Wow Look At These Photos - Portsmouth at its Best!

Sébastien Demazure, an IT Admin French man from Normandy, arrived at LSI Portsmouth in April for two weeks to improve his English.  He joined the General English programme with Business English in the afternoon.
In his free time Sébastien is a photographer.  With his wife, Johanna, he takes wedding and portrait photography, and has been doing this professionally for the last three years.
In France there is a television show called Four Weddings for One Honeymoon (4 Marriages pour 1 Lune de Miel). Sebastien was invited to take the photographs for an episode of this show - what an accolade!

He says it is just a hobby, however when he speaks about his photographs it is more like a passion. He uses a 7D Canon 650D 7 lens and edits with RAW images in DXO Optic / NIK collection.

He says he came to LSI Portsmouth because he wanted to feel easier with his English, and said that something strange happened a few days ago 'something went click' and he now speaks much easier, something all his teachers have noticed too. He believes that an immersion course is a really effective way of improving your English. He has since found the same problem many second language speakers find 'there are some words now that I cannot remember the French word for and can only think of the English' ;-)

To see more of his pictures go to his website: www.doublevision.fr

All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor ;-)

Lovely students and from left: Mark (Benedict), Will, Cliff, Tom and Adam.

Did you know LSI has been providing successful training courses for Cultural Acclimatisation, examinations like IELTS & STANAG and English for Specific Technical Purposes for Military personnel from International Governments since the late 1980’s? Our clients have included students from Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Finland and Chile and the classes have taken place here at LSI Portsmouth or at Military Colleges and bases in the south of England.

Teachers 'resting' ;-)

Below is a picture of our off-site teaching team working closely with groups of overseas Naval Engineers who are now over half way through their 60 weeks training courses. Well done lads; just 20 weeks to go!

And the photo below is for Rich, who didn't like not being in the photo (he wasn't here the day the photo was taken ;-) (he is generally a bit taller than this and has legs)

Cheerleading, Venezuela and Portsmouth Student Union!

A while back we had the loveliest student at LSI Portsmouth from Caracas in Venezuela. Carlos was initially studying General English before moving on to complete his Cambridge Proficiency Exam. Now he is studying for a masters in Scotland! Carlos was an extremely well-loved and caring student, and made friends with everyone. He agreed to make a short video with us to explain the benefits of joining a club at the University of Portsmouth Student Union, and how it greatly improved the sixth months he spent in Portsmouth.

For more information click here.
If you want to see the activites you can join click here.

Day One at a New School - Letter from a Newbie

Teachers reading this will know the feeling the day you start at a new school: Will I understand the systems? Will they be friendly? What resources will they have? Will I fit in? ...
We asked a new teacher who came to the school last year, to give us their views on what it was like to join LSI.    

"When starting to work at a new school, I always face the same teething problems. It take stime to adjust to the new timetable, administrative system, resources and in some cases teaching style. Thankfully, starting at LSI was a painless experience.

The timetable allows sufficient time for preparation, and the resources are abundant and well-organised. All of the staff have been welcoming, and have offered up suggestions and recommendations for lesson content and resources.

My previous job was at a school on London's Oxford Street, near the building site for Crossrail. The working environment at LSI couldn't be more different. It's nice to have sea views from classrooms rather than the constant sound of drilling!

Finally, it's nice to be a part of a team that is constantly developing. The school offers a lot of opportunities to teach various types of class, and supports teacher development. 

Overall, my first few months at the school have gone very smoothly and settling in has been pain-free."

Hopefully this will help any new teachers thinking of joining LSI in the future to feel a little more comfortable about starting.

Thank you new teacher (who preferred not to have his name published ;-)