The City of Bath has attracted visitors from all over the world for centuries. The Romans led the way two millenniums ago and people have flocked there ever since. It’s easy to see why. This is one of the most beautiful places to visit in England. Set beside the stunning Somerset Countryside, Bath boasts Roman Baths, hot springs, an Abbey and thousands of listed buildings built from Georgian Stone. When people dream of England of old, Bath is where they think of.

A trip to Bath is a memorable experience for any visitor. The World Heritage Site is often the number one out of London attraction for many language students. So we at Answer English have decided to put together a guided tour of the city like no other so you not only discover what this fantastic city has to offer but learn lots of English in the process. We together with Anderson Tours, one of the leading tour companies in Europe, are launching ‘The Language Coach.’

The aim is get you out of the classroom and into the country. This educational tour programme consists of return coach travel to Bath, English exercises with a Teacher and entry into the Famous Roman Baths. As the bus will be filled with language students all studying in London, this is a great chance for you to meet new friends, practise English and get out of London for the day.

Our first trip is on Saturday 28 April. To book a place online for the Language Coach go to Bath English Learning Day Trip. For more information please send an e-mail to James: info@answerenglish.com or call us on 020 7402 8651.

‘It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.’ In a week where I won second prize in a Pub Quiz of the acclaimed ‘Party On’ Double CD, it seems apt that we are launching our own International Party. On the 21 April we are having a 150 people party at Bar Andalucia in Whitfield Street.

We are running this party in conjunction with our language school partner Malvern House. The idea is as ever to bring together Londoners that are learning languages with students that are studying English. Unlike our Language Learning Evenings this will be more of a Party format.  The music will be Spanish, South American and International in feel. There will be a fun and lively atmosphere at this latin-themed venue.  To attract people to come down early between 18:30 and 19:30 we will have an hour’s language exchange.

This is an all ticket event. If you are interested in tickets you can pick them up from our offices in Marble Arch: 19 Bryanston Mews West, London W1H 2BW. Here is a map. Should you get lost finding the place you can call us on 020 7402 8651. Alternatively you can pay online and we will reserve a ticket for you. Tickets are £5 for bookings before the 13 April, we will not be selling tickets on the door.

So put that date in your diary: Saturday 21 April and tell all your friends about it. We look forward to seeing you there!

JiaJun who is working with us from China has written this piece for his Chinese compatriots about London (English translation follows):

伦敦感想

来伦敦已经有一个半月了，在这段时间到底经历过什么，对这个城市有什么感想呢？

在汉资大学学习，那可真是丰富多彩啊! 我已经是大三的学生了，这一年可不普通的一年，实习半年，交换半年！实习期间，你可以去另一个国家，去感受新生活，去学习不同的文化。怎么样？是不是很想感受一下呢？呵呵！

在伦敦，你永远都不会感觉到乏味：你可以和不同国家的朋友一起去酒吧谈生活，去俱乐部疯狂一下，去伦敦的河畔坐船，去特别设计的滑冰场区滑冰，去博物馆，去美术馆，去游泳，去唐人街，去公园，去广场 等等等等。博物馆中有你盼望已久的历史文物，美术馆中有你想欣赏的艺术作品。你会发觉你的生活充满了快乐！

牛津街(Oxford Street) 是伦敦最繁华的商业街，你可以买到任何你想要的东西，任何的品牌。不但有英国名牌，还有国际品牌。适合所有人的需求！ 呵呵！

伦敦还有许多大大小小的公园，有的在市中心，有的坐落在郊区。公园中有湖畔，也有绿油油的草地，还有各种水种动物 - 野鸭，天鹅，还有湖中各种各样的鱼，他们一起反衬了伦敦美丽的公园景象！难道你不觉得饭后到公园散步是个修身养性的好去处吗？

我现在正在伦敦实习，我实习的公司叫：Answer English Ltd！ 公司老板名叫 James Herbertson。赶快来伦敦注册学习吧，你会喜欢的！这里不但有最好的英语练习环境和而且还有优美的地理环境可以享受呢! 希望我们公司吗？希望来英国学习吗？赶快联系我们经理吧：james@answerenglish.com 或者是打电话：+44 20 7402 8651。

In English this translates to:

I have been in London for more than one and a half months! What have I experienced? What do I feel about London?

I am an international student from Hanze University Groningen and I am currently doing an internship here in London with Answer English Ltd. You life will be more colourful if you study in Hanze University Groningen because you will have the opportunity to do an internship in another country and you will also have the great chance to study with a partner schools of Hanze University Groningen. Now, do you want to have a real experience?

