ranscript (if you click an underlined word its definition appears above ) 00:59 Michaela: Cambridge is a peaceful city.

And ahh, the people here are just lovely. I feel very secure here. 01:20 Local resident: Cambridge is very calm and it's ... I like it, it's lovely. It's very peaceful. 01:30 David: People from all over the world come here to learn English... also to do degrees. 01:41 Christina: There are a lot of English students because of Cambridge University but also a lot of international students so there is quite a good life for young people. 01:57 Christina: My name is Christina. I'm from Belgium and I'm 18 years old so I've just finished high school in June and I was quite confused about what I wanted to study this year so I decided to do a one-year programme, which is the foundation programme... but also to improve my English because when I came here it was not that good. 02:22 Michaela: My name is Michaela Schubert. I'm from Czech Republic. I spent here a year perfecting my English and to be honest really figuring out what I want to do with my life. And then I met my English boyfriend, decided to really stay and do all the things I wanted to do here - study in the university. I already knew what I wanted to do, so I'm studying film and media here in Cambridge. 02:51 Carolina: My name is Carolina Bley and I'm from Venezuela and basically I'm doing a foundation course and it's to study here in the UK. When my parents told me, "OK, would you like to go to a different country and learn English?" I said, "Yeah, why not?" They told me, "Well, why don't you go to Canada or America?" - 'cause you know it's quite near to Venezuela - and I said, "No, I would like to go over to England." "Really?" "Yeah, I would like to go to Cambridge." I don't know why, you know. It was like a feeling that I wanted to go there. And then when we were like deciding if it was better to stay in a homestay or in a residence, I said, "No, I think I would like to stay in a homestay," so I could practise with my housemum and my housedad and you know, meet a real family and how they live and everything. And I think I made the right choice. 03:51 Silvia: My name is Silvia. I come from Italy and we are in Cambridge now. I'm a homestay girl and ah, here in this house it's my first time but I went in Cambridge twice some years ago for the same reason - studying at school and homestay after. 04:12 Carol: Yes, it smells good! ...and? 04:18 Silvia: Carrots 04:20 Carol: ...and? 04:21 Silvia: Beans ...no, no?

04:23 Carol: Peas 04:25 Silvia: They give us everything - food, accommodation, laundry everything and conversation that is the most important part of our, of this homestay. And ahh... it's very nice, I mean it's the right thing to do to learn a language for me. 05:02 Question: What is homestay and how does it work? 05:09 James: Well, homestay is basically a language student coming to live with a British family, be integrated into the family, and immerse themselves in English to help them learn. The basic homestay booking would be on a half-board basis which is bed, breakfast and evening meal and the student would expect obviously their own room unless specified, in which case they may share with a friend in a twin-room basis. But they would expect obviously a bed, wardrobe, a desk, lighting, somewhere to work, and other extras may be Internet access via wi-fi. They would have access to laundry facilities and cooking facilities if they are booking on a self-catering basis. 06:00 Carolina: Well, in my homestay I had dinner, I have dinner with them every day at six, and also with the different students that are in the house as well. And every Thursday they wash my clothes, and they clean my room and actually because I've been in my homestay for a year and a half... yeah, I play squash with my housemum every Sunday and we enjoy different activities together. I've been in the birthday of their kids and everything so it's... now I'm really a member of the family. 06:38 Carol: Well, homestay is where you stay with an English family, and when I say an English family it encompasses all different nationalities that have become part of English life. And then you usually spend the morning at school, have the afternoon free and then in the evening there's always a meal ready for you, and we all sit at the table, talk about what you've done during the day, perhaps discuss different aspects of English life. 07:24 Christina: Hello. I would like to take my IELTS, but I don't know when the next available dates are. 07:30 Receptionist: Oh, OK. That's no problem. Here's a list of the next available IELTS dates in Cambridge. So for example, I think the next one is in... 07:42 Christina: I knew actually people who came here before to do the same programme as me and one of them told me about her homestay that was really good and she enjoyed a lot, so she recommended to me and the Bell School also recommended some good homestays. And so I chose to go in the one I'm here now because I knew how it would happen more or less, and also because we had a kitchen for the students, we had quite good things in this specific family, so... 08:25 Joy: Often, I understand, the students have known previous students who've been in our house, and so they... apparently, when they send an application in, or first make an enquiry

