Kings London

Hi Oleksii. What are you studying at Kings? I'm studying Business, Economics and Maths, and my favourite subject is Business.What are your plans for university? For university my favourite choice is Bath and I'm planning to go to the Business course. And after graduation I'm planning to find out a job and even during studying for university I'm planning to find a job possibly, or even to create my own business. Also I'm planning to join Student Council and be president at university too.What made you decide to come to Kings and to do the course you're doing? Perhaps the main reason of course is that Kings has many good positive recommendations I think, also Kings is located in London and also in the exactly British area — for example I had the choice to go to centre of London, then I realised if I'll be there people are not all English but I came to England only to study English. And also I just like this place, Beckenham. I've been here for many times because I had a friend nearby, from my previous summer school.How is your course going? It's going fine, I wouldn't say it's extremely difficult for me but at the same time all students have to understand that they are coming here not just to relax but to study so it's obvious that you will meet difficulties with it. It's not so difficult but if you leave your tasks that you need to do now for the future, in the end you'll have a big problem with it.Do you feel you've had to learn time management with the course? Yes of course, you're becoming self-organised and more responsible for all you do.Where are you staying here? Are you happy in your accommodation? I'm completely happy staying with my host family because first of all it's close to here, about five minutes by walk, and also my host parents they are native English, and I like to speak with them. Each day, when we are having a dinner we speak about different things, even politics, even if I don't know about it at all. I really like it.Have you taken part in any extracurricular activities at Kings? If you have, what have been the highlights? Perhaps my biggest achievement here was help to organise the Halloween party. I have joined many clubs. Firstly Kings Enterprise, it's obvious because I'm studying Business here. Second one is basketball, to have another for forgetting [about school work], to relax. Third club is Global Citizenship, it's about volunteering and I'm glad to help poor children from poor countries. Fourth club is debating, we debate about different topics, and we have sometimes really 'hard' topics, everybody takes part and we argue for one hour or longer. Each clubs are interesting here, amazing.What about the Student Council? I'm a Head Boy, but I would like to be called the President because it sounds cooler! As I'm Head Boy I'm responsible for Student Council, not like for each pupil here but I'm responsible for well-being of students. Any issues they have are passed on to the staff. Have you made any friends? The interesting thing about Kings London is that you make friends here easily. When I came here the first day I wouldn't say that I felt shy, but when I saw everybody's eyes I realised that they're really good guys. Here everybody is so friendly and polite I have many friends, but surprisingly I have no friend from my own country. On the one hand it's really good for me because it can help my English skills, but on the other hand sometimes you want to speak your native language, but I can't unfortunately. There is only one other who speaks Russian, from Kazakhstan. I expected it would be more.What do you think about the school's location in Beckenham? Do you spend much time in central London? Actually that's quite interesting question. Beckenham is the ideal place if you want to increase your English because everybody here is English. If you want to relax or go shopping of course you go to central London, but Beckenham is an ideal place for the school because school was built to practise your English language. And that place where everybody's English is just amazing, is perfect for you.What is the main difference between Kings London and the school you went to in your home country? The thing that I thought first time was that it was quite smaller than my school! That was 600–700 students, but here about 200 or 300, I haven't counted.The main thing that I see is that here we have clubs, and unfortunately in my school I hadn't any clubs. And also teachers will not tell you off because you are late or absent from class — you are responsible for your own life. But when you are in your school in your country, teachers tell you off for being late and so on. There is more freedom to take responsibility for your education [at Kings]. Class sizes are very good, they are very comparable and convenient, there are about 8 or in my class I have maximum about 15 students. In my school, I had approximately 40 students and nobody could raise their hand because there were so many opinions in one place, and very difficult to say your own opinion. But here you can express what you think. Teachers compared to my country are more friendly here, and they really want you to study here and to share with them your own opinion, they want you to take part in conversations, in discussions, in different things and it's a really positive thing in this school.What would you say to anyone considering coming to Kings to study? First of all, it isn't as difficult as you expect, but at the same time you shouldn't give up the first day. If you have to catch up with school work you will definitely meet here new friends, you won't be here alone, teachers will help you. Everything is fine, the thing is that if you want to study in England or in London, you have to realise that you are coming here to enhance your English and knowledge, not for relaxing. But at the same time you can go to the centre of London by bus, by train, everything is close here and in general I'm definitely sure that you will like this place in your year.