Laurent drives the Beaulieu Vintage Bus

Laurent Bourdenet from Paris

Laurent had a 2-week immersion in general and business English in December 2010. He wrote about his stay:

"Honestly, all was perfect. I don't have any negative remarks. I have really appreciated the hospitality of all the people I met. Sometimes I could forget that I was here to learn!
I wanted immersion to practice my English. I know that I have to work more, but I think that my hearing and speaking are better. One-to-one is the best way to learn. If I had known I would have gone before... obviously with Heritage English!

Thank you very much"

Laurent Bourdenet

Thanks for all

Laureen came to us in October and again for a second week in November. This is what she said about her immersion course: "I very appreciated the "intensives" lessons and the fact that I had different teachers. I think that I'm becoming more confident. We worked on different items that I could need in my job.. presentations and talking about graphs and results.
One-to-one is a good method of learning because it is adapted to your level and needs when we are in the family or outside. Thanks for all!!!

Success At Ielts - Congratulations Huran.

Huran came to stay with me for four weeks during his summer hoiday from Cyprus. He was determined to reach his goal of achieving an overall score of 7 in his Ielts exam. He was a very motivated, hard working and conscientious student who made the most of his time with Heritage English. On his second day here, he had already joined the local gym and struck up a conversation with Omar, a university student, who he would meet up with after his lessons and play basketball. He became independent very quickly and would take himself off in his spare time into Lymington or take a train to Bournemouth or Southampton to go shopping. The model student!

I have just heard that Huran passed his Ielts exam and achieved his goal with an overall score of 7! Well done, Huran.

We wish you all the best for your future studies.

Gail and the Heritage English Summer Team.

Francois Dhoury

Hi,

My name is Francois, I work for Sairp Composites and I need English to talk to my clients in the United Kingdom. My problem was oral comprehension. My target was to have a conversation without having to ask the person to repeat.

This week was very rich for achieving my objectives. The lessons were exactly adapted to my needs and my job. Having 2 teachers was a nice experience. Gail was a very good teacher. Celia gave me confidence and a very nice feeling about what could happened during the week. David, my host, took care of me as if I was an old friend of him.

The one-to-one is the very best method to learn. Speak, hear, think .. dream in English. Since Sunday is very tiring - but so constructive.

My advice to future students is .... GO ON !

Francois Dhoury, St. Jean de Braye - August 2010

Business student from France

Geraldine works in the Quality Control department of a pharmaceutical company in the North of France. She needed to improve her English for meetings with inspectors and control officials as well as meeting clients from overseas. This is what she said about her one-week course with Heritage English:

"I achieved all my objectives- improved my oral expression; asking and answering questions; describing my job and my company; explaining procedure flow charts; having a better understanding and use of English tenses. I also increased my oral comprehension and my vocabulary.

One to one is the best method to improve your English level. English lessons are in compliance with our requirements and teachers can take time to explain you and adapt lessons with our level. Out of lessons you can practice what you have learned.

Celia and Gail adapted the lessons about my needs and organised nice afternoon visits, meeting people and experiencing life in the UK.

One week is too quick. I miss that we haven't enough time to work on written reports, emails ...

A Big Thank you for all

Geraldine

Angelika reports on her second course

Getting Ready for Cambridge University? Piece of Cake with Heritage English!


After having had a wonderful time with Heritage English last year I travelled through UK with my parents for 2 weeks. During this journey I happened to visit Cambridge, its world renowned university and the beautiful colleges. It was love at first sight; I knew I wanted to study Social Sciences there even though the application process is exceedingly daunting and the places immensely fought after. Although my grades are of the high level that Cambridge demands, I still had to improve my English in order to be able to compete with the elite of British students.

This was when Heritage English came into play. My objective of this year’s stay was to raise my written style to a more academic level which is required for university essays. The other goal I wanted to achieve was practising interview techniques and framing cohesive and concise arguments and answers to difficult interview questions such as “If 'Humanitarian Intervention' is acceptable, why shouldn't Europe invade the USA to stop it using the death penalty?”

Despite the fact that the amount of lessons comprised not more than 15 hours in total, I perceived the progress I made each day. Rebecca Nunn, my teacher, was competent and helpful in every way, challenging me, criticising, praising, making me see awkward sentence constellation and extending my academic vocabulary. At the end of the course I felt confident both in written and oral expression and well prepared for the tasks that still lie before me.

