Colourful Southsea in Pictures.

For a lot of us who live and work in Portsmouth, it can be easy to take the city for granted and forget what an interesting place it is.  It isn't Brighton, it isn't London but it has it's own charm.  Here are a few pictures just to show the fun side of Portsmouth.

A Bizarre and Scary Way to Spend Your Evening?

At LSI, we are very proud of our full and varied Social programme, particularly our weekly ‘Nights Out’. From dance parties to fundraisers, usually held on a Thursday, our Nights Out are some of the best activities on the social calendar, and a great chance for our students to unwind, meet new friends, and have a good time! However, there is one activity that proves to be a real hit with all our students, and that is our karaoke parties!

Our karaoke parties were originally started by Hugo, an English teacher and DJ, who sadly left us at the end of last year. He was a HUGE fan of karaoke, and could never resist the urge to get up on stage and rap for the students! After he left, his legacy was continued by Belle, our Social Programme Organiser, and the karaoke parties now happen on a fortnightly basis. The parties also attract ex-LSI students who are still living in Portsmouth, as well as loads of our teachers and staff members.

Some of you may have your reservations about karaoke, you might think singing in front of a large crowd of strangers as a bizarre and scary way to spend your evening! But believe it or not, karaoke is fun. Serious fun. Apart from the friendly staff serving delicious drinks, a HUGE repertoire of songs to choose from, and a great overall atmosphere, the DJ also plays international songs and chart hits, which always gets everyone partying together on the dance floor. And of course, singing is optional; most people just come along for the fun.

Check out some of the photos from our karaoke parties, and if you are a student currently studying at LSI, make sure you’re at the next one!!! They really are a highlight for many of our students!

BDH.

April Vocabulary Calendar - Weather Words

Download and print our monthly calendar - pin it up,  learn all the phrases and by the end of the year you will have an even bigger vocabulary range!
For April our theme is... Weather!  April always has interesting weather in Britain, here are some of the phrases you might need.

The Social Programme at Portsmouth

Early summer last year saw the lovely Belle join us to become the new Social Programme Organiser for the General English side of the school.  Well ... the social programme has been transformed!  The students now have something to do every day, and that includes Saturdays as well. Lots and lots of new exciting events and parties have been organised; sporty, cultural and fun, something for everyone.  Belle is pretty much like the Duracell Bunny.

We recently did a rooftop interview with Belle, to show what kind of events are on offer to the students. Do watch as Belle explains the different types of event, the most popular events and why students should join in. 

If you would like to know more about Belle, here is a post from when she joined the school.
Welcoming Belle to the Party

Looking for New Teachers to Join Us!

More Information Here

Night on the Town - Executive students in Old Portsmouth

One of the trips our executive students have is a meal out in Old Portsmouth near the fish market.  Vincent, a past student here at LSI, sent in this photo that was taken down on the Camber in Old Portsmouth. We love the way it captures the spirit of the evening and also features the beautiful Spinnaker Tower in the background.

International Day of Happiness! Rewind to last year!

This is what LSI Portsmouth did last year as our part towards the day, and it certainly made our lives happier ;-)

In 2012 the UN declared the 20th March as the International Day of Happiness, aimed at making people from all walks of life's lives better.  

This is what they say on the official page:

"Aim

The day recognizes that happiness is a fundamental human goal, and calls upon countries to approach public policies in ways that improve the well being of all peoples.

By designating a special day for happiness, the UN aims to focus world attention on the idea that economic growth must be inclusive, equitable, and balanced, such that it promotes sustainable development, and alleviates poverty. Additionally the UN acknowledges that in order to attain global happiness, economic development must be accompanied by social and environmental well being."

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/happiness-day

St Patrick's Day with LSI Portsmouth.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day!!

Today is the 17^th March, otherwise know as St. Patrick’s Day, named after the patron saint of Ireland. People here in the United Kingdom, often celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, by attending festivals, parties and parades all over the country, or simply by going to their local pub and enjoying a 'pint of the black stuff', otherwise known as Guinness.

St. Patrick was the man responsible for bringing Christianity to Ireland, and was believed to have died on 17^th March sometime during the 5^th Century. However, the modern origin of St. Patrick’s Day only dates back to 1631, where the Vatican officially recognised the date, and St. Patrick’s Day became celebrated as a religious day of feasting.

