Friday, 24 May 2013

Learning the Principles of the Principal

Andrew Edwards the principal of LSI has recently given an interview which has been published on the IALC website.

This month, we speak to Andrew Edwards, Principal of LSI Portsmouth who tells us about the school and how it feels to be part of IALC.

Q: Hello Andrew, when did you join IALC and why?

I was already a member of IALC for many years with my previous school, the wonderful ELC Bristol, and now that I’ve joined the equally fantastic LSI Portsmouth it’s great to still be part of the IALC family for so many reasons. To be able to share ideas and best practice with so many experienced and like-minded people around the world is something I value massively. What makes an organisation is its people, and the people in IALC are really special.




Q: How does it feel to be part of this exclusive global community of quality language schools?
It’s a real pleasure and a privilege, to be honest. For me, despite IALC’s growth over the years, it still feels like being part of an exclusive and very supportive group of friends who are all working towards the same goal – to make their school as good as it can possibly be and to give their students the time of their lives. IALC is also great fun too and the annual workshop is always the highlight of my social calendar! (Anyone who remembers Jude Hands and the rendition of ‘Hey Jude’ at the Toronto workshop last year will know exactly what I mean. Still very much a YouTube hit, I believe :-)) ...
Continue reading....

Friday, 10 May 2013

How Will We Manage?

So it’s a very sweet and sour day here at LSI as one of our really lovely, much loved people is leaving us!  Nati Ruiperez is leaving to have a baby after ten years of working with us at LSI. 

Getting ready to leave


“So Nati how do you feel about leaving?”
“This is my 35th week, and I’ll be going on maternity leave for a year.  I’m a bit nervous, I know things are gonna be fine and everything, I’m just not sure how I’m going to  cope, I have never had so much time not working, though I know Christian (is the name of my baby), will give me a lot to do.”

with students at the Christmas party
“Let’s go back to the beginning, how did you come to work at LSI?”
“Well, I spent the last year of University in Galway in Ireland, on an Erasmus programme, then after I went back to Spain, but I wanted to work abroad again.  So, I applied and was taken on here for work experience for five months.  After the five months was finished I went back to Spain and was on holiday.  Suddenly out of the blue I received a call from Allan (the Marketing Director) who asked me if I wanted to come back to LSI.  Then after some years I met my husband and now I’ve been here ten years!”


with Bill at the leaving ceremony
“Over these ten years what have been the biggest changes?”
“Oh I think the biggest change for me was when Peter and Najat left (the founder of the school and his wife), that was such a big change, and then of course Andrew (the new Principal) coming.
A couple of years after I started here Rosalia started (another Spanish employee) and that was really nice working with another Spanish person, she left three years ago, but we do keep in touch a lot.  I think it can be hard to be in another country if you are not in a couple, you can feel very lonely, without your family or a big group of friends. But I have my lovely husband!

How did I meet my husband? It’s a funny story.  The husband of one of my friends knew my (now) husband and tried to set us up on a date.  So we went out as a group and had a lovely time.  I kind of played hard to get for about five or six weeks, and let him to do the running.  He used to come with me to the Salsa lessons that we had with the students every Wednesday.  After about 6 weeks he asked for a proper date.  I said if he wanted a date he had to ask permission from my parents, I was just joking you know. I had a wedding back in Spain at the weekend and I said if he wanted to ask them he could come to my cousin’s wedding and ask them there!  I never thought in a million years he would take me seriously. So that was on the Wednesday. I had to fly to Spain on the Friday. Can you imagine? On Friday he was knocking on the door with a taxi to take me to the airport!  So he came to the wedding with all my family, cousins and parents but he got on well with everyone and it was really nice. And that was also our first kiss, in front of 150 people!  In Spanish weddings it’s typical to say ‘the mother in law kisses the father in law’ and then they kiss with everyone clapping. They did that to us ‘Nati kisses Richard’ and that was our first kiss, in front of all those people!”

with students at the nightclub


“What do you do here and what will you miss the most?”
“I take care of reception and the social events for the General students, I used to look after the self access for the General students as well. I also look after the General student welfare.  What is the best thing about working here and what will I miss? It has to be the people, the students and my colleagues.  You know after a long time a job is a job but the people here are special and I think I’ll miss the staff the most.”

