MY JOURNAL

Tuesday 13 th October

Part OneThe first day I got to my house in Bognor Regis, the lady in my host family asked

me to take my shoes off every time I get in the house and put on my slippers. She also told

me that I should get changed and wear some wellies to go to their garden. She explained

to me that our soles from our outdoor shoes are dirty and muddy and so we do not get the

floor and the carpet dirty. I noticed the carpet it is not damaged and it is clean. I found it

really practical and comfortable. On one hand it is practical because they have all shoes

ready next to the door, and they have some wellies next to the garden’s door too. On the

other hand it is nice and I feel so comfortable when I get into the house and the first thing I

do is to take off my shoes. I am definitely going to respect their home rules because it

makes me feel part of the family and I love it.

Part TwoToday I rushed to my classroom at University and when I got inside the class I

noticed the teacher had started the lesson. She asked me very politely if everything was

right. I think the teacher asked me because she considered that if someone is late is

because something unexpected and maybe unpleasant had happened. I felt

uncomfortable because I interrupted the lesson, but it reminded me that I should manage

the time better, for my personal life and professional life at school. Every time I am late

there will be someone waiting and honestly I do not like it.

Yesterday, it was our first day at University and we were given a daily timetable with all the

activities for the day. I also noticed the English people we talked to my first day (the

librarian, Simon, David and Charlie) emphasized the activities and the precise time the

next activity was going to start. It is known that English people are always on time. I will do

my best with time management.

Wednesday 14 th October

Part OneToday my host family seemed to me really nice and friendly. They asked me about my

family in Spain and after that they talked about their family. They also showed me some

pictures. I felt so glad because they told me a lot of details about their personal life and

that made me feel they trust me. On the other hand I am aware I couldn’t understand

everything they told me and I couldn’t tell them everything I wanted. I would love to

improve my listening and speaking so the next time I talk to them I can understand more

details. In order to do that I am trying to activate my listening. I have been thinking about

the strategies to work on these aspects. I will talk to myself aloud when I am alone,

repeating difficult words and structures, trying to work on the right stress of words as my

teacher Kathy told us, a kind of a Mumble drill. As I am living with other Spanish teacher at

home, we speak English all the time to make the most of being in an English context.

Part TwoToday I talked to the man in my host family and I asked him about his daughter in

law. He told me her name and also he said she wasn’t his daughter in law because his son

and the woman were not married. I was surprised to hear that because in Spanish we use

that word even if there is not a marriage just to explain the relationship. He told me that

they do not normally use it with that meaning.

I think this is interesting because it reminds me how languages have different

interpretations of a word.

Thursday 15 th October

Part OneIn this part I am going to talk about my experiences about how to start a conversation.

Today I have been thinking about what has happened over the past few days when I have

met an English native speaker. They started the conversation in the morning by asking

questions like “Did you get some sleep yesterday?” or “Did you sleep well?”. I find these

questions quite polite to start a conversation and to show the other person you are really

interested in talking to. Also I noticed that the answer to the typical question “How are

you?” is never “I’m fine thank you, and you?”. As I said before they tended to use more

natural questions that reminds me to enrich and expand my vocabulary and also that I can

teach that to my kids.

Part twoToday I have been talking to my host family after dinner. They invited me to go with them

to visit their son. We went there by car and so we spent some time talking on the way to

their son’s house about the differences when driving in Britain. I told them I am used to

driving in Spain a lot, but here I would need some practice I explained. The man of my

family was driving and I asked the lady if she had her driving license. She answered with a

kind of joke “I do not drive but I drive my husband mad”, we all laughed a lot. I felt so glad

because I was able to understand a joke, I felt so motivated to go deeper into the British

sense of humor. I thought it was an easy way to play with words and even my students in

Spain will love it.

Friday 16th OctoberPart one

Since I came here my host family has been taking on the responsibility of hosting two

international teachers at home very well. They always do their best to make us feel in our

own home. The lady has been cooking a pudding almost every day to please us. I am

aware because I remember I told her the first day that I loved apple crumble and cakes.

