cambridge film for last!

Encounters in the UK will be released in November 2010 and is about the role that homestay has to play in learning English. I finished shooting the film in February this year and have been working on it with the EnglishClub team ever since.

I am very pleased with the final edit and hope that you enjoy the final addition to the series. I hope to include more posts and information both before and after the film’s release - including fresh reports on each of the seven locations we used for the project. I would like to thank everybody who has been involved in the Cambridge film and look forward to reading your feedback.

More soon!

Daniel.

Snow!! Not something one tends to see particularly often in England, but as I walked into the centre of Cambridge this morning I was pelted with it from all fronts. I took a few final shots of Cambridge today before heading to my final homestay host in order to conduct the last interviews of the trip.

I must say that I am exceptionally pleased with the footage I have acquired here so far; I have met an array of hosts and students that have allowed me to ask all sorts of weird and wonderful questions for the purposes of The Learning English Video Project. Today’s interviewees however, were exceptional. Even though the student had really only been in the house for one day, she allowed me to interview her about her experiences and expectations for a good twenty minutes! I found out some fascinating facts about homestay in Cambridge and would personally like to thank today’s interviewees for their participation.

It has been a great experience in Cambridge and I am sure that it will make for a thoroughly interesting episode to this seven-part series.

Best wishes,

Daniel.

Cambridge in the Snow 01

Cambridge in the Snow 02

Cambridge in the Snow 03

Another successful day was had in Cambridge as I captured two excellent interviews with the directors of Homestay Consultancy. The interviews will be integral in providing an insight into the homestay process, not only from the point of view students and hosts, but also from an administrative perspective. I hope that the interviews I acquired will help any of you looking to do a homestay in England in the future!

I conducted both of these interviews in a small residential area outside of Cambridge known as Bar Hill. The streets there have the most peculiar names such as Acorn Avenue, Fox Hollow and Hollytrees. After conducting the interviews I headed back towards the city centre to get some shots of people punting on the River Cam. The sun was shining once again and I got some great shots of the city. I also took some snaps of local street signs and posters. I thought this would be interesting for you as it might provide a glimpse into the sort of English you ’see’ around town centres in the UK

More tomorrow!

Daniel.

Bar Hill

Street English 01

Street English 02

Street English 03

Punting on the River Cam

It is strange to think that I have only been here for five days and yet I already seem to know the city well. Cambridge is a rather compact place and everything almost seems to be in walking distance; having said that through I will go to Bar Hill tomorrow, a small addition to the city located about seven miles from the centre.

Today provided another series of fruitful interviews that I had a great time filming. I recorded both the experiences of a student who had completed two homestays in the past and come to Cambridge to continue her tertiary education and a young Italian student who has been studying English in Cambridge since January. I also interviewed the host mother of the latter; a jolly Spanish lady who provided some very interesting insights as to what homestay was like from her perspective.

I have another two full days left in Cambridge before I return to Poland. I can only hope that the sun will continue to shine as brilliantly as it did today.

Best wishes,

Daniel.

Greetings!

I am pleased to say that the sunshine came out today and enabled for an extensive day of filming in and around Cambridge. It has been a wonderful experience, filming in different countries all over the world for The Learning English Video Project, and now I have the chance to share a piece of England with you, the audience. Being an Englishman, I am pleased to be able to share with you some of the scenery from this well known English city and I hope you are pleased with the shots I acquired in Cambridge today. Today was also an excellent opportunity to get some footage of the participants using their English outside of the classroom.

I still have a few more days left here in Cambridge, over the course of which I have several more interviews planned and enough time to explore homestay even further.

I have included a few stills from today’s filming below.

Best Wishes,

Daniel

Cambridge Market

The Backs

King’s College

Which Way!?

The interesting thing about homestay is that the experience always  seems to vary from house to house. Today was unique in that the family I interviewed had three houses and anything up to ten students at one time. I was informed by the host father, who is from England, that their houses were always busy with students and that is a factor they thoroughly enjoy. The host mother, who came to England from Thailand via Italy, told us that homestay was a great way for their children to learn about new cultures as students pass through. We also managed to speak to three Italian students about their experience although they had only been in the country for a few days. I must say, it was rather intense from a filming perspective.

We will be focussing tomorrow on getting some more footage of students using their English in different situations; I would like to be able to show you how easy/difficult it is for people who do not speak English as a first language to use cash machines, do some grocery shopping, ask for directions etc.

It was raining all day and night yesterday, typical English weather some might say, but tomorrow’s forecast looks a lot more promising!

Best wishes,

Daniel.

Another exciting day of interviews in Cambridge has helped in providing a real insight into the homestay concept from the perspective of host parents.

I interviewed two English hosts today about their experiences over the course of the last few years in an attempt to answer some of your questions and queries. The interviews proved to be most insightful in that I found out how homestay works with different families in England, as well as discovering how students make the most of their time in the UK in terms of language development.

I have also been joined by Michaela, a student from The Czech Republic who is interested in both ESL and film production. She has been assisting me in acquiring additional shots of Cambridge while at the same time providing her own insights into what it is like living in this city as a foreign student. Michaela will join me tomorrow when we will continue to find out more about homestay in Cambridge.

Best wishes,

Daniel.

Michaela is assisting with the film production in Cambridge

Cambridge City Centre - After climbing the narrowest of stair cases we took some scenic shots from a tower near the market square.