Our Principal, Jane, presenting the award for Innovation in Learner Resources at the British Council ‘ELTONS’ (English Language Teaching awards) last night.

Taiwan is located in Northeast Asia and lies on the Western edge of the Pacific Ocean. It is called ‘Formosa’ which means ‘a beautiful island’ in Portuguese. When the Portuguese sailors saw Taiwan for the first time in the 16^th century, they were surprised by the breathtaking scenery.

Two-thirds of this island is covered by forested mountains. There are eight national parks which offer a variety of distinct landscapes. For this reason, mountain climbing is a popular activity in Taiwan. Not only does it have mountains, it also has a very rich marine ecology. Beautiful coastal scenes are part of Taiwan’s great natural assets as well. It has a diverse coastline of sandy beach, rocky coast, swamp and wetland. All of these offer precious habitats for wildlife. In addition, the National Palace Museum is home to priceless artefacts that present China’s 5,000 year-old history. It has the finest collections of Chinese art and provides an eye-opening experience of Chinese culture.

Taiwan is also well known for food. It has fine authentic cuisine from all the different regions of China. Moreover, it is said that there is a snack shop every three steps and a restaurant every five. Foreign foods from all over the world have also made their appearance in Taiwan. Taiwan’s own native cuisines have become known all over the world – for example, pearl milk tea (or bubble milk tea), steamed dumplings, stinky tofu, oyster omelette, meat rice tamales… Try them once, and you will remember them forever. Don’t forget to put the night market on your ‘must-visit places’ in Taiwan.

Taiwan has a reasonable cost of living. People here are friendly and enthusiastic. It is a really nice, beautiful and warm island. I am very proud to say “This is my country”.

- Jui-Ping Huang

And so the 11th May arrived and brought with it the Oxford Fun Run. Twenty-one eager WSE students turned up at the coach despite the cold and rain. We were a force to be reckoned with as we entered the park grounds in our striking purple WSE t-shirts. The sun came out and the race began. Some purple shirts took the lead and all our team offered encouragement to each other throughout the race. As the final participants crossed the finish line, we made our way to the prize giving ceremony. Sheltering from the rain we were unsure if we had won anything – but then we heard the words, ‘Wimbledon School of English’! A cheer erupted and we gathered to collect our trophies.

Many congratulations to Phillippe Holdener from Switzerland who came 2nd in the race and won the Pie award for best international student with an impressive time of 19 minutes and 16 seconds.

Our wonderful running team!

Congratulations also go out to the Swiss boys Silvan Scholer, Luca Siliano, Hapib Kespin and Enea Canova for winning the fastest team from a Quality English school and from an IALC school! And a huge congratulations to all who took part in winning the SEA Rotary Achievement Award for the best school team. Thank you to everyone who came for their enthusiasm and participation throughout the day. Well done WSE!

Photos courtesy of Megan Haggie.

When I finished High School I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to do the following year, so I decided to take a gap year. I was thinking about going abroad for a few months. I went to a travel agency and decided to go to England. I wanted to do a course in English at a school with students from all over the world.

Then they advised me to go to Wimbledon School of English. The area is very nice, with coffee shops everywhere and a big shopping center. Besides that, there is a railway connection between Wimbledon Station and London Central which only takes 20-30 minutes!

When I entered the school I realized the building was more like a house than a school. This was, I think, what created a very nice atmosphere. The teachers were very helpful and friendly and the classes were very entertaining.

I took an exam after 3 months. During the course I met so many lovely people, coming from all over the world. It’s interesting to get in touch with so many different cultures!

The school also had a piano, so during the breaks and after school I often played the piano and some others did too. The school organized a special Christmas Concert where I performed. It was such fun!

During my stay I lived with a host family. I spoke a lot with my host mother and the kids, which really improved my English. After having stayed with them I moved to a student’s residence. This made me be more independent and responsible.

In short, I learnt a lot from my stay here and I really want to go back! I’ll never forget the wonderful time I had in England and I would recommend it to everyone!

- Sietske Oosterhuis

—

It’s just another ordinary day. Many people have visited this gallery again. Of course everyone went to the next room to see that beautiful girl. She must be very proud of herself. I’m so envious. People walked passed me and never stopped to look at me. I’m used to this situation and have no expectation anymore. But just 30 minutes before closing time, there was quite a handsome guy standing in front of me. He took maybe one minute to stare at me. And he went away to call his friends to came see me again. I was so happy and felt a little bit shy. I blushed.

Meanwhile, a child who was around 5 years old, came over with his mother and burst out “Mommy, why there is a chewing gum stick on the mouth in this picture?” suddenly I realized why the handsome guy gazed at me. And I know it must me someone who did this terrible thing to me when I was sleeping last night. I will find out who did this and get them back.

- Jui-Ping, from Taiwan

—

I have been for 13 years now in this country, this city, this museum, this room, the third room from the toilet on the left. Sometimes, I feel lonely, you know! On my left there is a chair. It was created by a crazy modern artist. I don’t remember his name. To my sight there is this guy. You know, the one who just asked you not to touch me. Such a boring job! And really, he seems depressed and I can understand why sometimes there is only him and me in the room and I always asking myself about why he accepted this job.

