Culture Shock

A couple of months ago, here on this blog, I wrote about my experiences of homesickness and culture shock when I was out in Azerbaijan teaching IELTS. Although a lot of water has passed under the bridge since I was in Baku, and I now look back fondly on my time there, I vividly remember the feelings of loneliness and frustration I encountered. It made me wonder why I was feeling the way I was, and whether these feelings were natural.

It’s generally accepted that there are four common stages of homesickness:

1. Exaltation – when you first arrive in a new country everything is so new, fresh and exciting. You feel a sense of wonder as each day is like an adventure. This can last for a few days or a few weeks. But it won’t last forever.
2. Frustration – after you’ve been in a new environment for some time, you begin to ask yourself why you’re there – or more specifically, what are you doing here when you could be back home with your friends and family where you belong. You begin to miss the things you took for granted at home, like watching familiar programmes on TV or reading the paper.
3. Depression – this is the next, and the hardest, stage of homesickness. You often feel isolated or reluctant to go out. You may find that you sleep a lot more than you usually do, and that you are generally unhappy.
4. Acceptance – at this point you come to the realisation that although your new home isn’t perfect, neither is anywhere else. You start to adapt to the culture and begin to feel that you fit in more. You develop routines, learn a bit of the lingo and even make some friends among the locals.

In my case, I experienced all of these stages bar the last one. I was only away from home for a few weeks, though had it been longer I’m sure I would’ve got to stage four. We see a lot of students here at the school that go through some, if not all of these phases. The main thing to remember, and I have experienced this first hand, is that they are only temporary, and there are always things you can do to speed up the process.

Have you ever experienced culture shock or homesickness? If so, how did you get through the darker days? Please let me know, and I’ll write again soon with some ideas of my own to help speed up the process.

If you'd like to read my original post on homesickness, you can do here.

water under the bridge - (idiom.) an expression meaning that a lot of time has gone by
to look back fondly - (phr.v + adv.) to remember something in a positive way
vividly - (adv.) clearly
exaltation - (n.) a feeling of excitement and happiness
a sense of wonder - (fixed expression) a feeling that everything experience is exciting and new
more specifically - (adv.) more importantly
take sth for granted - (fixed expression) to get used to having something which you would perhaps miss if it was taken away
to adapt - (v.) to change in order to suit certain conditions
lingo - (n.) language (slang)
bar - (v.) apart from
phase - (n.) stage/period
to experience sth first hand - (idiom) to have personal experience of something
darker days - (adj. + n.) difficult times

Top 5 Things to Do in London in the Summer

London is at its best in the summer. This city has so much to offer, and when you add good weather into the equation, I think it is one of the best cities in Europe.

We have a lot of students in the school at this time of year and they all want to know about some of the best things to do in order to make the most of their time in London. So, here's my personal list of the top 5 things to do in London!

1. Go rowing on the serpentine in Hyde Park

Hyde Park is one of London's best known tourist attractions and it's a fantastic place to be during the summer. It's a really big park with lots of people enjoying themselves everywhere. It's also quite a historic place, with plenty of interesting sightseeing spots such as the Albert Memorial opposite the magnificent Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, the various Victorian era statues around the park and of course the Serpentine lake in the middle. Here you can rent rowing boats for an hour or more - what better way to enjoy the sunshine in a great location? You can row around and enjoy the peaceful feeling of being on the water and it's easy to forget you're in one of the busiest and largest cities in Europe. Lovely.

2. Go to the outdoor cinema at Somerset House

Somerset House is a very impressive neoclassical building on the north bank of the river Thames near Waterloo Station. It was built in the late 18th century and it's definitely one of London's most beautiful and interesting buildings. There are all kinds of events and exhibitions held there including music, art, an ice-rink and on warm summer evenings they show old movies on a big screen in the courtyard. Imagine sitting with hundreds of Londoners, surrounded by 18th century architecture, watching a classic James Bond movie such as Goldfinger (showing this August). It's magical!

