TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY

Unfortunately this is my last week in Torquay and with this short blog I’ll try to describe my adventure in England. In 12 weeks I met a lot of people from different European Country; I spent with them my best summer ever.

Everything began the 12th July, and after that day, many things have happened. I visited a lot of places that I’ll never forget. Everything here is absolutely amazing; spending time with TTPL has offered me the opportunity to work and have fun at the same time.

One of the best place where I’ve been is Cornowall. It is one of the UK’s most popular tourist destinations for its captivating coastline and stunning scenery. The dramatic granite cliffs of Land's End, picture postcard harbours, the wide sandy beaches of the north coast have all made Cornwall the best place where you can spend a peaceful and safe holiday. But Cornwall also has a rich cultural heritage and this has left an indelible mark on the landscape. Now the sceneries of Looe, Polperro, Padstow, Portheath and S. Ives are stuck in my mind.

Devon at the same time, is one the best county of England. The beautiful small villages of Dartmouth and Brixham, the night life in Torquay and the wide sandy beaches of Paington are all places that I’ll never forget. And then Exeter, Plymouth, Totnes… magnificent places to show on postcards.

At the end, I also spent a weekend in the London. London, the busy capital of England, one of the most beautiful city in the world.

After this experience I will never forget these places and the people that I met. Friends will be always friends.  Travelling is one of the best thing to do in the life.

Travel doesn’t really wait for anyone. Sure, places will always be there, people will always travel, but there’s no better reason to travel than to just seize the moment, take the opportunity when you have it and act on impulse

Luca Fenoglio

TIME FLIES - a blog from Luca our new Student Ambassador.

Hi, my name is Luca Fenoglio, I’m the new student ambassador and with this short blog I would like to tell you something about my new life in Torquay.

This is my first work experience in a foreign country, I’m 19 years old, and before arriving here I was a little nervous but determined  at the same time.

The first day that I arrived in Bristol the weather was very bad! I Though “this will be a very strange summer”; fortunately when I arrived in Torquay the sun was shining.

Since the first moment that I met my host family, I felt like to be at home! They are very nice and polite.

After two weeks of language training course in Riviera School I started working in a lovely place. At the moment I’m working in Cockington in an Architectural Firm. The first day of work was a little bit strange, I found difficult to understand English people speaking and I tried to do as much as possible with all my skills.

Now I feel comfortable; every day when I work I’m astonished by the surrounding nature that cover Cockington Court, It’s absolutely amazing!

During this experience I met a lot of people from different European countries, I’m having a great time with them! TTPL with all the meetings helps students to make new friendship; it’s a good opportunity to meet people with different culture.

Unfortunately this is my eighth weeks here in torquay, most of my time has already gone. I want to enjoy my last four weeks, because for me this is an opportunity that will not be repeated very often in my life!

When you are in the right place, you know what do you want and you are happy, TIME FLIES.

Here, I’m spending one of the most exciting parts of my life. Is it probably the right place for me? I don’t know, but I’m completely sure that living in South Devon it’s great opportunity for learning English and for finding a job.

Luca Fenoglio

How to learn English with SIRI

There are many tricks to learning English. Everybody can suggest you to watch a TV series in English to exercise your listening and if you want to improve your reading skills, you can read books. Listening to  music is the easiest way to reach both these goals. The problem comes - if you don’t have an English person nearby - when you want to practice your pronunciation. With this post I want to share with you my secret to learning to speak English properly.

Are you ready? Pick up your I-Phone (or use Google Translator) and start a conversation with Siri!

Every time that I come to the UK I write a ‘Giulia’s Dictionary’ with words that I’ve learnt during my stay or with words that I already know, but with which I'm not sure about the spelling (just to better remember them). A few weeks ago, I was sitting in the kitchen after dinner and I wasn’t sure about the meaning of a word: ‘mould’. I asked Nicky (my host-mum) if the meaning of mould was ‘to change the shape of something’ to write it in my dictionary. Yes, it is, if you consider the verb. But 'mould’ (or ‘mold’) can also be a fungus that grows on walls or on food.

 In someway we started to speak about the difference between ‘mould’ and ‘moss’, which is a plant.