In London, you will never feel bored because there are so many things that you can do here: going to a bar to have a little drink or chat with people from many different countries; if you like clubbing, London is also the best city to find one you like; you might be also thinking about going for a boat, there is a big river go across London, so you will not miss an opportunity to go boating; yes, you can also go skiing in a special designed building; there are so many museums and Galleries here that you really need your spare time to be filled up, if you want to have a look at all the museums in London; if this is not what you like, there are also many parks, swimming pools, Gyms and Squares to enjoy. Still not enough, ok, we can go to China town together! In Museum, there are many objects for displaying and in Galleries; there are so many paintings to be appreciated by people who know how to appreciate! You life will be more enjoyable if you come to London!

Oxford Street is the most popular commercial street in London and also the busiest street! You can buy there everything you want with all the brands you like both international and national which fulfil the demand of all kinds of people including you!

There are also many parks in both central London and country side! In the park, you will see grasses, lakes, flowers trees, ducks and geese; together they combine the natural beauty of London into an integrated sight seeing. Is this the right place to reduce the pressure from your work, study or life? What are you waiting for? Come to London and enjoy the different style of life!

The company I am doing an internship with is called Answer English Ltd and the name of the Managing Director of this company is James Herbertson. So, hurry up and come to London to study English with us and at the same time to enjoy the totally different living style! I am sure you will like it because there are not only the best environment to practice your English, but also the best city to live in! Just send an email: james@answerenglish.com or call James on +44 20 7402 8651.

It was only a matter of time. After 3 months of successful language evenings in China Town, we had to give Chinese a go! So on Tuesday we launched our first Chinese Evening for Londoners learning Mandarin and Chinese people living in the UK. The evening was a great success with a fantastic turn out for our first language evening.

We’d like to say thank you to our partners Chinese Made Easy, Gazelle and China Institute for helping to fill our goodie bag and providing prizes for the inaugural Chinese evening. You can see photos from the evening in our new and improved Answer English Gallery!

Thank you to all those that came for making it such a fun evening. If you are learning Chinese or are Chinese based in London, please get in touch and come to the next evening. For more information contact James: info@answerenglish.com

JiaJun visits the British Museum and reports back:

Have you every heard The British Museum? Have you been there? If the answer is “no”, don’t worry, because you will change your answer to “Yes” after you finish reading this article.

The British Museum was established in 1753 and is now home to over six million artefacts, ranging from small archaeological fragments to massive objects from past and contemporary cultures.  There are several departments that impressed me greatly: the Egypt collections, Money collections, Chinese collections and Korea house style.

The mummy displays in the ancient Egyptian collections are magnificent. The people in the funerary archaeology probably died thousands of years ago, but they look still intact with some special clothes on! Wonderful to see the people died long time ago!

In the money collections department, there are 750,000 coins and paper money cover different money models all over the world. The paper money that impressed me most was the Great Ming circulation treasure note because it suggests that in ancient China, they already had paper money! Hundreds of years ago!

In the Chinese collections area, there are so many things from ancient China that I spent almost one hour to see all of them! Ancient Jades, ancient plates, ancient bows, ancient containers and ancient dishes etc are all the objects from about one or two thousand years ago or even earlier (221 BC).

There are many more objects and collections in British Museum, so come to spend several hours and enjoy the display there, you will like it!  For more information, go to the British Museum.  If you are looking for a course in London that combines English classes with visits to the points of cultural interest like the British Museum check out this English Course.

Today we talk to Jiajun who recently joined the Answer English team.

Name: Jiajun Zhang （张家君）
Job Title: Marketing/Financial Intern
Age: 24
From: China

How long have you been in London?
5 weeks

What were you doing before this?
I was studying International Business and Management Studies major in International Finance & Accounting at International Business School of Hanze University Groningen in the Netherlands.

Why did you come to London?
I come to London to gain some working experiences, improve my English speaking skills and learn about English culture.

What did you hope to achieve?
First of all, I want to get some working experiences, get to know the real business world and deal with real people in real British business world, and at the same time to improve my English speaking language to advanced level, finally I also want to learn some interesting stories about English cultures.

What does your job involve on a day-to-day basis?
My job involves organize social events, prepare package for new students, updating blog and financial accounting issues involved with day-to-day business.

What responsibilities do you have?
My main responsibilities so far are entering database, book keeping, and update journal entry for financial costs.

What are the best bits?
My best bits are Financial Accounting and Statistical Analysis. By working with Answer English, I can gain valuable working experience, making new friends during work, meet school requirements and improving my English speaking skills.

And the worst?
My worst bits are time management and deal with many things at the same time.