We'll miss you Nati!

Nati, we will miss you and your lovely smile and all the help you have given us so much, we wish you and Richard and Christian all the love and luck in the world!

If you know Nati - leave a message for her below

Friday, 3 May 2013

From Russia with Love

Having returned from my very busy trip to Moscow meeting some of our partners I thought I’d share my views and experiences of this trip with the readers of the LSI Blog.

If you’ve never been to Moscow before I say book your flights now as it’s definitely one fascinating place.
 



What I liked the most about the city is the beautiful Moscow Metro that amazes its commuters with the extravagant design and structure. The beautiful marble floors, fresco ceilings and chandeliers are quite breathtaking so when you do admire the beauty of this cultural phenomenon make sure you keep an eye on the time if you’ve arranged to meet someone for a cup of Russian tea with bubliki.  If you’re generally not a soup lover trying Russian borscht will prove to be a life-changing experience. If you have time do pop into one of the local cafes or restaurants on Arbat and try this rich, beetroot soup served hot or even cold in the summer. I loved having this soup with some dark Russian rye bread sitting outside of my favourite café Mu-Mu (Му-Му) on the Old Arbat. Finally, make sure you visit Red Square on a sunny day for some amazing views of Saint Basil’s Cathedral and Spasskaya Tower that are probably one of the most visited sights in Moscow. You’ll also be able to enjoy the views of the Moscow river and maybe jump on one of the boats to take a tour around Moscow all while avoiding the traffic of the busy Moscow streets.

 


While there I met up with our friend Dmitry
(shown here with one of his teachers
Jeremy)






Moscow without a doubt is a tourist gem that has a lot to offer to anyone looking for adventures with a Russian flavour!
Explore, enjoy and share!
Margarita Atlasova
Sales and Marketing









Monday, 29 April 2013

'Where ever I lay my hat, that's my home'

Announcing: our second self catering student house is now open!


Traditionally LSI has offered our student's accommodation either with a host family or in a hotel. Last year, when we opened the doors of Victoria Road student house, we launched a new concept in LSI's housing, that of self catering accommodation.  We are now delighted to announce that we have another self catering house open to our students.  In the heart of Southsea, this house is perfectly situated for calm and easy access to the school while at the same time being close enough to the areas to go for night life.  For the student who would like a little independence this is the perfect solution.

Monday, 22 April 2013

Spam Alert - One of the problems of Blogging

Slightly controversial but, I thought this might interest some!  One of the problems of writing a blog is that you can get caught in the radar of the Spammers!  One of the ways people try to get more people to read their blogs and get traffic is to write a comment on a blog and ask for the reader to visit their website.  The English in question is usually 'very interesting' and I thought it might be fun to show some of the many  comments we have received.  Spot the translation errors! ;-)  As a language school, the English used here is very interesting to look at.

Update note:  A further update - if you find any of these posted in your comments - do copy and paste a section of it to google  - you'll be amazed at how many of them have just been plastered on hundreds and hundreds of sites.  So far the most I counted was the same comment on 250 other blogs - I then lost interest - but have since tended to do that as a check if I am at all suspicious.
From a very humourous post on spammers
(click the picture to read the whole post)



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So, just a few of them.  Good for a wry smile if nothing else. Do please leave a comment ;-)

(Just a 'by the way' - Unfortunately the ability to comment has had to be changed because of this, and the security level has been raised - but genuine comments can still be left)

Friday, 12 April 2013

From A Students View

We have a guest blogger this week: Hyunjoo from South Korea has kindly written about how she finds Portsmouth and LSI.

"My name is Hyunjoo and I’m from South Korea. I’m now studying for the Cambridge Exam which I believe to be very effective in improving my English ability. But if I put aside the course itself, there are still many things I appreciate staying here. One of them is that I can meet many international students at school. There are many students with various nationalities, races and ethnic groups. Studying with them isn’t just about meeting foreign people. We can share our different cultural backgrounds and sometimes comparing their things to mine enables me to be open to different values. When the weather gets warmer, I go out to the nearest park with friends. 
(The location of LSI is quite nice!!)

