Testing our products (methods, exercises and materials for English classes) we asked seniors taking part in our activities to share their opinions and comments with us. Here you can read what they think about our proposed English lessons and our project.
Hungarian students’ comments:
“The lessons were all really interesting though sometimes even a big challenge for me. I like acting out situations, so I especially liked the tasks where I had to be creative and improvise.”
“I enjoyed the dialogues most. They were not typical dialogues but made us think. And there were good expressions that we can use in real life.”
“I liked the discussion activities where we could practise both words and expressions, and grammatical structures too. The context was really interesting too.”
“Listening to music and trying to understand the lyrics makes me always happy. I am usually quite tired after a busy working day when we have „FUNglish” meetings on Friday evenings but being with friends, doing enjoyable and funny activities in English, and singing a good song together always make me forget about my problems or tiredness.”
“My favourite task was when I had to work with slices of paper that I had to put in the correct order to form a coherent text. Also, the pictures we used were really nice and could help us to come up with ideas to talk about the topic. We laughed a lot too because there are very nice and funny people in our English group.”
“Most of the tasks were quite new to me and I enjoyed them very much. The topics were inspiring and made everybody actively participate in the discussions.”
Italian students’ comments:
“It was very funny to work in teams like in a competition. At the beginning I thought I didn't know any words but then I discovered I knew many of them!”
“It was very funny! Even if I am not good at singing and I am shy, in group it was much easier.”
“The song was catchy and easy to follow. I learned a lot of new words. I would have liked to sing more than twice. Just when we were starting to sing better, the lesson was over!”
“I am an awful singer and I just pretended to sing during the exercise!”
“I had the chance to know better my class-mates.”
“I like readings about travelling and journeys because they make me dream!’
“In this role play we learned how to complain in practical situations that we might have to face in everyday life so I think it was very useful.”
“It was extremely funny and dynamic. I wish I had had more time to talk to my partners. When the conversation started to flow smoothly the bell rang and it was time to change!”
“It was very original. I couldn't imagine that we could do that during our English lesson.”
“Original and team building. It helped us break the ice (we sometimes copied from each other when we didn't understand what we had to do!) and we really had good time.”
“After this activity I learned an incredible number of words and verbs. We should repeat it with other topics. You learn while you play, and I think that when you are relaxed and without stress you learn better.”
“Very original activity. We should do it more often. We students are obliged to listen carefully to the teacher and we can't have distractions otherwise we lose the game!”
“It was funny, we could work in couples so we were less tense and more relaxed, we found a lot of new words that would have been useful during the lesson.”
“Not only did I like the food tasting and the recipe presentations, but I also appreciated the personal stories and memories that were behind every dish presented.”
Polish students’ comments:
“I like the project very much. It shows how much can still be done in adult education.”
“I think that adult education is very important - we still want to learn all the time!!”
“English language is so important nowadays, I can find it everywhere I go. In shops, at the station, at the airport, in my computer - everywhere! So I need to learn, and I need teachers that know how to teach me.”
“I am a teacher myself and I can see how important your project is. It is good to find out about new ideas and new materials, well done!!”
“Seniors have a lot of experience and a lot of passion to learn. I wanted to learn English all my life, but I never had an opportunity. Now I travel a lot and I need English more than before. I support all ideas that are making English more achievable to seniors.”
“I think that it is fantastic that learning English became an international issue, and that different teachers from different countries work together to improve teaching that language. I can't wait for thefinal products.”
“I follow your blog and I can see that you work and you have a lot of fun the same time. Is it true? If so I think that it is great that you can mix work and fun - it usually gives the best results.”
“I like the fact that at the end of your project there are going to be products, something that you can touch, that you can use, something real. It is very exciting.”
“I found your project very inspiring - your work looks very creative. I have my fingers crossed for the final result.”
“I like that teachers and educators from different countries exchange experience in the project - I think that in many other areas a policy like that would be very fruitful. It's good to talk, discuss and share opinions, and I see that you do a lot of that in the project. I like it a lot.”