Considering its religious roots, St. Patrick’s Day is often celebrated by drinking Guinness, an Irish dry stout with a particular taste that some people love, and some people hate! In fact, it is so popular, that it is estimated that over 13 million pints of Guinness are drunk every St. Patrick’s Day! That’s a lot of stout!! In recent years, St. Patrick’s Day has become a great excuse to have a fun, and has officially been named ‘the friendliest day of the year’. 

So if you want to experience ‘the friendliest day of the year’ by having a sip on your first pint of Guinness, head out in Portsmouth tonight, and you will be greeted by a lot of smiling faces, and people dressed in green! As part of our Social Programme, we will be celebrating at one of our favourite local pubs, playing games, dancing along to some traditional Irish tunes, and maybe enjoying a pint of the black stuff.  If you are busy tonight but would like to join in the fun at the weekend, there will be a fantastic night of Irish music from our very own Vice Principal Lea Brophy. See the poster above.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everybody! 

Comic Relief at LSI Portsmouth

What is Red Nose Day and Comic Relief?

You may have seen normal people wearing red noses on Friday 13^th March, and perhaps doing silly things. Wearing a red nose for the day may seem really odd, but Red Nose Day is in fact a big fundraising campaign that aims to raise money for a charity called Comic Relief. The idea behind Red Nose Day is simple; just buy and wear a red nose! The money raised helps people in need in the UK and also in Africa.

How did it start?

Comic Relief was started 30 years ago by the famous English scriptwriter Richard Curtis, and comedian Lenny Henry, who together decided to start Comic Relief as a response to the severe famine in Ethiopia. Their idea was to use comedy and laughter as a way to get people to donate money, and also to get across messages about social injustice in the world.

Every Red Nose Day, there is an evening telethon, full of live entertainment, comedy sketches, and also news reports that explain how the money raised will be spent. During the telethon, people from all over the country donate money, and the last Comic Relief in 2013 raised over £75 million!!

At LSI we wanted to do our bit to help, so we sold red nose cupcakes handcrafted by our fantastic interns  Thea and Marianna. These were sold at our Friday Leavers’ Ceremony and we managed to raise £125.16.  Thanks to all our students who bought a cake or donated some money; LSI are extremely happy to do our bit for this amazing cause.

What Type of Student Are You?

It's Red Nose week so for fun we made a quiz. What type of student are you? take the quiz and find out.

Don't forget to share it with your friends.

Revamped Study Centre - All systems Go.

LSI Portsmouth is always trying to ensure our students have the best facilities possible to make their stay and their study as good as it can be.  
With this in mind we started last year to upgrade our study centre.  Over the year we have completely revamped the centre with brand new computers, brand new furniture, lots and lots of new study materials, free Guided Online Learning and the addition of plug-ins for mobile devices on the desks ;-) (we try and think of everything ).  Added to this we now have teacher support available every day.  Becky Scott heads the team of teachers of Joel, Anisa and Tom, and in the video below gives a brief overview of what is available for our students in the lovely new centre.

Here's a short video from Becky to explain what you can do in the centre.

Below are a few pictures showing the transformation over the last year.  
With thanks to Adam, Nick, Nicki P, Man from Taylor Made, Becky, Joel, Anisa, Tom, Terry and everyone else who helped the process along.

Adam doing his thing

Nick playing with cardboard

Nick in the picture again ;-) with Nicki P

Man from Taylor Made setting up the computers 

From left: Nicki P, Anisa, Joel, Becky and Tom.

All the new computers

Showing the Teacher support station

March Vocabulary Calendar - Work Words

Download and print our monthly calendar - pin it up,  learn all the phrases and by the end of the year you will have an even bigger vocabulary range!
For March our theme is... Work!  If you are looking for a job here are some of the phrases you might need.

Twenty Five Years On - Fahad Almalik

We recently got a lovely surprise, with an old friend returning to us to study after…25 years!

Fahad Almalik studied here in Portsmouth back in 1989 when things were very different.  So we asked him if he would tell us a little about that time,  and what brought him back here. 