Today she has made a delicious cake with sultanas. The cake is called Bread Pudding. I

have enjoyed a lot my piece of cake. I am getting used to eating a British pudding after

dinner and it is also a way of easing into conversation because we were chatting a lot

about British pudding we had eaten so far.

Bread pudding

Part Two

Today in class I learnt how to disagree in English in a polite way. This made me think about

English politeness in general so I tried to pay more attention to that. At lunchtime when I

was in the canteen and I asked the lady for fish a chips she answered “thank you” as she

was giving me the plate, kind of thank you for choosing my food. That makes me think

about politeness and the way I asked her, it wasn’t polite, so I will do my best for tomorrow.

I also noticed people say “Cheers” as they get off the bus, and so I did it, it is a very good

start to improve my politeness when speaking.

Saturday 17th OctoberPart one

What a wonderful day! We went on a trip to some Sussex villages. This experience made

me feel like a kid. We had some fun all teachers together. Simon and David lead the group

and explained a lot of details about the places we visited. First we stopped at East Head

and West Wittering, the most popular sandy beach in this area. After that we went to

Bosham, we visited the Harbour and the church of the Holy Trinity. Later we had lunch in

Midhurst and finally we were led to The Trundle. The scenery was outstanding, green hills,

and what is more, we could see roof of the Cathedral in Chichester from there.

Everywhere we went that day, there were people, even if the weather was not good. I think

British are lucky because they are surrounded by beautiful green hills, the sea and

amazing landscapes that are well worthy to be enjoyed. Maybe that is one of the reasons

why British people love pets and it is also a way to enjoy the nature with them. I took nice

pictures I think I can use them for my Science lessons about the landscapes. It will

motivate my kids because they will see their teacher in those pictures.

Ruins at Cowdray Park

Part two

The itinerary ended with a milk tea in the pub The Fox Goes Free. It was incredible,

because you don’t expect to go in such a homely pub in the middle of nowhere. And then

when we were and we had something to drink, we didn’t want to leave. Simon and David

were very friendly and asked our opinion about the places we visited. As we have been

talking about the British Educational System, I started a conversation with David about that

topic. It was a helpful conversation because I practiced the vocabulary related to

Education. I tried to find out the name of the school I am going to, but he didn’t tell me. We

had a lovely time and we laughed a lot with David jokes.

Sunday 18th OctoberPart one

Learning new words from a piece of news. This is one of the new things I did today. I got a

piece of news from the Daily Mail as Kathy told us. I read the article and tried to get the

general meaning. I didn’t focus on the words I didn’t understand but generally speaking I

got the idea of the text. After that I looked up some new words in the dictionary, some of

them are: fang, ranger and prowl car.

Part two

Today I went to Chichester. I consider it is a lovely town and I haven’t had time this week to

go there and explore. Some Spanish teachers decided to go together and visit different

places, as far as I am concerned some went to Arundel and others went to Brighton. I

believe it’s is easier to go with the Spanish teachers, because there is no need to make an

effort to communicate in English. I mean, if anything happens, because you cannot find the

right way to get to a specific place for example I figure out we will help each other instead

of asking someone in English. I had this feeling several times along this week, I was just

following the group, in a passive role, however I want to take an active role. For these

reasons I have mentioned, I went to Chichester on my own, on purpose. I needed to buy

some things for facial care so I found a great opportunity to speak English about a topic

that involves using specific vocabulary. It was a very satisfying experience because in

spite of my pronunciation the lady in the shop understood what I wanted. I noticed it is very

important not be shy or/and talk loud enough to be heard.

Monday 19th October

Part one

Today Kathy gave us back our journal to reflect on our mistakes. At first sight I realized

there were a lot of marks and I was a bit worried, that made me think I need to improve

also my writing. Then I thought “There is no learning if there are not mistakes”, so the best

thing to do is just learning, that’s the positive thing. After that Kathy told me the reasons for

those mistakes. I am excited about the improvement of my writing skills, I am sure I will be

proud of myself in four weeks. I will do my best writing my journal.

Part two

I am trying to incorporate new vocabulary we have learnt in class. Today, after dinner we

had an interesting conversation about British Education, it was very motivating because

obviously I love the topic and it helped me to stick the concepts we had talked about in

class. Finally, I wanted to go to bed so I said to my host family that it was time to stop our

chatting and time to leave them and rest in peace, suddenly we all laughed because they

understood what I meant even if I didn’t use the right words. After our laugh, the lady in my

host family explained to me that it is better to say “Stay peace and quiet” to express what I

wanted.