It’s been over 3 months since I started at LSI. From the first week I arrived, I have tried to find a chance to meet more and more British people to improve my  English ability. I searched many chances for that and looking back, I think the best is that I found a house to live with University students. Now I live with 3 students who all speak English. It’s really nice that I can chat with them in English. Every day, when I go back home, I can build up friendships with people from different cultures and communicate in English. Considering that my main goal of coming to the UK was to have more chance to speak in English, I think it’s been really successful until now. And even if I didn’t find that kind of chance, I wouldn’t regret the decision to come here. Because it’s always good chance to mix with different cultures.
Times with them are precious moments for me
Friends that I live with are not that outgoing but usually calm. We make dishes together. And one day, I prepared a Korean dish for them. It was one of the special moments I had. I think the best helping factor that enables me to adopt to a new circumstance is native friends. And when I rate my current life here based on that view, I think I’ve been very lucky."

I was relieved that they liked Korean food!!
Thank you Hyunjoo - really interesting to read it from a students perspective - and your English is brilliant!

Monday, 8 April 2013

A Perfect Ten

Absolutely delighted to announce that we have officially become members of TEN (The English Network), a very selective group of many of the very best UK language schools.  What this means for us is that we will be working more closely with a great group of top quality schools and people who we really trust and will be able to share ideas and good practice that will help us to make LSI Portsmouth even better!


  
This is how they describe TEN:

“In 2010 a small group of well-respected and internationally renowned English language school leaders formed The English Network (TEN). This network of like-minded and dedicated professionals has trust at its core. For over 400 years we have, between us, delivered courses and a service that clients can depend on. High standards, professionalism and honesty are key values for each TEN member.
The members of TEN are now working together to share and develop their expertise for the benefit of each member and their clients. Members share information and advice on best practice. There is a common commitment to recommend, assist and advise agents and students on all aspects of English language study.
TEN offers agents the chance to work with a selection of trusted, reliable, independent English language schools. TEN offers the student great schools, popular locations and above all a guaranteed valuable and memorable student experience”



Wednesday, 3 April 2013

How to make £1200 in 15 minutes

Or

How to Come Down to Earth with a Bang


To update how our two brave warriors fared on their trip up the tower for charity, they have each written an account of their descent, so intheir own words starting with Angela:


Angela

The Spinnaker Tower viewing platform is an impressive 100 metres high and let me tell you that it seems even higher when you’re standing up there and looking down! - This was what was going through my mind when we were about to climb over the edge and start our descent. Incidentally, climbing over the edge was the most difficult part of the whole experience as all we were climbing onto was a thin ledge! From there, we just needed to courageously let go and trust the harnesses we’d been strapped into to hold us! Once we’d let go and let the rope take our weight, I decided it was probably best not to look down again and off we went. We were able to speak to each other on the way down and even did some singing to distract ourselves from the altitude! - It was really good fun. Apart from being blown around a little by a few strong gusts of wind, it was a smooth descent. As we neared the bottom, our friends and family below began singing “Happy birthday” to Hannah which was a really lovely moment. It only took a mere 12 minutes to complete and as we touched the ground I felt a great sense of achievement. We had done it and thanks to all our sponsors, raised over £1000 for The Stroke Association!




Hannah:

Dangling precariously from Portsmouth’s iconic Spinnaker Tower 100m off the ground was not how I would have expected to be spending my 27th birthday; but I have to say it was the best and most memorable one I’ve ever had.

When Angela asked our office’ Does anyone fancy abseiling down the Spinnaker Tower for charity?’ I never pictured me being the one to go through with it! I’m certainly not famed amongst my friends for being particularly brave or thrill-seeking (you’re talking to the girl who cried on the magic carpet ride at Thorpe Park aged 21!!); however when I discovered the charity was the Stroke Association, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I was even further convinced when they told us that they had two spaces available on 23rd March – my birthday! It felt like it was meant to be.

I can’t say I felt quite so convinced when I awoke on the morning of my birthday, but I decided to tell myself that the feeling in my stomach was that of excited butterflies, and not the nauseating sense of impending doom!