 Lea and Fahad 2015

“My name is Fahad Almalik, and I am from Saudi Arabia.  I work in the Central Bank in the Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency (SAMA).  I work in the currency department, and I am responsible for the issue of currency, which means I supervise the printing and minting of the project, which is outsourced.  I have worked there for 23 years.  Before that I was the Marketing Officer for four years at the Savola Co (The Saudi Vegetable Oil and Ghee Co).

Lea, Fahad, Peter, Allan 1989

When I worked at Savola, they used to send some employees to England to study English.  In 1989 I came here for six months.  When I first arrived, I was at level one.

I actually came with a friend because in the beginning I couldn’t speak at all and he used to translate for me, but by the time I left I spoke very good English.

Recently the Central Bank asked me to get some training. My biggest difficulties in English are meetings, presentations, negotiations and business letters, and because I had such a good experience at LSI (back in 1989) I started looking to see if I could find my old school.  Of course none of the old phone numbers or contacts still worked, but eventually I found LSI again, and I told them I was here 25 years ago, that I knew Peter (Gray) and Allan (Gray) and my teacher was Lea.  They said ‘Yes this is the same school’, but they didn’t tell me whether any of these people were still there, so I was very happy to see Lea, who is now the Vice Principal.

Lea, Fahad, Sara, Marilyn, Sarah, Peter, Julie 1989

I chose to come at this time because it is the school holidays in Saudi at the moment. I have one month in total, so I will come back again later for another two weeks.

Fahad and Lea top right and lads from Omani Navy 1989

I think I was one of the first students to come here the last time. There were four classes and seven teachers.  The school then was a converted house down by the seafront.  Now there are seven floors, about 60 teachers and over 250 students.  The facilities are so different today, with all the IT equipment and smart boards and technology.  I was very surprised by all the changes.  Also there are such a lot of teachers now.  Twenty five years ago we used to do our own social activities, we used to all sit together and decide, a little like a family, but now everything is organised.  All you need to do is take care of your education.”

LSI Student lounge, Whitwell Road, 1989 

Thank you Fahad for talking to us, and for bringing these photos back to show us.  It has been so lovely to see you again, and we really look forward to the next time you come back.

Hannah and Adam are having a baby!

Our first 'Working at LSI Couple' are having a baby!

Adam (Assistant Building Manager and IT Support) and Hannah (Teacher, Marketing etc)

Lovely Hannah is leaving us today, for the very best of reasons; to have a baby.  Hannah has been with us for what seems like forever, as an amazing teacher, a marketing lady, a welfare officer, party planner and has even made a few cups of tea in her time.  Hannah is always smiling and game for anything.  If you would like to see her in action, watch our 'Happy' video, which certainly wouldn't have been the same without her, and her interviewing Raquel and also her brilliant Quick Tip.  Her students will miss her, the teachers will miss her, all of us will miss her!
At least we still have her on film until she feels ready to come back to us.

Good Luck Hannah and Adam 

Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today marks Chinese New Year, the longest and most important holiday in the Chinese calendar. The festival, known as Seollal in South Korea and Tet in Vietnam, is traditionally a time to be with family, and is celebrated by roughly a sixth of the world! The evening before Chinese New year’s Day is an opportunity for Chinese families to spend time together for an annual reunion dinner. For our students at LSI, being apart from their family at this time of year can be a bit difficult! We asked a few of our Chinese students how they will celebrate the New Year, when they are living nearly 5000 miles away from home.

Hui told us she will be cooking up a Chinese feast for her English host family, serving up traditional dishes such as dumplings, soup and duck leg. She wanted to show her English host family exactly how she would celebrate Chinese New Year if she was back home in Wuhan, China. Another student, Fisher from Beijing, said her family would light fireworks and firecrackers to welcome New Year in with a bang! Although neither student can be with their families, continuing their traditions whilst in Portsmouth is a fantastic way to share their culture and customs with their English host families.

According to Chinese astrology, each year is associated with a particular animal sign and 2015 is the year of the goat.  However, you may also see it referred to as the “Year of the Sheep”. The confusion stems from the Chinese character “yang”, which translates in colloquial Chinese as either goat or sheep! Those born in the year of the goat are supposedly peace-loving and kind, and their lucky flowers are carnations and primroses.