Tuesday 20th OctoberPart one

I have kept some pounds since I was in England the last time five years ago. Today I had

to pay 30 p for lunch so I used that money. The lady, the cashier, told me she couldn’t

accept that money because it was old. The lady in my host family told me that I can

change them in the bank, but I am going to keep them so I can use them with my kids in

Spain. It is realia and I am sure I can use them in a role play, playing British shops.

Anyway, I will try to find some play money in a toy shop.

Part two

As Kathy suggested to me some aspects I have to focus on to improve, I am going to

make a personal language notebook. I am going to organize it with different sections. I am

going to write down words that I know but I don’t use, words I have heard along the day,

and also expressions that Kathy use to manage the classroom.

Wednesday 21st OctoberPart One

Today was my first time staying in a treehouse!. There is one at the top of a tree in the

garden of my host family. I loved it. It is a British mini cottage. My pupils in Spain will love

it, I will bring them some pictures, the lady in my host family took a picture of me, inside

the house having a tea party!. Their grandsons’ toys were there and we had such a good

time. British cottages and detached house are part of the culture, they are traditional here

and very different from the kind of houses we live in Spain.

Part Two

Today I was on the way home, on the bus. I was the only one person on the bus apart from

the driver. The lady who was driving stopped for three minutes she explained to me that

the bus stop we were at that time, had a departure time and she had to respect it. As she

seemed she wanted to chat, and there were nobody I tried to practice my English. We

were talking about the traffic, how practical and healthy it is biking, I learnt “Two way road”

and I also used busy road because I had heard David to use it. These words are now part

of my personal language notebook.

Thursday 22nd OctoberPart one

I have decided to set a challenge. I will focus on a particular British topic every day. I love

the library at the University, I wish I could have more free time to find out, there are a lot of

interesting resources I will not find in Spain. Yesterday I was looking around the library and

I borrowed a book “Vocabulary in use”, and it is divided in different topics. I am going to do

a quick revision on a particular theme every day, I will talk aloud at the bus stop while

waiting, and I will write down new words about that specific topic. Or even better, if there is

someone waiting for the bus I will try to start a conversation, this is what it is called “going

out of the comfort zone”. Maybe I wouldn’t do it in Madrid, I mean starting a conversation

with someone I don’t know, but if I am polite, I don’t think nothing wrong can happen.

Part Two

Today we have been working in groups about our language development project. We are

working on idioms and expressions British people use to talk about romantic love. As part

of the research we did a questionnaire to ask some people in the campus. At the beginning

it seemed an impossible mission because nobody was giving us appealing or new

information, also all students were busy and in a hurry to go to a lecture. In the end we

went into The Hub. We started to talk to one person and then two friends of that person

joined in. But in fact our questions turned into an interesting conversation. They gave us

really nice expressions; “lovey dovey” or “the third wheel” to mean the person who

interferes in a romantic relationship of two people. The expression is a metaphor based on

the romantic relationship seen as a bicycle, and that’s why the third wheel is left. I will

always remember that expression because I learnt it in a very natural context. I think it is

curious how the expressions we use reflect our culture, I will definitely write them down on

my language notebook.

Friday 23 rd October

Part oneAfter the lessons, this afternoon I wanted to go to the town centre and get something to

drink and reward myself for working hard along the week. I asked one of the Spanish

teachers to come with me and so we walked up to the High Street in Bognor. We had

some fun. We popped into some of the shops there, and then we bought something to

drink in the supermarket and a container with fruit to take away. We sat down on a bench

on the street and ate the pieces of fruit while we were chatting. Once we finished we

wanted to go into the shops again but we couldn’t because they were closing, it was half

past five. The next 15 minutes we could see how the street cleared out, so we carried on

walking to the nearest bus stop just around the corner. Unfortunately the streets were not

so lively as fourteen minutes ago, even if it was Friday. This situation made me felt a bit

down, because it reminded me of how a Friday after work is in Madrid for me. Compared

to Spain, and generally speaking I think British start the day very early, they get up earlier

than in Spain, and as a consequence they also end the day before we do. They normally

have dinner around half past six, while we normally have dinner around ten in Spain.

