Let's study, right?!

As an exchange program, of course you are supposed to "study", so don't you think you are in Cape Town just for fun. Although Cape Town has lots of entertainment options (we are talking about that later) from Monday to Friday you must be focused within your studies.

As I've started in our last topic, today I choose to write about my student experience, over LAL Language School, during 8 weeks! Which I don't regret, and I think you won't, as well!

Since my first contact with a LAL’s staff members (Jacy, my dear), I've been very well supported and all my questions were quickly clarified, by e-mail and phone calls. The teachers and all the others staff members (special mention to Ms Lamese and Sonia) put their efforts in making your experience as better as possible.

LAL's pool and internet area!

LAL South Africa has an excellent structure and provides a very  nice environment to the students, making all of us feeling confortable. I stayed at LAL’s school residence and they carefully arranged me in to a shared bedroom with three others different nationalities, which was an unmissable opportunity for practicing my english. I can assure you that learning english in LAL really worth it, indeed.

Back to my "first-day-class"… I did my level test and they placed me among the Upper-Intermediate class, which has been running by the unique teacher, John Meiring. John is, with no doubts, the most charismatic and wisest person I've ever met so far! His lectures were always very interesting as well as captivating and I thank him for taught me so much about life. 

The Upper-Intermediate class, at that time, was formed by nearly 10 students between Arabics, Germans, Italians, Brazilians and others. It didn’t take a long time until I got involved and practicing my English, in class. The class takes the mornings, from 09:00 to 12:30 and the afternoons from 13:30 to 15:00 (conversation class with Rivaag, my bro).

Every Monday evening, at LAL, they have a barbecue time (braai, in Afrikaans) which is a great opportunity to meet the others students and make some new friends. My first braai’s time was awesome with Iranian dancing workshop, new friends and plans for the day next, of course.

Having an awesome time with brazilians and iranian friends!

In my humble opinion, the most interesting thing in doing an exchange program is just the opportunity of meeting new people and learn something new from their cultures. If you are an open-minded person and have an adventurous spirit, you would easily get involved by all of that diversity. After a while, you will also realize that, deep inside, everyone is similar to each other however we are all different. 

German, Arabic, Belgium and ME!

Fortunately, in Cape Town I had a chance to met adorable friends from everywhere, like: Germans (lovely kindly friends), Swiss (my bruu!), Russian (traveler friend), Italians (wow, my Italians), Arabics (funny and loyal friends), South Koreans (timidly loving people), Belgium, Spanish and so many others. Together we had so much fun. Sharing experiences, helping each other, laughing every second… we really became close and good friends.

There is an another very curious aspect... having foreigners friends, gives you a possibility of keep in touch with different sorts of languages (French, Spanish, German, etc) and it might brings you a desire of start learning a new idiom. In addition to it, my tip is: don't keep yourself exclusive among the student’s environment… try to do as I did and go throughout the streets, meeting another kind of people. Try to make some new native friends, which can give you a depth linguistic experience.

If you study hard and avoid speaking your mother tongue, your English would improve a lot (surely)... and that was just what I used to do, all the time. During the grammar classes, at morning, I was trying to interact with my classmates as much as possible; and, during the afternoon classes we were always debating and discussing different points of view. All the lectures were really interested, however sometimes you really get bored, but this is normal (once in a while). Furthermore, after classes I used to join my friends in exploring the city....but this an idea for another topic!!

So, think I gave you a nice idea about my student routine and how it is being a LAL's student. If you want to do an exchange program and you didn't decide about the school yet, my tip is doing it very carefully. Take your time searching for everything is possible and make questions!

See you later... with a new and interesting topic.