Do you have to have prior experience? If so, what helped get you the job?
I didn’t have any prior working experiences

How did you go about getting it?
Answer English ltd is published on my school website. I sent my CV to James who is the Managing Director of this company; and then we had a conversation on the phone. After that, I got this job; so if you are interested in helping students to find language schools, organizing social events and working with a real British company, I suggest you contact Mr. James Herbertson at james@answerenglish.com.

Any tips you could give our readers?
London is a big city, so be careful about your belongings because there are some people here always watch the other people’s wallets or something expensive, like laptop. Except the things above, London is an exciting city and you will never feel bored here. Buildings here are very special – old style and very tidy!

Anything you know now that you wish you’d known before coming here?
The weather!

How much do you think your English has improved?
A little bit so far, but I imagine that it will improve in the next five months a lot more!

What, if any, lessons could the readers of AE Blog learn from your experience?
You should always think before you do anything to prevent anything terrible from happening.

With this experience, what do you plan to do next?
First of all, I am trying to settle in with Answer English – my first working company; and then, I will apply as much as possible the knowledge I learned from IBS to this company and help them to be more profitable!

Thanks Jiajun for taking the time to speak to us today. Best of luck working in London!

Ouvre le fenetre? Thanks to all those that came down to our French night on 6 March. We held the evening at the aptly titled The Exchange in Gerrard Street in China Town. The evening was an opportunity for French people learning English to meet with Londoners learning French.

Congratulations go to the prize winners Laura from London and Samuel from France. Thank you to all of those that continue to support Answer English and contribute to our goody bags: Ici Londres, Malvern House, Spanish Express, the French Institute, and the Cine Lumiere.

We are currently updating the photos section of our site and hope that they will be up shortly in the Past Events section. It was fantastic to see this evening grow and we look forward to welcome more French speakers again on the 3 April. If you are interested in going, send an e-mail to James: info@answerenglish.com or call us on 020 7402 8651 to reserve your place. A bientot!

Thinking of learning Chinese in China?  You might like to consider China Institute, a partner company of Answer English, to help you find the course that suits you best.  China Institute was formed to assist people to realise the possibilities with China  and the Chinese language. China Institute provides its students with the opportunity to study Mandarin Chinese in China and at the same time it enables them to gain a better understanding of the culture through organised activities and interaction with its people on a daily basis.

Their organisation offers standard courses or tailored programs to the individual students where the students can study at several prominent locations in China (Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu and Shanghai).  The duration of courses are also tailored and classes start regularly (weekly) to fit within the student’s time frame. Our courses are run in conjunction with recognised universities and language schools with an extensive experience in teaching Mandarin.

For more information contact Sara Fontdevila on 07930 263 159 or visit their website: www.chinainstitute.co.uk

I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to anybody offended by the title of my last blog post on our Spanish-English exchange evening entitled: ‘Spanish Inquisition’.  This was meant as a pun or play on words, ‘Spanish’ obviously as everyone speaks Spanish at the night, and ‘Inquisition’ as people investigate, enquire into each other’s lives & culture.  I do apologise if anyone took offence to this and this was not meant to draw any attention to the atrocities of 500 years ago.  The title was following on from other puns like French Connection and French Toast.

Federico visits the V&A and reports back:

‘One curiosity about indian sculptures is about the position of the hands. You may have heard of Mudra. Mudra is a name that indicates the particular position of hands, and the Radiant Buddha has the right hand with the whole palm facing forward to the person in front of him. This means that the person should have no fear. The Radiant Buddha is one of the main attractions of the area dedicated to Asian cultures, from Japan to India, in the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The museum is an enormous building just in front of the first exit of the subway which comes from the South Kensington station. You can’t miss it. At the first glance instead of alternated yellow and grey bricks like Natural History Museum you see red and grey alternated.

Very fascinating… is the room dedicated to the famous Italian painter Raphael. It contains seven “cartoons”, very big pictures that represent various episodes from the Holy Bible. The most famous is about the miraculous draught of fishes, when Jesus told Peter to make another cast because this one would be lucky, on the contrary of all the other attempts that day. When Peter saw the boat full of fishes he converted and started to follow Jesus as the first apostle. From him all popes and the foundation of the church follows.

In the cast courts room there are several copies of famous monuments, the plaster cast of the original David of Michelangelo, very imposing, a copy of the Traian columns of Rome, also sculptures from Bernini, masterpieces of Donatello, and so on…

Definitely, this museum isn’t as famous as well-known museums like British Museum, National Gallery… but it deserves more recognition. It confirms that South Kensington is a very good area if you are interested in art and museums. The museum is free as many others in this zone. More information on the V&A website. As last, i wish you to enjoy your visit! Bye!’

If you are looking to combine an English course with visits to museums like the V&A. Check out the English Language Cultural Experience course.