Additionally, I was able to see old friends and acquaintances again. I was even allowed to accompany April, my lovely “sister” from last year, to school and gain insight knowledge of the British school system and life. But not only did I meet up with everyone that has grown dear to me since last year, I also got to know new faces: I came to stay with the big Hobby family, and after only one week it felt as if I was already part of their family!

In conclusion, I can only repeat what I said last year: The programme that Heritage English has to offer is well-rounded, including fun time and intensive work, and is extremely flexible, suiting everybody’s special needs. No matter if you are a Business English student, a teenager who wants to brush up their English while having a great summer time or someone like me; this organisation will succeed in providing you with whatever you want.

A big thank you to everyone who made my stay as fantastic as it was!! (all members of the Hobby, Morrell, Thom, Nunn, Lincoln and Steggell families)

Angelika

IELTS Preparation Course - Huran

Huran came to us this summer for four weeks. He was a brilliant student who made the most of all the opportunities he had to improve his English. Here is the message we received on his return to Cyprus:

Hi miss , I hope everbody is ok in your home :D

After my all experiences in England , I feel more confident and have a more self-esteem to speak and show my English . After my 1 month course , I can decide which form of language I should use in different places to explain situations . It made my communication with other people easier as I can describe myself easily .
It was a great advantage to stay with a family , as I was able to learn daily speaking between members of family and know them . The lessons were specially designed for topics that I was weak , and help us to move forward on my English correctly . Self studies apart from daily lessons were also important and homeworks help students to repeat subjects which they studied in the morning . Activities apart from lessons that were took place in the afternoon were spectacular as well . Different types of historical places and museums are visited and new vocabuary words can be learned .
Meals were also delicious and lovely , as members of family gathered during supper , it was a good time to observe culture differences easily . Shopping was also different topic that I was interested and I need lots of time to shop and observe goods , my host family help my transport and online shopping whenever I want . I am very happy to live with new people and share lots of things with them . And my brother and cousin who are 15 and 14 respectively looking forward to attend same type of course in the future . Moreover , location of the House is also brilliant as we can walk everywhere easily . I like the weather in South England and if I have a choice I would like to live their instead of other parts of England as it is very clean and quiet . The citizens who live their is very friendly and smiling all the time . This made me feel confident during my stay .

A message from a dog!

This message from a dog was sent to us by a student called Torsten from Germany. Torsten had a 2 week immersion with Heritage English. He stayed with Debbie Cummings and her dog Oscar and the rest of Debbie’s family. He was taught by Toby and Becca. He has written his testimonial in the words of Oscar, the dog!!
Hi, my name is Oscar. I’m Debbie’s dog. Debbie was Torsten’s host mother during his two weeks’ stay at our house in July. Torsten is 17 years old and he comes from Germany.
Gail dropped him off one Sunday evening and we immediately became good friends. Soon he and me shared his sandwiches. And he was a good person to play with. It was obvious that Torsten really enjoyed staying with us, i. e. me, Debbie, Lyndon, Ashley, Grandpa and all the family. One day we went to watch a football match, then we went to the beach, the other day we had a barbecue at Debbie’s sister’s house. But Torsten did not only come here for pleasure. He came here to improve his English and was taught by Toby and Becca who took turns to collect him every day. There were three lessons in the mornings and various activities (e. g. museums, sports, cinema) in the afternoons so that he could practise his English all day long. There was a good mixture both of formal language teaching and instant usage – and Toby and Becca were the right sort of people. And - according to Torsten -it didn’t feel at all like English lessons back home. One day he even talked English to his mum when she was on the phone. Total immersion at its best. Unfortunately, sometimes there was homework for Torsten so that he could not play with me straight away. However, he managed to squeeze it in between me and the Football Championships on TV. Hadn’t I experienced it myself I wouldn’t have thought so but watching TV can contribute enormously to enlarging one’s command of a foreign language.
On departure Torsten was provided with a record of lessons and activities (for his parents) as well as recommendations for further study. I hope Torsten is enjoying the remaining weeks of his summer holidays. And I’m sure he is missing us –especially me. Of course, we must not leave out Debbie who did a real good job making him feel at home at our place. I wonder whether he’ll want to come back some day…. . And I’m sure it was worth all the emails between Gail and Torsten’s mum.

