It's China Time again!

I'm heading off for China again in the morning, 12 days on the road and many miles to travel ( that sounds like a song).

As usual it's going to be a pretty busy trip with a number of important meetings and visits etc.

The main purpose is to visit Harbin University of Engineering Technology as part of a Due Diligence visit to assess the potential for delivering Swansea University Engineering modules in Harbin using "flying faculty" from Swansea. Colleagues from The School of Engineering will be looking at policies, procedures etc for delivery of the subject area and as the first year of a 4 year programme will be English language based, my colleague Liz Stratton and I will be looking at the quality of current English language provision and making recommendations for going forward with the project.

Following Harbin Liz and I will be visiting agents in Beijing, Beijing City University to meet students, and Beijing Foreign Language University to discuss delivering English language programmes there.

Then we're off to Chongqing to meet with the British Council, Chomgqing University of Technology and Chongqing Medical University to meet potential students and give some presentations.

The last leg will be a visit tI Zhuzhou City to meet up with colleagues and friends in the Education Bureau and Hunan Yandi Institute.

This will be my first trip for a long time where I am with a colleague for the duration and as Liz has not been to China before I am looking forward to watching her experience the wonderfully diverse and vast country for the first time.

I think I'll be updating this blog quite regularly!

Chilly China Visit on the Cards

Preparations are well underway for another visit to China. 12 days 5 cities. Starting off in Harbin as part of a due diligence visit with colleagues from the College of Engineering.

 It's chilly enough there (-28c!) to have an annual snow and ice festival.

Visits to Beijing, Chongqing, Changsha and Zhuzhou City also included in this visit, we're going to cover a distance of around 3,000 miles on internal travel alone!! That's close to 13,000 miles in 12 days including return flights.

I'm sure there'll be some tales to tell along the way.

Lost in translation

Classic miscommunication error tonight! 

I was taken out to dinner by my excellent hosts from Chongqing University of Technology to a buffet restaurant, approx 100 dishes not including seafood which was in the other room. 

Everything looked amazing, so I followed one of the group around as nothing was labelled in English. She chose nice looking dishes so I copied, At one cauldron I loaded a large ladle of meaty casserole onto my dish and she said "oh no you won't like that it's duck meat", I said I love duck and carried on. 

At the end of that course the head of the table said " Kevin you are truly international!" I graciously thanked him for the compliment and asked why. He "replied our western guests always refuse to eat dog!" At which point the young lady who tried to warn me off said " oh yes dog, I thought I used the wrong word, not duck , dog!" 

It was delicious so I tried to act like I wasn't surprised! ( Sorry Rog I ate one of your relatives!

Here I go again!

Currently sitting in Heathrow departure longe waiting for my delayed flight to Hong Kong.

Oh the glamourous life I lead! Up at 03.00 this morning to gt a 04.10 coach from Swansea to Heathrow, you know you're part of the jet set when sat in a freezing cold town centre bus station, chatting to some poor guy who uses the place as his house most nights of the week!

I'm off on a short trip to China as you may have guessed, I'll arrive in Chongqing some time today or tomorrow depending on my body clock's view of the time zone, then into meetings for a day or two before flying on to Zhuzhou City on the weekend.

I should be home more or less this time next week, give or take an hour or twelve!

I shall update as I venture forth.. what new experiences lie in wait?

Well, That Went Really Well!

What a great day the LEW Conference turned out to be! (I'm not as surprised as I sound here, I know who put the work in to ensure the success.)

We welcomed over 115 delegates from all over Wales to the Emily Phipps Building for the day on Saturday 10^th November.

This was the first event of its kind, and feedback from all participants indicated an overwhelming view that it was long overdue.

Here is a Wordle image describing the feedback, the largest adjectives indicate the most commonly used in feedback.

The highlight being the Plenary Lecture from David Crystal, even though Mr Crystal couldn't attend in person due to a family crisis we were extremely grateful that he gave up some of his precious family time to deliver, via Skype. 

David Crystal via Norway on Skype

Audience enthralled by David Crystal

 Isn't technology marvellous? (Not without its issues however!)

Martin Hewings’ workshop on Best Practice in EAP Writing, went down really well also and gave an excellent insight into the requirements for delivering this kind of programme.

Martin Hewings

ELTS was very well represented in the other presentations (3 out or 12) with:

• ·         Neil Harris discussing the need to meet student needs and expectations in terms of IELTS preparation and the need for English for Academic Purposes,
• ·         Liz Stratton describing English for Specific Academic Purposes Presessional development
• ·         Jon Lishman showcasing ELTS' plans and developments in Curriculum Mapping, and Assessment and Feedback. These developments were described as “Jaw dropping” by more than one delegate.    

Sandy George also presented her SALT award winning poster on Portfolio Based Assessment, again causing much interest from delegates.

Assessment for Learning

Colleagues from Cambridge ESOL and Cambridge University Press were also delighted with the event and delegates took great pleasure in clearing out the selection of free publications.

Overall an excellent day for Learn English in Wales, ELTS and Swansea University, I have to thank all involved in the organisation of the day and especially the amazing team of people at English Language Training Services.

Learn English in Wales Conference Tomorrow

A BIG day for us tomorrow, ELTS is looking forward to welcoming around 130 delegates from all over Wales to the Promoting Best Practice in English Language Learning and Teaching Conference.

Preparations haven't been without their challenges and sadly David Crystal is unable to attend due to personal issues but he is will be delivering his plenary address via Skype.

The presentations from our other guests cover a interesting and varied range of topics that are current themes  within the field.

We'll be taking photos and videos of the day, and I'll be updating here.

Back to the preparations.

Conference Advertising

Cambridge University Press are now advertising the event too.