Now I know it, but at the beginning I was really confused. The solution? “Let’s ask Siri” said Nicky.

“What is the difference between MOSS and MOULD?”

This is how my adventure started, because - during my first week here - when I tried to ask Siri something she always misunderstood the word I was saying (which means that my pronunciation was so bad!). When I tried to ask Siri the question about MOSS and MOULD, Siri wrote “Which is the difference between MARS and MOULD?”. 

This is my sixth week in Torquay and I am improving my English quickly: now Siri understands me. There is only one word with which I am having problems: ‘earthnware’. When I try to ask Siri “How do you spell EARTHNWARE?” there is always something extremely strange and funny that comes out. For example:

“How do you spell HERDSDOWN WHERE?”

“How do you spell HAW THORNE WHERE?”

“How do you spell ARDENWAY?”

One time I was really lucky with:

“How do you spell EARTH AND WHERE?”

Nicky said to me “When you are leaving Torquay the last thing that I will ask you at the train station will be ‘try to say EARTHENWHERE’”, by that time, I have to learn it. This is my summer challenge.

GIULIA DE VENDICTIS

Six months in Exeter - a students view.

I was asked by TTPL to write a blog about the six months I spent in Exeter/UK.

It was the first experience abroad just on my own and I came to England to do an economic work placement in Exeter City Council. In that time I was living together with a lovely host family. All in all I can truly say that I had an amazing time in England.

6 months. That’s the time I decided to leave my life in Germany behind and to start a new adventure in England. There was no doubt that if I go abroad once, it'll be England. I like the lifestyle, the architecture, the food and the mentality of the English folk.

I was able to feel and live the English way of life for 24 weeks. But all this would have not been possible without the support of TTPL, my parents, my boyfriend, my work placement, my host family and my friends. I met so many lovely people from all over the world on my way and every single one of them very much contributed to my wellbeing in the UK. A great thank you to every one of you for your support.

I benefitted a lot from this time. Not only that I massively improved my language skills and learned how to make a proper sandwich (The English love their sandwiches for lunch! A tip: you mustn't forget the pickle sauce!), I also learned a lot about myself. How to behave in new situations, how to manage everything on my own in the first place and what it means to be German. Indeed, I learned a lot about my own culture. And can be absolutely sure, to be a real German after living six months in England... If that makes sense :-)

A friend in England asked me for advice on how to make her adventure something special. I answered: "Try to be open minded, socialise whenever you can, because every moment is so much nicer if you can share it and go traveling." That's the experience I had and I'm happy ever after. There are lots and lots of things to do, see and taste in Exeter or Torquay. Just to name a few: The Jurassic Coast, English food (Cream Tea, Cornish Pasty or Cottage Pie) or big city trips (Bath, Bristol or the beautiful Cornwall).

 

Make the most of your adventure! Make it worth it!

I'm pleased that I got the chance to write down all these thoughts.

Your former student ambassador for Exeter, Susi xx

THE SECRET TO FINDING A JOB VIA THE INTERNET

LinkedIn is the leading professional network on the web, with over 200 million members, designed specifically for the business community.

The aim of this social network is to allow registered members to establish professional links. You can use it to connect with classmates and colleagues, to find new job opportunities (internships and full time positions) or to find key contacts at companies that interest you. According to Reid Hoffman, the co-founder, 27% of LinkedIn subscribers are recruiters!

The LinkedIn member’s profile page shows your education history and work career (in other words:  your CV) and network members are called “connections”.

How to join LinkedIn?

1.     Go to: www.linkedin.com;
2.     Type your first name, last name, email address and password (you must use your true name when creating a profile: company names and pseudonyms are not allowed, as we explain in the “User Agreement”).
3.     Click “Join Now” and any additional steps.

I’m on LinkedIn, what do I do now?
1. Add "connections" (classmates or people that you know professionally);
2. Join groups in which you have interest 

(FIRST OF ALL, JOIN “THE TRAINING PARTNERSHIP LTD ALUMNI” GROUP);
3. Explore it!