Part twoAfter dinner the man in my host family asked me if I wanted a cup of tea. I accepted and

so I headed to the kitchen to see how to make a tea British style. I had a very interesting

conversation with him. I enjoyed a lot and I leant because he made me repeat some words

he could not understand because of my Spanish pronunciation. The words I practised

were: pub, herbal tea, caffeine, weak tea and brew.

Saturday 24 th October

Part oneI visited Portsmouth today. I went on my own by train. When I got to Portsmouth Harbour I

started walking looking around because it seemed to me very lively. While I was walking I

met the Spanish teachers. First we went to the house where Charles Dickens was born,

the house is a museum but it was closed. Then we walked around the city centre to go up

to the Spinnaker Tower to see the Isle of Wight and the beautiful landscape. Suddenly it

started to rain so I decided not to go up to the Tower. We walked around the Millennium

Promenade but as it was also very windy we had a coffee in one of the coffee shops in the

outlet shopping centre. Later we also spent some time shopping there. At the end of the

day I was disappointed because I could not enjoy the city. There are some places I would

like to visit. Definitely I think I will come back, I would like to find out more about Dickens

birthplace for example and some of his work, it may help me to plan interesting activities

for my kids about English literature.

Part twoI have learnt something new about rubbish collection and recycling, my host family

explained to me how it works. I noticed British people are aware of the importance of

recycling and the commitment of separating food waste from plastic and paper. I was

explained that the Council gives each family the containers for rubbish and recycling.

Families must keep their own waste and rubbish in the garden till they are collected. I see

a lot of differences in contrast to Spain. In Spain some people do not respect the rubbish

collection times, and some people do not care and throw the rubbish away in the wrong

container or litter. As a result some streets get dirty, I have not seen this here, at least so

far.

Sunday 25 th October

Part oneThe Sun was shining and the sky was clear so it was a fantastic day to do something. I

went to Arundel with some Spanish teachers. First, we were walking around the town. After

that we enjoyed the walled gardens of the castle and the inside as well. The most

impressive part was walking around the Keep Tower, where we experienced how the

guard lived there and what he used to do to when there was a danger We visited the

cathedral and walked along the river promenade. While we were walking we saw a

beautiful basket full of golden apples with a sign saying “Help yourself”, suddenly we

thought of picking one up, when the owner came. He was so kind that made me feel so

lucky .He explained to us that he had just picked them off the tree, and that they were too

many for him and so he decided to share them. This was something I really appreciated. I

think kindness and politeness are part of British culture.

Part two

After dinner I talked to my host father. We were talking about animals that we may see in

the surroundings of our neighbourhood. Every day I can see a lot of squirrels which I love,

but today I was very surprised and I told him I had seen a fox on the way home. He didn’t

seem surprised at all, but as he understood I was a bit worried, he calmed me down telling

me they are harmless (as long as they don’t get into your house and you have young kids).

Monday 26 th October

Part one I have been told the name of the school where I am going to do my teaching practice. I am

very happy because it is just five minutes walking from home. It is a Junior School, Key

Stage two. I am not very familiar with this age, because mostly I have been working with

young kids, from five to eight, but I am still happy because since it is a challenge and I am

sure I am going to learn a lot. I have started to find out more about this school, I did some

research on the internet and I noticed I knew what I was reading, I mean, there were a lot

of acronyms, and terms that I have learnt in the lessons with Kathy and Simon last week. I

am excited about my school and I feel confident enough to start this new experience.

Part twoToday I was talking to my host mother I told her that I hadn’t seen a lot of students as

usual, after that I tried to remember the word “Half term” but I couldn’t. I felt so happy

because she understood what I meant even if I didn’t use those two words. I think it is a

good strategy to keep on talking despite the difficulties. Using a description of what you

want to say helps too.

She explained to me that there are three terms, autumn, spring and summer and that “Half

term” is a week for holiday at Primary, Secondary and at University. It is something that

doesn’t exist in Spain.