We’d like to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year, wherever and however you are celebrating it. From everyone at LSI, we hope your year is filled with good fortune, happiness and health, and hopefully lots of studying!

Belle.

Valentine's Day - What is it?

What is Valentine’s Day?

Every year on February 14^th, flowers, cards and chocolate are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of the famous St. Valentine. But who was St. Valentine and where does Valentine’s Day come from?

It is believed that Valentine’s Day originated from Lupercalia, the pagan fertility festival which marked the beginning of spring. It was celebrated between the 13^th and 15^th of February. The rise of Christianity in Europe saw many pagan festivals being renamed for early Christian martyrs, and Lupercalia was no exception.  The Catholic Church wanted to turn Lupercalia into a Christian festival, so Pope Gelasius declared February 14^th as St. Valentine’s Day.

The true identity of Saint Valentine is unclear, but the most popular belief is that he was a Roman priest in the third century AD. The Roman Emperor Claudius II banned marriage, as he believed that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and children. Valentine felt that this new law was unjust, and continued to marry young lovers in secret, all in the name of love. When Emperor Claudius II found out, he threw Valentine into jail, and sentenced him to death. When imprisoned, Valentine fell in love with the jailer’s daughter. On February 14^th, on the day of his execution, he allegedly sent her one final love letter, signed “from your Valentine”.

It wasn’t until much later that Valentine’s Day became definitively associated with love. Over the centuries, the holiday evolved, and by the 1700’s, exchanging cards and gift-giving on Valentine's Day had become a common tradition in England. In British culture, you can celebrate Valentine’s Day by giving cards, flowers or chocolate to your loved one. They are most commonly sent anonymously, so even if you aren’t feeling brave, you can still send someone a card or gift to show them how much you love them! February’s vocabulary calendar is full of romantic phrases that you may find useful! (click here)  Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  
Belle.

Glittering Prize for G! Boutique - Again!

We have written before about the G! Boutique; a 14 bed-roomed boutique hotel that was opened just over 2 years ago by LSI’s previous marketing director Allan Gray and is run by his family.  
The hotel is a luxurious boutique hotel, right in the heart of Southsea in Festing Road.  Since it opened it has been getting a lot of attention; from winning awards to being featured on television and ... they have done it again. 

This is the second time they have won this prestigious award:
Simply the Guest by LateRooms.com.

What makes this award particularly special is that it is voted for by guests.

The award announcement was live streamed on the LateRooms.com website from the Savoy in London and was hosted by TV personality Alex Brooker. 

On the LateRooms.com website, Guests can vote for accommodation in various categories which include customer service, cleanliness, room quality and friendliness among other things. And with over 2 million real reviews left on the site - winning an award really is an accolade!   G! Boutique achieved the highest score with 99 per cent of their guests saying they would recommend the hotel to a friend and 98 per cent saying they would stay there again. Clear proof that it really is THE place to stay in Portsmouth, and definitely the hotel we first recommend visitors to stay at when they come to Portsmouth!

Eli Gray celebrating winning the award in style

Picture from http://bit.ly/1EMJaYx

To find more details on the G! Boutique hotel: 
http://www.g-boutiquehotel.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/GBoutiqueHotel?fref=ts

February Calendar for Valentine Vocabulary ♥♥♥

Continuing with our monthly vocabulary calendar - here is February.

Download and print our monthly calendar - pin it up,  learn all the phrases and by the end of the year you will have an even bigger vocabulary range!

For February our theme is... Love and Valentine's Day!  This is the month of romance, so here are the phrases you might need.

Teaching the Teachers - LSI teachers learning Arabic

Teaching the teachers - Tuesday's class

In the blog we posted a couple of weeks ago, we showed how many of our teachers speak other languages.  We are very fortunate to have on the staff quite a few bi-lingual / completely fluent speakers of other languages. 

So we recently asked our teachers if they would like the opportunity to learn another language, and we got a resounding YES.  

We decided to start off with lessons in Arabic and the lovely Arif has very kindly agreed to be the teacher,
running two beginner Arabic classes in the evenings.  A great chance for the teachers to be on the other side of the desk. The teachers are finding it very challenging, but so far are very enthusiastic. Not so sure about the homework but so far they are being good students ;-)

Teacher: Arif dressed for the
occasion. 