Still riding on this wave of ‘excitement’, I arrived at the Spinnaker Tower all wrapped up (it was bitterly cold) and raring to go. I have to say that seeing Angela arrive wearing the same manic expression made me feel somewhat better. We took the lift to the viewing platform, accompanied by an instructor and two other abseilers. At this point I’d like to mention that Angela and I had been assured on various occasions that we would be ‘tethered to a professional at all times’ and a large part of our confidence that we could do this was rooted in this vital piece of information. Imagine our dismay when were told (as we stepped into our harnesses) that we would be going it alone!! Luckily they instructors said we could go down at the same time, as long as we made sure the ropes didn’t get tangled.

Clinging to the knowledge that we were very much in this together, we proceeded to the start point of the abseil along with our companions. The starting platform resembled something like a plank on a pirate ship, a narrow space jutting out of the tower at 100m surrounded by ropes and cables; and I must admit that I did feel as though I might well be walking to my death as I carefully stepped out into the open air. I followed the instructions to the letter and said cheerfully to the instructor ‘I am absolutely terrified you know’ as I stepped over the barrier and was fully suspended from the tower. He assured me that it was quite safe, and sure enough as I let go of the handrail, I was happy to discover that I did not tumble to my death.

Now, I thought that stepping over the edge would be the hard bit. ‘I’ll be fine once I get over, I’m going to look down and enjoy the view’ I said confidently to my friends in the days leading up to the event. Let me tell you that everything changes when you’re up there. I don’t have a problem with heights and I've never suffered from vertigo, but that tower is HIGH. It’s very, very high. I became acutely aware of this fact as I dangled patiently, waiting for Angela to be strapped in and released from the platform to join me. I think those may have been the longest two minutes of my life. I most certainly did not look down. As I saw her feet carefully making their way down the wall, my spirits lifted and I knew we would be fine. We sang birthday songs and had a good old chat along the way to take our minds off the sheer magnitude of what we were doing. A real highlight for me was when Angela said ‘Can we just stop a minute?’ so we stopped ‘We are abseiling down the Spinnaker Tower Hannah! Can you believe it?!’ It was truly incredible. As we finally neared the bottom, I could hear a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday to You’ start up, accompanied by shouts of ‘Come on girls! You can do it!’

As the instructor at the bottom of the Tower carefully lowered me into the chair I couldn’t keep the smile from my face ‘I did it! And it’s my birthday!!’
He told me that I was the happiest abseiler he’d ever seen. 


And the grand total - although there is still a little to come in was (drum roll) £1200!!

Monday, 25 March 2013

Reaching for the Stars


As we say many times in this school, we are very lucky to have such a diverse bunch of people working here, so many talents!  Today we are focussing on Nick Rickard, 27 who is not only a teacher but an actor too!

‘So Nick, how did you get interested in acting?’

‘When I was about 11, at school we started doing a play a year, then sometime later we started doing one every Summer.  I suppose that was what got me into acting academically. It was probably when I got to University, that I got really interested. I spent most of my time helping my friends out with their show pieces, and of course I joined the University dramatics society.

I suppose it was around the time I left University that it started getting interesting and a lot of things began happening.  I left University in 2007, there were a lot of things going on, one of them was my friends set up a theatre company, (although sadly it later went bust), and I did a documentary on TV!’ 

Wow, tell us about that’

‘In 1982, England and Argentina were at war and the Portsmouth based naval ship HMS Coventry joined in the conflict – ultimately being sunk.  The BBC wanted to make a docudrama about the incident.   I was friends with the director of music so got to hear when they wanted Portsmouth based people to be extras in Sea of Fire, and at the casting I ended up getting a big part.
The actual people from the time of the conflict were telling the story on film and then there were us actors who dramatized it.  All in all it took about 3 or 4 days filming.  It was brilliant, I enjoyed it so much, and that was what really got me into acting.  I applied to drama school, but it didn’t really take long to realise I needed a lot of money and time and to know all the right people, it just isn’t as easy as walking straight into full time acting. 

So slight change in direction and I started teaching!  The great thing about acting and teaching is that they compliment each other, I have more confidence in class to teach plus I have weekends and evenings free, which means I can do three shows a year. 
I act with three different production companies; one group is at the Kings theatre ‘Alchemy Theatre’.  Then there is ‘One Off Productions’ who produce shows which are on school syllabuses, and then there is ‘S.S.A.  (Southsea Shakespeare Actors.)’