to the Bell School, they say "Does Mrs Kelly have a room?" Ahhh, and then the Bell School will phone me and ask if I have a room free, giving the dates, and it goes from there. 08:51 Christina: Hey Vanessa, can you tell Joy that we're not gonna eat home tonight? Because I booked in the usual for your birthday... 09:00 Christina: My homemother, she cooks every day and in the beginning I was a little afraid because of the stereotypes of English food, but ahhh... that's really not true because I have, I'm lucky. I expected bad food but I have good food. 09:49 Question: How does homestay help learners with their English? 09:57 James: I think it's that immersing themselves in English. You know, being in a British family that are speaking English all the time. Um, it's completely different to learning it in a classroom and perhaps speaking with somebody else who is also learning it. You're picking up, you know... that native language, basically. 10:21 Silvia: At school you learn grammar, you make exercise of listening comprehension, and so on. But then these things you have to practise, and the family is the way you can practise the language. You can learn when you get wrong, they can correct your mistakes, and so on. 10:48 Carol: Yes, I think if you stay in a student dormitory, umm... you're more likely to meet people of the same nationality and not practise your English as well as you would if you were at a homestay. When you're in a homestay, you have to speak English. 11:08 Christina: At school I'm really learning the grammar, vocabulary, the English language. But in my host family I have the chance to speak with them and to practise the English accent. And, I think by hearing them always speaking at dinner time, that helps me a lot to see how to speak, and I think by hearing a lot I learn also. 13:37 Joy: Often their accent needs encouragement and help and they're encouraged to listen a little bit so they can match our speech patterns for intonation. And this happens very much in the dining room, across the table, and the fact that my husband was a professor of linguistics, he can always give the reasons for things. Sometimes I think that the explanations are a little bit above the students, but they listen politely and some must go in. 12:10 Michaela: It was a whole family - mum, dad, and they had two kids - and I found it quite helpful that the children didn't speak such complicated language and they had many tools to learn to write and read because they go to school here very early, at the age of five, I believe. So, um always when I didn't know something they would draw me a picture of it and try to explain me, so once you get the word this way, you'll never forget it because you have the whole interaction, this whole experience wrapped around it, yes. So that was brilliant. I believe that it's doing these simple things with them, like to eat, to watch TV. You don't talk too much so you don't need to use that ah, too much language because you are just a

beginner. But even though if, if ... you don't realise it, but it all has an effect on you. You sleep on it and next day you feel... yeah, something got in, you know? 13:45 Question: What advice do you have for future homestay students? 13:53 David: I would advise, if you're looking for homestay, please tell the company, the school, us, as much information as possible what you're looking for. So then the service... we have to place you into a host family. If you tell us you want internet, you're allergic to certain, you know, to animals, we need to know as much information as possible so to make your experience perfect. 14:19 Carolina: Try to interact with them and be part of the family. Sometimes you have to also think that you are not in your country any more and you have to adapt to some situations and it's not gonna be the same food as your home or back in your country. It's not gonna be, you know... almost everything's gonna be different, so maybe you have to give a little bit of you and try to adapt to different situations, and enjoy the time, of course. 14:58 Silvia: Just not to be scared because the family know how to deal with you, and how to make you comfortable and so on. So there's no problem because they know how to, to make you... to feel you're at home. 15:19 Michaela: There are two things which ahh... which would be the worst and you need to find a balance in between. The worst thing is to be too shy yeah, and the other thing is to be too arrogant. Nothing will get, nothing will get you anywhere. So you need to find the balance somewhere in between and find your confidence. And take the dictionary, have it always in your pocket. Whatever you see, translate. Try to interact with the people, you know. And... and live it. Don't come here, don't bring your world with you here, and don't continue living in your, in your... you know, culture and everything. You need to open for it, and then it all comes to you and you will find it easier and easier to learn the language. 16:09 Joy: It's going to be a great experience, not only in terms of learning English, but in learning about life. Because you will encounter many different views of life, many different styles amongst the students that you hadn't realised could exist before. So you don't only come to learn English, you come to learn about how people live in the rest of the w