Надежда Никифоровна Рогожина, проректор по международным программам, зав. кафедрой лингвистики и межъязыковой коммуникации Самарского муниципального университета Наяновой, кандидат педагогических наук, доцент.
Директор негосударственного учреждения дополнительного образования “World Class-Samara”.
Dear Reader,
I would like to congratulate you on the coming September 1, Day of Knowledge, and wish you all the best in the new school year. I hope you all had a good rest and are eager to continue your studies.
I do hope that the English language as a subject is one of your favourites (otherwise you would not be reading this newspaper!), and that “School English” will help you to enrich your knowledge and widen your horizon. With the help of “School English” you can visit many countries, meet a lot of people, read masterpieces of prose and poetry, take part in different competitions and quizzes, solve riddles, crosswords and puzzles. Learning English can be serious, but it can be fun, too!
The Editorial Board of “School English” welcomes all suggestions and fresh ideas from all the readers: both students and teachers.
But not all the students were on holiday from their favourite subject: English. Some school children chose to spend their holidays in different summer schools both in our country and abroad. We are going to tell you about a group of Samara school children who chose to spend their holidays in England, in one of the summer centres. The group went to England through Foreign Languages Educational Company (FLEC).The students spent their summer in different places: Egham (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Portsmouth University. You will find the pictures and materials written by the children next to this column. Thanks to our young correspondents you will get the first-hand information and (who knows?) would like to experience all that, too!
Nadezhda
Holidays in England
The trip to England by the students of Nayanova University can’t be called only entertaining. Not only did they go sight-seeing, but spent a great amount of time in the classroom, perfecting their knowledge of English. However, it did not turn out to be tiresome, that’s what Alexander Goldabin says:
“I thought that 3 hours of English every day would be boring. But it turned out to be the contrary! Every day we took a new theme and it was interesting and great fun! During the lessons we perfected our pronunciation, played different games and did interesting things which did not let us sleep! The lessons were informative and exciting! I think that all I learnt would help me in my future. Nobody wanted to miss the classes, because the teachers were gorgeous! Kind, resourceful, with a sense of humour, eager to help to master our speaking skills. I hope I managed to raise my level of English.”
Combining business with pleasure, that is studies with tourism, successfully, the children took part in a number of fascinating excursions. Of course, they could not but visit the magnificent capital of the United Kingdom.
London impressed Maria Makarova, who shares her feelings:
Hovercraft (Isle of Wight, UK)
“It was for the first time that I visited England. It’s very beautiful and full of history! There are a lot of majestic castles, interesting museums and monuments.
London is fantastic, especially at night when everything is illuminated. We had a wonderful river trip along the Thames with a disco on board. It was unforgettable!”
The excursion programme was very intensive and as well as the British capital, Samara schoolchildren visited such places of interest as Bath, Oxford, Windsor, Chichester, the Isle of Wight and the important sea port, Portsmouth. Even though ancient history is not a priority subject for teenagers nowadays , the Roman ruins of Bath did not leave them indifferent.
That’s how Dmitry Remezentsev describes his impressions:
Roman bath (Bath, UK)
“Bath is situated about an hour and a half by bus from London. We arrived there nearly at midday and,of course, at first we went to the ancient Roman bath which was practically in the city centre. But what surprised me when I first saw it was its enormous size. My idea of a bath was a small building made of wood, but it... it was something like a palace. And when we entered inside, my opinion didn’t change: hundreds of different pictures, statues, bas-reliefs... Things like that I saw in the British Museum. But the most amazing for me was the ancient elaborated water supply system which is thousands years old! That all was so interesting! There was only one problem: too many people, and, consequently, too hot inside. So, half an hour later we left the bath and went to the centre. The city was lively. A lot of cafes, restaurants, shops, department stores, musicians - that all made a walk around Bath so exciting. I think, Bath would stay in my memory like one of the brightest English cities.”
Anton Shirobokov adds:
“I was also impressed by Bath, a city famous for its Roman baths and mineral springs. It’s a famous European spa and the people from all over the world go there every year.
When in Bath I made a trip into the depth of history. But not only that! There were a lot of shops, restaurants, coffee shops. The city lives its own life apart from the ruins. It also attracts those who like the creative work of Jane Austen since there is a wonderful memorial museum in Bath.”
The trip to the Isle of Wight was memorable to Samara schoolchildren for the unusual means of transportation. Alexander Davydov recollects:
“And I liked the Isle of Wight! I did not want to go there at first but was impressed by the sand beaches, a small railway and hovercraft which took us there!“
In the stereotyped way of thinking, England is not associated with the seaside resort. But our children were lucky with the weather and took advantage of the unusual, for that country, heat and had the time of their lives on the local beaches.
It goes without saying, England is a great sea power and those who wish to find out in detail about the history of the British fleet have to visit the city-port Portsmouth. Dmitry Gladyshev was charmed by that visit:
“At first I would like to thank everybody, especially our parents, who helped us implement the trip. It was really interesting and educational.
H.M.S. Victory (Portsmouth, UK)
We visited many places, but most of all I liked in Portsmouth. It’s a big sea port and there is a museum of Naval History there. I was in raptures at this museum! I have never visited the museum like that before. One can walk around the Dockyards and see the old ships. We were allowed to enter one of them, H.M.S. Victory, the oldest one, famous for the battle of Trafalgar where Admiral Nelson was killed. We could see the place of his death, there is a copper plaque there. Inside the ship we saw old guns, bullets and many other interesting things.
As for the classes, we were given different project works and one of them was to make a real radio programme! I enjoyed the time I spent in England!”
But this city is famous not only for the sea victories. In 1812 the classic of the English literature, Charles Dickens, was born in Portsmouth.
Maria Makarova even made a decision she can be praised for:
“In Portsmouth I liked Ch. Dickens‘ museum. Our group leader took me to the house where he was born, and though I have not read any of his books so far, I think that I will read “David Copperfield” and “Oliver Twist” after that!”
It’s quite evident that the trip made by Samara school children was not only interesting but informative. We are sure that many of our readers also visited English-speaking countries. Children and grown-ups, send us the stories about your impressions. We are planning to publish the most interesting ones in our newspaper.
Надежда Никифоровна Рогожина, проректор по международным программам, зав. кафедрой лингвистики и межъязыковой коммуникации Самарского муниципального университета Наяновой, кандидат педагогических наук, доцент.
The trip to England by the students of Nayanova University can’t be called only entertaining. Not only did they go sight-seeing, but spent a great amount of time in the classroom, perfecting their knowledge of English. However, it did not turn out to be tiresome, that’s what Alexander Goldabin says:
Hovercraft (Isle of Wight, UK)
The trip to the Isle of Wight was memorable to Samara schoolchildren for the unusual means of transportation. Alexander Davydov recollects:
H.M.S. Victory (Portsmouth, UK)