‘What was your last project?’


             

‘The last play I performed in was Twelfth Night, which I performed with the S.S.A. at the Station Theatre on Hayling Island.  In case you don’t know, Twelfth Night is comic tale of mistaken identity and gender confusion. Very very often my parts usually get upgraded - so I start off with a very small part and someone drops out. For the last 4 shows I have been upgraded (which is brilliant).   In Twelfth Night I play the character of Antonio. Unfortunately Shakespeare tends to forget the character of Antonio and at the end everything else is all tied up and ended properly but not with Antonio, no one know what becomes of him, and you never really find out.’ 

 ‘So what’s next Nick?’

‘My next project is Hamlet, and I’m playing Claudius. Hamlet is a tragedy but a self led tragedy as he leads his own tragedy. We are performing this at the end of June, hopefully in the New Theatre Royal, which is a really lovely theatre in Portsmouth.’ 

 Thanks Nick – look forward to seeing you on stage in June!

  
Sea of Fire (with subtitles on You tube)
(See Nick at: 15.40 / 22.01 / 51.39 / 54.24!)

info on the conflict:

info on HMS Coventry’s part in the conflict:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Coventry_(D118)


Wednesday, 20 March 2013

See How Easily You Can Tell Us ...

Introducing our shiny new guest book page.  We receive a lot of lovely feedback to the school, telling us how much our students have enjoyed themselves.  We thought it would be nice to give students the opportunity to leave a comment, tell us little stories, maybe leave a message for an ex classmate - as long as it's appropriate (and in English) it's welcome.

If you've been a student here and would like to tell us about your stay - take action NOW - go leave a comment ;-) here


We would love to hear your comments and memories of your stay at LSI.  Comments are moderated, not to stop negative comments but to stop spam.


Tuesday, 12 March 2013

The Best Ways to Find a Job in Portsmouth



 
 
 
 

With the introduction of the new Job Club clinic that we are holding on Fridays, we thought it would useful to have some suggestions on this page for where to look for current positions of temporary / part time / seasonal jobs in the Portsmouth area.

One of the absolute best ways to find work is to follow us on twitter and look for our list of jobs in Portsmouth (see below)
 
Probably the first place people look is the Portsmouth Evening News (either the paper edition or the online edition)



Another good source is an online site called Indeed:


Gunwharf is always a popular area for evening and seasonal work


 

Of course the most current way to find up to date vacancies is to join Twitter and type in #portsmouthjobs

To help you further we have a list of who to follow and who has jobs in the Portsmouth area - follow us on twitter and look for our Portsmouth Jobs List

 
Don't forget to follow us on twitter


@LSIPortsmouth

and then look for our list of people to follow who tweet about jobs in Portsmouth
 
https://twitter.com/LSIPortsmouth/portsmouth-jobs/members


 

Tuesday, 5 March 2013

Result!! Check your IELTS Score online.




We are incredibly proud of our IELTs centre and training facilities at LSI.  To further enhance the test taking experience we are delighted to announce that now you can apply online for a test with us and then after taking your test you can check your IELTS test result score online.

Once you apply online and it is confirmed you will be able to access the 'Road to IELTS' by the British Council which includes 30 - hours FREE test preparation materials such as listening, reading and writing exercises and mock tests.

Don't forget, we're not only an IELTS testing centre, but we also run full and part time IELTS preparation courses for you to be able to get the best result you can.
For further information on IELTS at LSI please click here: IELTS at LSI


Monday, 25 February 2013

How to Raise Cash And Have a Good Time?

If walking down the outside of a building 350 ft up is your idea of fun - this could be just the thing for you? Abseil for charity!

LSI has such a diverse group of talented and generous people. Many are also regularly doing charitable activities for good causes.  The latest madness on the horizon is from Hannah and Angela (Hannah Youell and Angela Evans are both in the Marketing department - click here to meet them).

We caught up with Angela who told us a little more;

"Hannah and I decided to take on this challenge after we were approached by Shannon Walsh from the Stroke Association who was looking for local volunteers to do the abseil to help fundraise. We both have people in our lives that have been affected by stroke and thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to take on a challenge whilst raising money for an extremely worthwhile charity. Every year around 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke and the Stroke Association offers emotional, practical and financial support to those affected.