GIULIA DE VENDICTIS

A gesture that I didn't expect

I arrived a bit late because I got lost. It was Tuesday 31st March. Five days ago I had come to England. The day before I had received an email saying that I was invited to a conversational meeting at a bar called Appleby's. I was alone and didn't know anyone. I was a little nervous but determined. I went into the bar through the back door, which leads directly to the pool hall. I wasn't sure that the guys who were playing billiards were members of that event or just local people. I wanted to make sure which were the people in that meeting, so I asked the barman, but he didn't know.

I walk about the bar and I looked at the faces of the customers. I saw a guy who looked like he was from my country, so I got close to his group and I said: "Hi!". One of the girls in the group immediately began to talk to me. I looked around the bar and brought a seat at her side. The girl I was talking to told me she worked for TTPL. Indeed, she was Laura Osman. I felt comfortable right away and start a pleasant conversation among people who were sitting at that table: Miquel, Klara, Mariona and two German girls who went back to their country that week. 

After a while three guys came: Nico, Philip and Marc. Three smiling faces asking me about my life. As there were no more seats, they sat on the floor. It seems a bit silly, but those guys willing to sit on the floor to meet me rather than choosing another more comfortable place in the bar, for me it was a welcome I expected not receive at all.

This post is to thank TTPL for organizing these conversational meetings. Your stay in England is always nicer if you make friends. I especially want to thank the work of Laura for hosting the new people coming for the first time to Appleby's Bar. But I also want to thank those three guys who sat on the floor and welcomed me as a member of their group of friends. Thanks to all the people I've met through TTPL meetings. I felt very well among you. Without you all this wouldn't have been the same.

For all new people coming this week (over 90!) and for all who will come in the future, I hope you feel so welcome in your first meeting as I did. Welcome, guys! 

Marta

Threat or Opportunity?

In life everything depends on the prism that we look by. People sometimes do not realize the importance of having a correct attitude towards different situations presented to them. In Spain we say: “If a problem does not have solution, it is not a problem (it’s a fact!)”.

In this way, when you STAY for some time in a foreign country, your perception of everything is inevitably changed. Being in an unknown environment, in a strange place with a different culture, can make an easy activity, as it is to take the bus to home, turn into a real deal. Daily things that you used to do are deleted from your normal life.

You are obliged to restart and reinvent yourself, and this can be scary for a young man/woman that does not even know what he wants to do in his/her life. And it is then, when someone is alone and in danger, when the attitude makes the difference between success and fail.

Getting out of your host home can mean a threat of getting lost, or just an opportunity to explore! The same way, speaking in other language than yours can be a threat of being wrong and misunderstood, or an opportunity to learn more!

So on, the staying experience can be seen as a THREAT for the world that we are used to live and understand, or an OPPORTUNITY to expand the horizons of our mind.

Personally, I prefer the second one ;)

Manuel Sanchez

Make Ideas Happen - Marta's Blog.

Only three words: Make Ideas Happen. It's amazing how words can change things. Only three words written in a picture that I hung in the dining room of my flat. And six months after hanging that picture, I landed in England. One-way ticket, no return. 

Now I look at it in perspective, almost four months after arriving in Torbay, and I am aware that my life is a chain of challenges. Every time I pass a challenge, every time I show myself that I am strong enough to overcome it, I have to chain the following link, the next challenge. To do this, you need to believe in yourself. Only then you can turn wishes into challenges, into links in the chain. Make Ideas Happen. Make wishes are challenges.

Those three words caused me to take a decision in early January: living in England. In two months I sold all my furniture, lamps, cutlery, dishes, everything. There were so many things that I no longer needed! I sold everything except that picture, which I left at my mother's home. I left my flat in Barcelona and asked for an unpaid leave at work. Finally everything was ready.  

I still remember that feeling when I get off at the train station in Paignton for the first time, where I stayed the early days. I walked down the main street and I said to myself: "Marta, this is where you will live from now on. This is not one of your trips. This is your home."

If I'm honest, I miss that picture. It is important to have around what inspires us more.

Do not forget to chain your next link, your new challenge. There is a link that I think all of us, all those who came to Devon, share: improving our English. Just work to get it. As Audrey Hepburn said: "Nothing is impossible, the word Itself says 'I'm possible'!"

