Archive for December, 2011

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Goodbye 2011… Hello 2012!!!

Friday, December 23rd, 2011

To all our UIC blog readers…

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

The school will re-open on 3rd January 2012

In 2011 UIC…

Won the LTM star award for the best language school in Europe

Won the Elton award for our innovative radio shows!

Raised £351 for the Children in Need Charity

Had 2,663 number of students studying English at UIC

Visited to Salzburg, Barcelona, Cairo, New York, Prague, Budapest, Dublin, Amsterdam, Belfast, with UIC social programme

People from all over the world have come to study English in London at UIC. Students from:

Italy, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, France, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Canada, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Thailand, China, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iceland, Sweden, Greece, Russia, Angola, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Georgia, Portugal, Iran, Mongolia ,Qatar, Albania, Czech republic, Austria, Indonesia to name but a few.

UIC teaches 10 foreign languages!

Our teachers have more than 200 years of teaching experience collectively

All of our university foundation course students successfully found a place at UK university!

So if you want to experience life in London and study English at the same time, Come to UIC where we have “Serious. Fun”!!!!

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Christmas 2011

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

Key Dates for Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve, December 24th, 2011 is on a Saturday

Christmas Day, December 25th, 2011 is on a Sunday

Boxing Day, December 26th, 2011 is on a Monday

New Year’s Eve, December 31st, 2011 is on a Saturday

New Year’s Day, January 1st, 2011 is on a Sunday

Christmas History

European Crusaders brought the mince pie back to England in the 12th Century. It was filled with meat, as well as fruits and spices. But now there is no longer any meat in a British mince pie. Well most of the times.

Trafalgar Square is the main attraction of London at Christmas – every year a tree is gifted to UK by Norway. The famous Trafalgar Square Christmas tree is known as a Norwegian spruce which is over 20 metres high and usually 50-60 years old. Known by the Norwegian foresters as ‘the Queen of the Forest’, the tree is selected from the very best in the Oslo region.
Trafalgar Square has also become a great place to be for New Year’s Eve where thousands of people celebrate at midnight. Last year was super busy!!!

So come to London, study English and experience the magic of Christmas.

 

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How do you celebrate Christmas?

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

These are some of the ways our students celebrate Christmas around the world and these are the examples of work you can do when you study English in London!

Adele lacuaneillo from Italy

On Christmas Eve I eat dinner with my family and we go to church. On Christmas day I prefer to spend my time with my friends at home to exchange presents, eat and drink.

Francisco Ossa from Chile

In my country it is normal to spend time with family and sometimes we meet other families. Most people spend time shopping and spending money buying gifts for friends and family. In the evening we have dinner at home and open the presents.

Anais Hamitouche from France

When I was a child, we celebrated Christmas. We prepared the Christmas tree and decorated the house. We usually have dinner on 24th December and in the morning of 25th December we opened our gifts which were under the Christmas tree. Now my two brothers and I are grown up so we just have dinner on the 24th with my family.

Burcu Cuylan from Turkey

We don’t actually celebrate Christmas in my country but we celebrate 31st December which is the night of the New Year.  So we have dinner or a party, we give some gifts to friends and family. When I was a child we had a Christmas tree in my house and now I have my own Christmas tree at my home. This year I am going to visit my family and have dinner together. I am also going to buy gifts for my nephews.

Massimo Primerano from Italy

I am going home for Christmas in Rome and I am going to celebrate Christmas with all my family. Usually my mother cooks fish on the 24th December and on 25th December she cooks all meat, I have to say she is a brilliant cook! We’ll all be in my home because it is tradition.  When I was young I believed in Santa Claus but now it’s only a funny memory.

Akina Suzuki from Japan

I am going home this year for Christmas. On the 24th December I will go home to have dinner until 9pm. After dinner I will meet my boyfriend and other friends. We usually go to the pub at midnight and hand over our Christmas presents there.

Yonghee Shin from South Korea

In South Korea we don’t have a big event on Christmas but we do have a holiday on Christmas day. When I was young, I met my boyfriend or friends at restaurant, bar or a nightclub.  We also call it a “couple day” instead of Christmas.

Celebrating Christmas in the United Arab Emirates

 

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Online learning with UIC.

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Did you know that UIC has its own self-study website?