Showing the teachers how its done ;-) 

Teaching the teachers - Thursday's class

Going to New Heights (with a monkey) - The DELTM Course

As LSI continues to grow, so has the importance it places on personal development.  We recently wrote about five of our teachers who are following an inhouse DELTA course.  As well as this, LSI is sending three of its staff to London once a month to follow the DELTM course run by English UK.
Lea Brophy (Vice Principal) Lewis Richards (Exams Director of Studies) and Sue Hodgson (Assistant Director of studies - Executive).  Below is a brief outline of the course from the English UK website;

"This course provides excellent professional development for managers and aspiring managers of language centres, and is run by English UK and validated by Trinity College London.

The course focuses on management at three levels: routine, tactical and strategic, and is run by George Pickering, Terry Phillips and Keith Harding.

It runs in London from September to June, with ten monthly face-to face sessions, and a requirement to complete five 3,500-word assignments and a 5,000-word project. These are practical, with a theoretical underpinning".

The guys below have just completed their third assignment, and as the photo shows are having a great time in London with the other participants (plus a monkey - used during the course to visually explain a point).

From left: Lea, Lewis, Sue, (Monkey), George (Pickering)

English UK Visit website

Saying Goodbye to Bill

Bill Phillips is almost part of the fabric of the school - teaching at LSI since 1994, always with a smile on his face. He is known by his (trademark) bow ties and his catch phrases, for example: 

‘You are like a mother to me’ 
'Let's go kick a*** baby'
'Good morning Officer!' to quote just a few.  Often you can hear him sing little songs on the stairs and in the staff room (and often forgetting the second line ;-).

Over the years, Bill has had a habit of bringing little plants, treats and goodies and leaving them on the side for teachers to take, and it’s probably true to say over the years that everyone has benefitted either from a piece of cake, a small plant or spare pencil case thanks to Bill.

Originally Bill worked in the Immigration Service, but decided to teach English because of his love of language.  You can often find Bill, along with a few other ‘grammarians’ in the staff room, discussing / disagreeing (usually disagreeing) about the correct usage of a piece of language.  That's when he isn't having a quick nap at lunchtime ;-)

Having taught for such a long time, we asked Bill what guidance he would give to someone thinking about going into teaching  “Don’t even think of doing this job unless you like people” he said, which from someone who ‘loves communicating with a smile’ seems like a very salient piece of advice.

Bill kindly agreed to come on camera and talk about some of the memorable moments from the past 20 years, Thank you Bill, we are really going to miss you.

(Bill, I still use the pencil case you gave me 19 years ago! - Sue H)

Bill cutting his delicious cakes!

How Many Languages Can You Speak?

It's true to say that the teachers you find in a language school are probably a different breed to most workers you'll find anywhere else.  At LSI our particular teachers are a multi-talented group of artists, musicians, sporty people, entertainers and authors to mention just a few of the skills.  The question came up the other day 'what other languages do we all speak'?  So, we conducted a very quick (non scientific) survey of the 50 teachers available at the time, asking which languages they spoke in addition to English, at a level of low intermediate and above.  The languages spoken range from Arabic to Chinese!  As you can see from the results below, not only are we multi-talented, we are also massively multi-lingual!

Click on the picture to see full size

What is interesting to see is that, according to this (very interesting) article which talks about the average number of languages spoken by the EU population, as a group, we are by no means representative of the country we live in, and are in fact, way above average! Which is always nice to know! 

We'd love to hear your comments - how many languages do you speak? What are the advantages in speaking other languages? Which is the most beautiful language to listen to?

January Vocabulary Calendar

Starting this month - download and print our monthly calendar - pin it up,  learn all the phrases and by the end of the year you will have an even bigger vocabulary range!
For January our theme is... Feeling Sick!  Every one seems to get sick in January, so here are the phrases you might need.

Click the picture to get the full size to print.

Pre-sessional Leaving Ceremony Last day of term 2014

We were very proud of our latest group of Pre-sessional students, seen here at their leaving ceremony on the last day of term in December.  They all worked so hard and now they have had a break will be going on to continue their studies in their chosen fields.  We would like to wish them all the very best for their futures.