 Marta

Two is better than one!

 Hi everybody! My name is Giulia De Vendictis and I’m one of the TTPL Student Ambassador. I’m graduated in Economics and Management and I’m attending the Master’s course in Business Consultancy at the LUISS Guido Carli University of Rome.

With this short blog, I would like to tell you something about my two (yes, two!) summer internships in Torquay

Two years ago I have already been to Torquay for three weeks to do my first work experience ever: I’ve worked for Essential 6 as Administration Assistant. The reason why I’ve chosen to come here was that I wanted to improve my English and to start experiencing a real business environment at the same time. Nowadays it is really important - for being competitive in the job market - to have fluent English and a good Curriculum Vitae, and I think that doing an internship abroad is the best way to reach these goals.

Actually, I’m working at the Southwest Polymer Supplies as Business Assistant and this time I will stay here longer: two months! I like this job because I often go to meetings with my boss and I’m doing business planning. The worst part is doing market research on the web, but I’m happy to because I didn’t know the Plastic Industries field so, even if I repeat the same task a lot of times, I can understand everytime a little more than before.

What is changed during this two years in Torquay? On Friday and Saturday nights people don’t meet anymore at the little beach near the Living Coast Zoo & Aquarium (unfortunately - because I had a lot of fun there) before going to Park Lane and Mambo’s, now they prefer to meet up under the big wheel. Furthermore, there weren’t Student Ambassadors to help students.

What has remained the same? The Green Ginger is always the favourite place to have a drink with friends and the student meetings are the best way to meet new friends.

Thanks to the first experience, I was able to meet a lot of new friends from all over the word and I’m continuing to keep in touch with some of them (even after two years!!). I’m sure that this time will be the same.

Enjoy your stay! I definitely will!!

Giulia De Vendictis

My Work Experience at TTPL

My name is Ashleigh Hudson and I’m studying Legal Secretary Level 2 at South Devon College. As Part of my course I was asked to do 2 weeks work experience. I started my work experience here on the 20^th of April and am finishing on the 1^st of May. I’m enjoying myself so much so far! I specifically asked to learn how an office works and with the help of the lovely staff, I’ve been learning that. Everyone here is very kind and helpful! They have all made me feel very welcome and have been so helpful. I have also been learning some other skills such as making files and scanning. Doing my work experience here is better than I expected and I would love to come and do it again!

My first week - Lars Schnoor

Here is a quick review of the first week in England for our student Lars, he has joined us here at TTPL for the next couple of weeks. Welcome and we all hope you continue to enjoy your time with us.

The forecast predicts blue sky and very much sun. When I arrived in Bristol on Friday the forecast was right, but I had already caught a heavy cold on the plane. After 2 hours driving on the left side on small roads I finally arrived in Torquay and it was so beautiful, the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

In Germany it is very cold and before I left Germany it has snowed and

additionally it’s unusual to see a blue sky, there is always a grey sky or it’s snowy. In Torquay there isn’t snow and it isn’t raining, there is just a big blue sky.

The next day I drove from Babbacombe over Paignton to Brixham on the Coast Road, the traffic was very jammed because it was Easter holidays and everyone drove to the coast.

On Monday I drove to Exeter. It’s a fairly large city in the south-east of Devon. On the right you can see the Exeter Cathedral. The cathedral is very long it seems to be nearly endless.

The next day I received my welcome pack with a little mistake in the date, so I had this day to go to Dartmoor National Park. There I saw many wild horses, which were very tame, they stood right next to the road. 

On Wednesday I finally started working on 10 am. At first I became my Welcome Meeting, after that I started making little tasks, like searching internet addresses from other organisations. After I had finished this task, I got some several tasks. At the end I got a new task to enter new applicants into the system. I finished work on 4 pm.

On Tuesday I went again to work and I worked until its 1 pm. Kerry took Laura and me to the student meeting into the zoo. It was very funny. There were many different exotic animals, which were from tame to dangerous.

On Friday I worked as usual and wrote this article. In the weekend I will visit Plymouth and Dartmouth.

Lars Schnoor