It’s called e-learning and is really easy to use!  Many students, who study in London at UIC, use this learning tool to improve their English language skills, both after class and during the holidays too. This website can be accessed from anywhere in the world and can be used for a number of months,  after you leave the school.  You can practise your language skills like reading, listening, writing, grammar, vocabulary and speaking!  You can also do your homework and other fun activities like listen to BBC podcasts for listening practice.

You can even get some exam practice, using past exam papers in CAE, FCE and IELTS!

But it’s not just about studying – you can also view the social programme for the month and plan your fun days out with UIC Social programme. It is also possible to  link to facebook and connect with other students and teachers all around the world! You can upload a photo of yourself and be part of UIC on facebook.

During your course at UIC your teacher will do an “e-learning tutorial” with you on and create your very own unique study plan. Teachers can recommend and advise you on how to improve your English and what activities you can do on the site! The E-learning site is a great way to learn and engage with the English language as well as with UIC. With UIC you don’t just learn English while you are studying with us in London but after you have left school.

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How cheap is your pump?

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

The cost of filling up a car is a very sensitive and import issue to most people across the world. People need to fill up their car with petrol so that they can do their daily routine, but if the cost of this increases it has a large knock on effect on the rest of their life. That is why you will never find the cost of petrol out of the news. Considering that London is on of the most expensive cities in the world and with the tax on petrol being very high, you would think it had the priciest petrol. However that is not the case, London only just makes the top ten. Here is the list:

10. London – £1.35 a litre with 58p of that being tax

9. Amsterdam – £1.36. 44% is government duties plus 16% VAT.

8. Brussels – £1.39 with a 58p tax

7. Stockholm – £1.39 with a 48p tax

6. Copenhagen – £1.43 with a 51p tax

5. Monaco – £1.44

4. Athens – £1.44 57p tax and some of the heaviest traffic congestion in Europe.

3. Oslo – £1.58 with a 48 p fuel tax and a 9p carbon tax

2. Asmara – £1.64. It’s the Eritrean governments main source of income.

1. Istanbul £1.65 – 85p fuel tax.

Some of the countries on the list are a bit surprising and I think most of the residence of these cities will be very jealous of the citizens where you an fine the cheapest petrol in the world. Here is the list.

10. Algiers, Algeria – 20p a litre. 95% of Algeria’s export income is from oil so it has to keep its oil fields truly open.

9. Muscat, Oman – 20p. The country exports 600,000 barrels of oil a day.

8. Cairo, Egypt – 19p. Egypt has no oil itself so providing petrol at this price costs the country 13 billion dollars a year.

7. Doha, Qatar. 15p. Exports $27 billion of petrol and year which accounts for 60 % of its GDP and 70% of government revenues.

6. Kuwait City, Kuwait – 14p. 95% of government revenues come from oil sales.

5. Manama, Bahrain – 13p. Petrol sales account for 70% of government revenue.

4. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan – 12p. This former soviet country also has a large gas reserve.

3. Tripoli, Libya. 9p, Political has not stopped the petrol prices remaining low.

2. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, – 8p. The country has 20% of the world’s oil reserves.

1. Caracas, Venezuela. –  3p. Another country where petrol accounts for 95% of exports.

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benches

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

The British Council has just published the results of a survey into employment oportunities and concluded that the majority of British employers are having difficulties in employing the right kinds of staff – particularly those who can work comfortably in an international setting. The survey which was jointly commissioned by the British Council and the Think Globally charity found “74% of these business representatives warned that in the UK young  people’s “horizons are not broad enough” for a globalised economy. ” The worry is particularly that the countries emerging as having the strongest economies are the new BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and for a company to be internationally successful it has to have staff who can work in these international environments. Businesses that work largely with other countries find it particularly difficult to get the right staff – 35% questioned said they found difficulties. The reasons why are no doubt complicated – some business leaders think the school system here is to blame for not focusing widely enough on the world outside the UK but whatever the reason there is a predictable outcome – if companies can’t find the right kinds of staff hjere then they will surely go and find them in other countries. At UIC, once again we have seen a surge in the numbers of students we have taught – whether it is international students joining us to learn English or people in London choosing to learn a foreign language. We are now teaching 8 different foreign languages. So, if you can’t get a job – or want to change in the new year then why not make that resolution and join us to learn a language!

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