Sveva (14) from Italy

La cosa che piu’ mi e’ piaciuta e’ stata stare con la famiglia perche’ sono persone davvero stupende, io e Maia abbiamo molto in comune e ho avuto un mese di tempo per conoscerla, Blaede suo cugino e un tesoro e’ molto simpatico e molto gentile con me. Una delle cose piu’ divertenti che abbiamo fatto e’ stata quando siamo andati tutti a Thorpe Park, li ci siamo divertiti tutti tantissimo ed abbiamo passato una bellissima giornata tutti insieme. Un’altra cosa molto divertente e’ stata andare in barca tutti insieme e fare il bagno nel mare gelato o molto semplicemente andare io Maia e, qualche volta anche, con Bleade a fare shopping! Ma anche la maggior parte delle lezioni con le insegnanti sono state moloto efficaci e divertenti!

What I liked most was living with a family. They were fantastic. Maia and I have much in common and I had a full month to get to know her well. Blaede, her cousin, is a gem, very nice and very kind. One of the things I enjoyed most was when we went all to Thorpe Park, where we had a wonderful time. I also liked our boat outing, swimming in the freezing sea and even just shopping with Maia and occasionally with Baede! And most of the lessons have been effective and amusing!

Quando sono arrivata qui il mio scopo era quello di poter capire quello che si diceva senza troppi problemi e di cercare di parlare ill mio inglese in un modo piu’ sciolto e senza troppi dubbi o problemi, ecco ora riesco a capire la maggior parte delle cose quando le persone parlano e spesso commento senza pensare troppo agli errori che sto facendo oppure quando mi accorgo degli errori riesco, a volte a correggermi da sola! Quindi si ho raggiunto il mio obbiettivo!

When I arrived, my objective was to understand what was being said without too much of an effort and speak English more fluently and confidence. Now I can understand most of what is said to me, I can answer without being afraid of making mistakes, and sometimes I actually can correct my mistakes by myself! So I have achieved my objective!

Penso che sia meglio studiare faccia a faccia con l’insegnante invece che per esempio in classe, perche’ in classe e’ difficile stare attenti e la maestra non puo’ accorgersi di tutto e quindi si rischia di rimanere indietro, poi a volte si fanno gli esercizi ma non tutti hanno modo di farli o di verificare perche’ hanno sbagliato, durante le lezioni invece l’ insegnante di segue ti aiuta, ti corregge, ti spiega gli errori e ti mette in un situazione in cui imparare e’ bello!

I believe that one-to-one study with the teacher is better than being in a classroom, because in a class environment it is difficult to pay attention and the teacher cannot be aware of everything and it is easy to fall behind. Then, coursework can be wrong or unfinished and there isn’t enough time to check and correct mistakes. Instead, during one-to-one lessons the teacher can follow up, help, correct, explain mistakes and make learning fun!

Al prossimo studente direi solo di non pensare a casa, agli amici ecc ma solo di cercare di divertirsi e di imparare qualcosa che alla fine e’ sempre utile! Sopprattutto di non vergognarsi e di cercare di parlare in inglese il piu’ possible perche’ cosi’ e’ piu’ facile capire gli errori, correggerli e non farli piu’!

My advice to other students?
I would tell future students not to think about home or friends, but just to have a good time and try to learn something that will always be useful! And most of all, not to be ashamed and try to speak English has much as possible, because this will help understand mistakes, correct them and avoid them in future!

Thank you Sveva.

Andreas 14 from Germany

Andreas had 2 weeks with us in July. Lessons were with Jane and the host family were Ruth and Chris Hobby and their six wonderful children. With her permission, we publish below the email from Uta Bilow, his mother - on his return to Germany this week:


Dear Celia, Ruth and Jane,

We are very happy to have Andreas back here again. He is very relaxed and amiable since his return and often talks about his impressions. We are sure that he made great progress in English during the language course and also in his personal development - due to your commitment!

Thanks to Celia for arranging this stay so perfect, matching the teacher, the host family and the leisure program to Andreas´ needs.

Thanks to Ruth and her family for taking Andreas as a member into their family and giving him a loving home for two weeks. He obviously enjoyed having such a lot of siblings around him.