We’re really looking forward to the abseil on 23rd March (Hannah’s birthday!) and really appreciate all the support we’re receiving!"


 
See this very short clip from a previous fund raiser to get some perspective on the challenge ( click here)

The Stroke Association - more information on the event

If you would like to see how much they have raised so far click this link. Justgiving

Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Tweet Tweet Tweet


We now have a Twitter account.  We're following all the cool people to follow (or at least a lot of them)  to keep up with the news around Portsmouth, from many of the Universities as well as publishers and English as a foreign language sites and blogs.  We'd love you to follow us - and keep in touch.

Follow us on twitter
 @lsiportsmouth

See you there!


Monday, 18 February 2013

Off to Wembley

Last week John (Hicks) one of our teachers, went to Wembley with some of our footy loving students to watch England play a friendly game against Brazil.  If you'd like to read more about the game (by someone who really knows how to write up a football game) have a look at the official Wembley site link here.

What can be said is; the students had a fabulous time, made even better by the fact that the home team won (that certainly pleased the teacher ;-).  The students took lots and lots of photos of the match at the world renowned stadium which can be seen below.








Monday, 11 February 2013

Announcing LSI Job Club

From February (this coming Friday 15th Feb), LSI is delighted to announce that there will be a 'Job Club' clinic every other Friday afternoon at school.  This is for students who would like help looking for work in their own country and for those eligible who would like to work in the UK.  There will be help available for CV's, interview techniques, in fact any help or advice you need.  


This is the ideal opportunity to have your CV checked by a teacher, get advice on the correct vocabulary and terminology to use, how to ask questions at an interview.

This is for all LSI students, to help with the challenge of finding a job.  The only requirement is that you sign your name on the Job Board before Friday.

Hope to see you there.
If you have any questions write to us
 

Saturday, 2 February 2013

Our Suzie In the News


From the Portsmouth Evening News
To see original click here

Our lovely Suzie Coates has left for a huge adventure - the Portsmouth Evening News tells the story better than we could so here is the story as reported in last weeks Portsmouth Evening News:

Caring Suzie’s happy to give up time for others

Suzie Coates at a fundraising gig in December. Suzie Coates at a fundraising gig in December.
Inspirational Suzie Coates gets great enjoyment out of helping others.
Now the 38-year-old will use her skills as a teacher trainer to help people give a better education to children living in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Suzie, of Southsea, has given up her job at Language Specialists International, based in Lord Montgomery Way, Southsea, so she can spend a year in Ethiopia.
She will embark on the once-in-a-lifetime trip, which has been arranged through Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), at the beginning of February.
The organisation gives people the chance to work abroad and help those who are less fortunate.
Suzie will spend time with teachers at a training college in Gigel Beles, a village in the north west of the African country.
She will share her ideas about how to get the best out of students and she hopes to learn new things from them too.
As part of the project Suzie has to raise a minimum of £1,500 for VSO.
Suzie has raised part of the cash through a concert at The Registry, in St Michael’s Road, Southsea, which saw performances from The Uncountables, a band made up of her former employees.
Suzie also had a go on some DJ decks.
A bake-off at her old workplace before Christmas also raised £250.
‘I am sure this trip will make me appreciate everything that I have more,’ Suzie explains.
‘I’m feeling nervous about how different the culture will be and the sense of isolation.’
‘The experience will be tough going because Gigel Beles is five hours away from the nearest town and a day away from the capital.
‘The thing that will pull me through is knowing that I am going to make a difference to people’s lives,’ Suzie says.
‘I get a great sense of enjoyment out of doing that.
‘I’ll also keep in touch with my friends over the internet while I’m there.
‘They’ve been extremely supportive about what I am going to do.’
Suzie spent four years at Language Specialists International and prior to that she taught adults abroad in countries such as Egypt, Australia and Hungary.
‘I was in teaching and and teacher training for a long time.
‘I got to a point where I decided I wanted to help people who really needed it,’ she says.
Suzie adds: ‘I just enjoy that line of work.
‘It’s very rewarding and I feel like I’m taking the next logical step.’