3. Watch a game of cricket at Chiswick House

Cricket is the perfect summer sport in England. The atmosphere of a peaceful village green on a lazy Sunday afternoon is what cricket is all about. Chiswick House is a great place for this, and not many people know about it! The house (built in 1729) is beautiful, and there's a cricket field nearby. Go there on a Sunday afternoon and you'll feel like you've discovered the real England, with sporting gentlemen, cups of tea at 3.30, the sound of leather on willow, and long shadows as the afternoon becomes the evening. Don't worry if you don't understand cricket - just enjoy the ambiance. It's idyllic.

Walk along the canal from Camden Lock to Regents Park and have a picnic

This is a great way to sample the variety of enjoyment available in London. Start by taking the tube to Camden Town. Here you'll see a cool side of the city with plenty of live music venues, old fashioned pubs full of trendy young people dressed in the latest fashionable gear and market stalls selling cheap clothes and all kinds of cool hats and sunglasses. Walk along the high street past Camden Market and you'll get to Camden Lock where you can stop for a coffee and grab some sandwiches for your picnic later. Then walk along the canal (built the early 19th century) and you'll see lovely canal barges, some beautiful houses by the water and some genuine graffiti by Banksy. If you keep walking for about 10 minutes you can leave the canal to get into Regents Park. If you like you can stop and look at some of the animals in London Zoo before you find a quiet spot in the park to eat your sandwiches. Mmmm, nice.

Go on the London Eye during sunset

Why not finish your perfect day by seeing all of London, all at the same time? You might have to queue for a while, but it's worth it, especially if you get the timing right and go up while the sun's going down. The London Eye is one of the city's best attractions because it gives you the best view of the whole city. It makes you realise that London is very big indeed! Try spotting famous landmarks like Wembley Stadium, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and Waterloo Station. During sunset it is absoultely stunning, and with a glass of champagne - perfect.

So those are my top tips for enjoying London in the summer. Of course, there are plenty of other things you can do so get out there and enjoy yourselves!

Luke

Have you been to London? What would you recommend?

What about your city? Do you think it can beat London for interesting things to do?

Feel free to leave your comments below.

Image courtesy of FreeFoto.com

Practising Language Skills

I had a holiday a few weeks ago and I went to Alicante in Spain. I chose to visit this city because I know someone who has a flat there and I have recently been attending Spanish classes. I’ve visited different parts of Spain at various stages of my life a have picked up a few words and phrases, however I had never attended a class until recently. I found the class allowed me to put more structure and cohesion to my sentences and I was able to say and understand more.
I was really excited when I arrived in Spain and was really keen to practice my Spanish. However, I soon became really disappointed and frustrated when the people I talked to, spoke really fast and I couldn’t understand them apart from the odd word. It was also annoying to see their puzzled faces as they tried to work out what I was saying. I felt a bit useless but I realised that this is a normal feeling to have. It’s impossible to learn a language over night and I understand that I now need to work harder and practice more with native speakers if I’m going to improve.
While I was in Spain I found the opportunity to practice helped my Spanish mainly by making me aware of what I can and can’t do and what areas I need to improve. The most obvious area that I need to work on is my listening. It’s fine being able to understand a teacher or class mates but speaking outside the classroom is a lot faster and less structured than I’m used to.
Since I’ve been back I’ve started listening to 5-10 minutes of Spanish every day and I feel I’m getting better. I focus on key words and try to get the main ideas of what I’m listening to rather than worry about trying to catch everything, as I know real life won’t give me time to stop and try and understand every word. I’m making progress slowly and the main reason is that I know my weaknesses and these are the areas I’m trying to improve. Let me know what you think of my experience and how you feel when trying to improve your English.

various – n different
to pick up - phr. v [t] to learn some thing from experience
cohesion – n uniting different phrases, sentences or text
disappointed – adj. saddened or depressed by the failure of hope or expectations
frustrated – adj. not satisfied because of being unable to do something
puzzled – adj. feeling confused
to be aware of – adj. phr. having the knowledge of
obvious – adj. easily seen or understood

Answers to Wordforming

Here are the answers to the word forming article. Hope you got them right. To read the first part click here.

1. She was delighted when she heard that she had been successful in her interview.
2. He always waited for her to choose the film, he was so indecisive.
3. Due to the recession a lot of people don’t have jobs and therefore unemployment is high.
4. When selecting our new suppliers, reliability is the most important benefit to us.
5. The sales forecast was promising but the results were dramatically better.