Special thanks to Chris, who took Andreas to the airport in the early morning!

Thanks to Jane for giving interesting and varied lessons to Andreas, accompanying him to his surf lessons and all other sport activities and for uploading photos on facebook so that we could participate in your outings. I am also very happy that he made good contact with Emma the dog!

I am confident that Andreas will never forget this journey and all of you!

Kind regards,
Uta

Frederic from Aix en Provence

“It was a very pleasant week. I liked a lot English lessons with Celia. She has a lot of patience and she made my English becoming better and more fluent. Even grammar lessons were nice and it was pleasant to do my grammar homework!
I liked also the cook and driver, Steve. Steve is very funny and a nice person. My conversations with Celia were very interesting. It wasn’t English lesson but like conversation between two friends.
Dave, my host, was also a very nice and friendly person. He made a lot to make my stay a good one. My first objective was to speak English more easily, without shame about my accent. Now I am even thinking in English!
My second objective was to make better presentations in English and I learnt so many things abou that, that it will be ALMOST easy to do presentations in Engish – IF there is no questions at the end!”
Finally, the equilibrium between 4 hours lessons in the morning and more cultural and friendly activities in the afternoon is very good. “
Photo: Steve and Fred in “the stocks” ... no longer allowed as punishment for bad deeds!

June and July 2010

This summer has been (and still is) very busy. Not only do we have the usual business English students, but we had an exceptionally high demand for junior courses.

Of course we only take a few students at any one time, so we have not been able to provide courses for every enquiry. That is because we like to keep our service small and personal, providing a specially high level of attention and care to every student regardless of age or learning needs.
Everyone makes great progress and that's what makes our work so fulfilling. Lots of testimonials and photos to come, when we get time to post them!

Best of all, the sun has been shining in the UK for months now and our green garden lawns are looking more like Africa than England!

See you soon
Celia

Mr Condello's Italian blog

Antonino Condello came to Heritage English from Italy for an intensive, one-to-one 14-day Business English immersion course in May 2010.
His low level of English made it difficult to communicate with clients of his oil company based in Iraq. He came to England for total immersion and stayed with David Hughes for the first week and with Julie and Steve Woodington (see photo) for the second week. He was taught by Jane Reid Peters and Gail Steggell.
Here is what he said about the course:
“voglio dare una testimonianza della mia esperienza trascorsa nella Sua scuola per frequentare il corso di lingua inglese.
All'inizio ero preoccupato perche' non credevo di potercela fare, invece mi sbagliavo.
Adesso posso dire che e' stata una esperienza bellisiima, le mie insegnanti mi hanno fatto sentire come uno della propria famiglia, impegnandosi a farmi studiare la lingua inglese come un loro fratello.
Inoltre dopo le ore di studio durante la settimana ho trascorso delle giornate indimenticabili visitando tutte le attrazioni dei luoghi intorno a Lymington trascorrendo dei pomeriggi in perfetta sintonia tra paesaggi e studio della lingua Ingese .
Grazie all’ospitalita’ delle famiglie ospitanti, mi hanno fatto sentire in queste due weeks come un membro della loro famiglia.”
Thank you to Celia and your Team
Antonino Condello

Werner Frei, World Courier Sales Executive

Dear reader
I’m Werner Frei, a 45 year old Sales Executive, working for World Courier (Switzerland) S.A., Zurich Branch. Working for an US Company means also having the English language as a company language. When I applied for this Job three years ago, a First Certificate of Cambridge was required. I passed this examination successfully, but 15 years ago.
With not too much practice since then, my English skills were not anymore on a top level and I really experienced that one time on an internal sales meeting of World Courier’s Western European group sales team. There I found out that only a few out of 25 people had a lower English level than mine. Another crucial experience was a presentation at one of our most important customers, where the audience was very international and I wasn’t able to answer the questions after the presentation properly. Luckily, one of our operation executives was also there and was able to do so.
After participating in two English courses in Switzerland in the last three years with steady, but slow improvement, I decided to look for another solution. Another reason was the need of an additional training for my Advanced Business English Certification of Cambridge Examination, which will be held end of Mai 2010.
Three weeks of intensive learning, well prepared by highly qualified private teachers without any influence from outside, neither through your job nor through your family duties, that was
Heritage English!
With the results of written classification tests and a questionnaire about my needs in advance of the course, the lessons were absolutely tailor made. That covered exactly what I was looking for. In addition to that, the ability to live with two different native families within my three week stay improved my communication skills tremendously.
A nice side effect was that I could discover the beautiful region south of the New Forrest, sometimes with the help of my hosts, sometimes for myself.


