I know this is very off topic but Madridman has allowed me to post this in the Classified & Personal Forum. I'll delete it once I get the information I need.

I have a friend who wants to go to England to study English. Her problem is that she doesn't know where to start. She knows very little about the country and I thought those of you who are living in England could be a great help.

I studied there myself two years ago. I stayed in Norwich, Brighton and Bath. Although I was always trying to see positive things in every city, I wouldn't recommend Norwich. In fact, some of my customers have laughed and are amazed that I went there. I'm still wondering why.

Well, I can give her lots of tips from the point of view of a Spaniard always looking for the best when it comes to learn English. However, I just have the knowledge of the cities above and I would like you to comment and suggest other places.

I heard Bournemouth has the highest number of schools after London. Would it be a good place?. I know there is a member from there?. What could you say about it?.

Shes is thinking also of Brighton, Bath, Cambridge, Oxford, Canterbury and... I think that's all the cities she has in mind. I heard of a good school in Chelteham & Glouscester (sorry for the spelling).

It would be great if you could tell me about the size of the cities you recommend, whether they are adecuate for a young person (she just finished her law studies at the university).

She's also thinking of working there. It's well known that working in a pub as a glass collector or in a McDonnalds is easy to find. Would it be hard or impossible to find a job or a work experience in something related to her career (law)?.

As for accommodation, would you recommend a family, a university residence, a shared flat?. How easy is to find the latter? What about prices. Someone told me the North of England is much cheaper but it is said the accent is better in the South.

Uhm, I think there are enough questions already. Any help is appreciated. She is really despearte and wants to go there as soon as possible and come back in September.

Thanks in advance,

Antonio

Hey Antonio!

I'm not from England, so I can't really help you out with WHERE she should go, but has she thought of taking a job as an au pair? This way she gets free room and board with an English family, she'd have to do housework and do babysitting, but they usually give you enough free time to also take language classes. I've never done this myself, but I was considering it after college to be able to go back to Spain!

Buena suerte!

Antonio, I don't know what age your friend is, but my local college has several Spanish students who are here to learn the language. The college helps to find accommodation and part-time jobs are always plentiful. I am in Manchester, North West England, we do speak the "Queen's English" rather well, it is only in the outlying towns that the accent is difficult to understand, even we Mancunians find it hard at times. Your friend can e-mail the college at www.stcoll.ac.uk
The address is South Trafford College, Manchester Road, Altrincham, Cheshire. Tel. 0044 161 952 4699. I hope this proves helpful to your friend.

Hi Antonio,
Firstly, I would recommend she saves up as much money as possible before she comes here. The U.K. is not the cheapest of places.

The University of Cambridge
( www.cambridge-efl.org ) do LOADS of different kinds of English courses - their site is VERY informative and well worth checking out.
You can do their courses all over the country, including most of the places you have mentioned.

The following book might be useful:
The EFL Directory - The Complete Guide To Learning English in Britain
ISBN: 1 84024 205 1 (Code number)
Price: about 15 euros.
I can't actually recommend it as I have never read it, but perhaps you could find a copy in a bookshop and look through it!

You didn't mention London - International House
( www.ihlondon.com ) do excellent English courses that include accomodation if required - no shortage of things to do either and good chance of part-time work. Depends if she has the money to pay for the fees.

Bath, Bournemouth, Brighton, and Oxford are all nice places - I know absolutely nothing about Canterbury except that it has a cathedral - they are all large enough to find plenty of things to do after studying is over, (good nightlife, easy access to pretty countryside, lots of student activities...), and also large enough to provide part-time work.
She will, however, be competing with lots of other students looking for part-time employment. I think Bath is GREAT - it's very pretty and the surrounding countryside is wonderful.

Bristol is also a good place to consider, as is Cambridge.
University residence can be tricky unless you are actually doing a course with the university - however the college she enrols at may well help her find somewhere to live.
Flat sharing is relatively easy - good places to look are local papers, student noticeboards. Prices can start as low as £25 a week for a room in a shared flat or house - it really depends on where she is and which part of the city/town she ends up in.
She might find a family who want to learn Spanish which would be a good cheap way of living here - best to do that via an agency(?), not really sure.
Working in a law firm might be tricky as it depends on how long she will be here for - possible secretarial work in a solicitors office, she'll just have to check the local papers, or even turn up at a few offices waving her degree.

You say that "the accent is better in the south"........well.....I wouldn't dare to comment on that! I'm from London and have been accused of having a "BBC" accent which many people consider dull and boring. If she should end up studying in Leeds or Manchester (both "north"), it is unlikely she will end up with a strong northern accent - unless she plans on living there for a few years.

I think the Cambridge site is your best bet to start off with.

And as for Norwich.....well, I wouldn't want to live there, but then there are LOADS of places I wouldn't want to live in - that's why I'm trying to work in Spain!

Good luck - if she makes it tell her to drop me an email and let me know how she's getting on.

PS I hope to come to Madrid to do a teaching course in October - I may well be contacting you about a few days accomodation in September! You've been warned!

I have a friend who is a teacher at EF in Brighton. He and his wife used to live in Madrid as teachers. They help you find housing and as you know, the nightlife is good in Brighton as is the weather. If you want me to contact him, let me know. I'm sure he'd be happy to help her get settled.

Alreet Antonio! Why aye yer bugger man! Divven tell 'er ter gan ter Newcassal man, or else she ain't ganna larn nowt there, yer naar?

Quick translation is that your friend shouldn't really go north to Newcastle, because she will find it very difficult to understand the local dialect in that part of the world.

Although having said that, the nightlife is said to be among the best in the world, the beer is fantastic and although their football team is rubbish, there is a very good one ten miles down the road at Sunderland

Anchovy (Who for years after he moved to the area from the midlands thought that Hadaway and ****eman was a firm of lawyers) Sorry, MM, English joke for those who understand the Geordie language! Edited bit... Just realised that the joke means absolutely nothing now because the four letter word starting with the letter s and meaning pooh has been censored automatically by the new updated version of the board, so ignore it!!

Anchovy,

I experienced that Newcastle area accent only once. On a plane from Chicago to London. I tried hard to understand what the guy was saying, but I kept asking him to repeat things. Finally he asked me if I could speak English -

"Yeah! Midwest US type. But I don't have the foggiest idea what you're saying half the time."

"Foggy! Now we have a word we both understand." He said, laughing, and using something closer to the BBC English most of us Colonists have gotten accustomed to. That's when he told me how difficult it was to understand Americans, especially Midwesterners like myself, because we talk so fast, and run our words together.

Yaknowhe'sabsolutelyright!

Wolf (Speakingintongues, or is it without one? )

Wolf---that is interesting about midwesterners being difficult to understand! Did you know that most newscasters in the USA are given voice and pronunciation lessons based on the midwestern accent? It is said to be the most clearest spoken in the USA...not like us Philadelphians who are known to say things like "youse guys" (translation: you guys), wooder (translation: water), and crick (translation: creek)!

Chica,

I think that's true about the newscasters, but we have a tendency to talk so fast in Wisconsin that we run the words together. We also use some of the Eastern slang, like "crick," and "youz guys."

Example; "Wudges guysdulasnite?" Too fast, and we end up leaving letters off.

My Mother-in-law, from Southern Indiana, always tells my wife I sound like a "turkey gobbler," talking so fast. I've learned to talk r e a l s l o w around her -

Wolf

And I thought certain areas of Australia made the English language indistinguisble! Let alone the accent from Revere - just outside of Boston - which butchers said language as bad as AnchovyFront's rendition of Newcastle"ese". My poor Spanish is beginning to sound better now!