Four years ago we had a lovely Intern here at LSI/IH Portsmouth who stayed with us for about 6 months. While he was here he wrote a blog post explaining the process of being an intern and how he felt about it.
This week, the Beast from the East (the cold weather) has hit us here in Portsmouth, but of course nothing like it has in the rest of the country. Braving his way in the snow, Jallal came back to visit us. He has changed quite a lot so some of us didn’t recognise him straight away 😉
His original blog post is here
but if you would like to read it now:
“Originally I’m from Afghanistan but since 1999 I have lived in Switzerland. I live in the German part but we speak German and French. I arrived here at LSI/IH Portsmouth last October.
My typical day? As well as working in reception, I have also been managing one of the student houses since January. On a typical day, I need to answer student’s questions or show the new students round the place or get them to school. I also explain the rules and how to do things. I show them the area and where to buy things, that kind of thing. I don’t have to do the cleaning but I organise it. We are not very strict ;-). Before I used to go to the morning exam classes which was Use of English and listening skills, but now I have swapped and go to the afternoon classes in order to prepare my writing for the CAE exam. In reception it depends on whether I’m working in the mornings or the afternoons. On Mondays it is always busy, we need to get the students to the classrooms and explain how everything is in the school. Then we need to scan all the details and put them in the database. We do the student letters, bank or police registration letters and things like that. Other jobs are doing the coffees and stuff for the executive side and also looking after the deliveries and putting the items in the right place.
Do I think my English has improved? Yes really a lot. I think because of both the lessons and working here, I’m always speaking English, even when not in school.
What I enjoy most is the fact that I’m always meeting new people from all over the world, you get to know all the different cultures and countries and the way they think and act, it is really impressive. And I think what has been most useful about my time here has been the experience because I’m quite young, it’s the first time I’ve done something like this, and also being apart from my family but of course, I really miss my family and friends.
I would really recommend this kind of thing. It’s really useful to have classes and half day working, and working with Elly (Reception manager) is really nice, all the people in reception are nice. I will miss the people here, some of them I have got to know really well, and I hope we keep in touch.”