To summarize, it was worth any single penny that I spent and I highly recommend this way to improve your English skills.

Lieber deutschsprachiger Leser
Dieser kleine Bericht entspricht nicht einer Übersetzung der obigen Englischen Version.
Ich habe drei Wochen in Südengland zugebracht, um meine Englisch-Sprachkenntnisse zu erweitern. Zwei Gründe sprachen dafür, etwas für meine sprachliche Weiterbildung zu tun. Erstens, die Erkenntnis, dass mein Englisch in gewissen Geschäftssituationen nicht genügend war und zweitens, die Vorbereitung auf die bevorstehende BEC Vantage Prüfung Ende Mai 2010.
Mit dem Vorbereitungskurs (in der Schweiz, ein Jahr) für die BEC Prüfung habe ich B2 Niveau erlangt, vielleicht ausser dem schriftlichen Ausdruck (Briefe, Mails, Rapporte etc.), wo ich mich im B1 Niveau wiederfand. Das hätte wahrscheinlich auch für einen erfolgreichen Prüfungsabschluss gereicht, aber mir selbst fehlte etwas. Auf der Suche nach diesem „Etwas“ bin ich auf
Heritage English
gestossen, was meine Bedürfnisse, wie auf der entsprechenden Website dargestellt, vollumfänglich abgedeckt hat. Und ich kann nur bestätigen, die Internetseite hat meine Erwartungen nicht nur erfüllt, sondern deutlich übertroffen.
Drei Wochen nur Englisch um mich herum, jeweils vier Lektionen täglich mit einer hochqualifizierten Privatlehrerin (Celia Lincoln oder Gail Steggell), an den Nachmittagen dann weiter mit Kommunikation (bei gemeinsamen Ausflügen und weiteren Aktivitäten) und Abends dann jeweils Hausaufgaben, die dann am Folgetag besprochen und korrigiert wurden; wer da nicht etwas lernt, dem kann niemand mehr helfen. Die erwähnten Lektionen waren wirklich massgeschneidert, dies ermöglicht durch vorab durchgeführte Einstufungstests und das Ausfüllen eines gut strukturierten Formulars, das gezielt nach meinen Lernbedürfnissen fragte.
Ich hatte das Glück, Gast in zwei verschiedenen Familien zu sein. So hatte ich die Möglichkeit, den Sound der Sprache von verschiedenen Seiten zu erleben. Zuerst bei einer meiner Lehrerinnen, Celia Lincoln, mit ihrem Mann Steve, dann in der liebenswerten Familie von Peter und Thelma Lewis mit Ihrem erwachsenen Sohn Watkin und dessen Freundin Emilie. Das bedeutete natürlich auch, dass zu jeder Zeit Englisch gesprochen wurde und auch in den Gastfamilien darauf geachtet wurde, dass ich mich in der richtigen Weise ausgedrückt habe.
Wenn man sich die Zeit nimmt und bereit ist, einen gewissen Betrag zu investieren, erhält man einen höchstmöglichen Ertrag. Ich kann mich nach diesen drei Wochen viel sicherer in der Englischen Sprache bewegen und mich gewählter ausdrücken. Natürlich wird man in dieser Zeit und wahrscheinlich auch später kein „Native Speaker“, aber es ist ganz klar eine deutliche Verbesserung, mündlich wie auch schriftlich, zu spüren und zu erkennen.
Obschon das alles ziemlich anspruchsvoll erscheint, ist es doch gut zu bewältigen, vorausgesetzt, man lässt sein Business und den sonstigen Alltag zu Hause. Konzentriert nur auf das Lernen und Verbessern der Sprache, lässt sich sehr viel erreichen.
Verbunden mit der wunderschönen Landschaft im Süden Englands kann ich den Heritage English Immersion Course nur herzlichst empfehlen.
Für Rückfragen stehe ich gerne zur Verfügung
werner.65@bluewin.ch