Even if I have been here for 13 years, I know everything about our society: you have all the…, you have the… clothes (which are better than 13 years ago, I have to say) and sometimes, you leave behind your newspaper so I can check what is happening in the world (even if I can’t turn the paper). And I see you. You are young, old, gorgeous, ugly, interesting and boring. I love children. They never want to be there, and they are really creative. An old wipe is sometimes really fun. They are… in front of me to decide if I am… or not. (I am a white piece canvas paper). I hate the people who are trying to analyze me. I don’t need it, I feel good! Oh, it’s 8 o’clock! The museum is closing, I am going sleep for a long time. Tomorrow will be great, it’s an open day for school, I can’t wait.

- Anaëlle, from France

When I see paintings in a museum, I think they are unique, characteristic, and creative. It is really important for artists to make their works original. That’s the way so many famous artists become famous. For example, Van Gogh became famous because there had been no one who could paint sunflowers like him. No one could see the world the way he did. However, I think it’s very difficult for us to be creative. For example, in my experience, I sometimes try to compose original music with my guitar. But the music will not be so creative, or original. There are countless songs which are not like the paintings by Van Gogh. We can clearly see how he drew a picture and his touches of paintings. I can feel the time in the past. I was so impressed with his works.

- Yuya, a WSE student from Japan

Frida Kahlo Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The first time I heard about Frida was about five years ago. That was because I was in a Spanish language class. I had to study about Frida, I was not interested in it at all because of Picasso. I love Picasso more than Mexican art. So I forgot Frida immediately. However, after seeing this film Frida, I regretted it. It was a terrible mistake. Actually Frida is a gorgeous artist. I thought she was originally disabled from the day she was born, but it was wrong. She had an accident and it might had been a tragic, but important turning point to her artistic life. She pointed herself in the way of her feeling. Maybe she wanted to express herself in different ways because she was different from other people. When you want to understand some paintings, not only of Frida, you should have information about the painters. Because paintings are the words that the creators made, you should hear their sound to understand their words…

- Eutteum, from South Korea

—

I saw a movie that shows the life of the artist Frida Kahlo. She had an accident when she was a little girl and after that, her spine was broken. So she had to stay in bed for a long time. She starts to draw paintings, walk around, and live out of her bed. She seems to live a new life, but she had to have her toes amputated. What a unfortunate life she had! She even failed to give birth to her baby because of the accident. But she met her husband and I think she was happy at last. I am very impressed by that movie. I couldn’t understand any paintings before watching this movie. I can understand what her paintings mean now, and I can feel her sadness in her life. I thought the understanding of the artist’s life is not necessary, but from now on maybe I could find the interest to watch paintings. It was a good experience for me.

- Hyun-Chul, from South Korea

—

The movie Frida is a impressing movie for me because it makes me change my previous thoughts about the way I used to look at paintings and arts. Before I saw this movie, I thought the explanations of paintings are just for the experts and people who know a lot about the art, so I didn’t want to spend my time or effort to read that difficult information. When I went to a national museum, I wanted to read some details on some of them. Besides, I believed that seeing paintings with my own experience, value and vision of life is the most important thing and information including the fixed facts prevents me from getting a real feeling. However, I changed my mind a little bit after I saw the movie because there are some differences in what I feel about Frida’s painting before and after. At first, I couldn’t get a great impression of her painting, but I knew the background of the painting due to the movie, so I finally recognized the real beauty of her paintings.

- Seung Jin, from South Korea

We are delighted to have been chosen by Ryugaku Journal in Japan as one of the top ten English language schools worldwide. The awards are based on feedback from students studying at the schools – so thank you very much to our Ryugaku Journal Students!

First of all, Madame Tussauds is a museum that needs to be visited when you are in London! It is one of the most interesting museums as you can find almost every celebrity, whether it is a musician, actor or a member of the royal family. It is a once in a lifetime experience when able to take pictures with them while you are joining them on the couch, behind the microphone, on the red carpet or even behind the desk when meeting President Obama. Besides great looking celebrities, there is much more to explore in the huge building of Madame Tussauds, like different attractions. When you would like to know a little bit about the history of London, then the typical English taxi cab is really worth it to take them as they guide you through the old world of London. Not only the cabs are an attraction but you can even join a 3D movie in the cinema or shopping in the famous shop of Madame Tussauds to get your family, friends or yourself a present to remember.

Buying the tickets in advance will make your day even better! When you get the tickets in advance you don’t have to wait in the queue for some hours as the visitors that do not have a ticket in advance have to wait for an hour or even couple of hours. As you just have arrived at the museum you can join the ‘ticket-in-advance’ queue and you will see your heroes within just a few minutes.

So make sure you got your ticket in advance and make use of the benefit in order to get in the museum much quicker than the other visitors.

The tickets can be bought at the school in the reception and are much cheaper!

£20 ONLY!

- Xenia

Freedom

Definition: Freedom is the way of living without any oppression, obligations. But you have to follow the rules of your community, be responsible of your act, and respect other people.
- Laetitia Bont

Freedom for me is not to always do what you want or say what you want. Freedom is to respect other people, different cultures and different religions. Freedom is to express yourself freely without offending anyone. My freedom finishes where your freedom starts.
- Thomas

Freedom is expressing yourself very clearly, being able to do whatever you want without disturbing someone’s freedom. It is a feeling to be satisfied with where you are.
- Marco –tuba

Freedom is not just the right to do what you want and say what you want. Freedom is different for every single group of people. For example culture, religion and ethics. All of these aspects are important to know where you are in your freedom. When you are thinking about freedom, you will also have to put in mind which issues you cross in the area where you live.
- Hassan

Freedom is the right to chose how to live and do the things that makes you happy with respect for each other and nobody has the right to tell you what you can or cannot do.
- Cecilia Gomez Garcia – Kaninwat Sapitaks