new – international students

Last Friday (9th November ‘07) we filmed three of our presenters! We filmed Robert, speaking Luganda; Soraya, speaking Spanish; and Marla speaking Arabic. The plan for filming was adjusted slightly, instead of having each presenter read the script in English, and another language we had them only read it in one language and we will have another ‘english’ presenter.

Today, Wednesday 07 Nov ‘07 two students were filmed: a ugandan girl, and a hong kong boy, who are housemates. They may not be actual ‘presenters’ in the pack but their footage will also be used in some way. The students who were filmed were: Jojo (Uganda) and Trevor (Hong Kong) and it was taken in only one language, English. Trevor also spoke other languages but was uncomfortable to be filmed speaking them. Jojo wanted a copy of the scripted topics so that she could translate it and be filmed presenting it in Kinwarwanda. Yes!

Today we got a green screen room booking! Yay!

The room is booked for us Wednesday, 07 Nov ‘07, and Friday, 09 Nov’07. Hopefully we will be able to book the rooms at this time for the rest of the term, or at least for as long as we need to keep filming.

Next step is to get students to agree to participate in the filming. To date we have:

1 Ugandan student (english)

1 French student (english, french)

1 Jordanian student (english, arabic, spanish)

Introduction

Hi I am [Name]. I am from [Country]. I am a [#] year student doing [course.] [Mention experience so far.]

Finances

The university website has many useful tips on keeping a budget and the range of costs you can be expected to pay in a week for things like socialising, eating, accomodation, etc. What you spend depends a lot on you. You should think about whether or not you need to get a job to help supplement your income. 

Almost all students open a bank account while they are studying in the UK. If you would prefer to continue using an account you opened at home, find out whether the bank will charge you when using your card abroad.

Another important thing to note before you leave is the exchange rate of your currency against the pound. It may sound tedious but it important to come prepared.

 Social Life

A lot of people think Canterbury is dead. Thankfully this is not the case, there is a lot to do on campus and off campus. There are a lot of great restaurants, clubs, pubs and if your are interested there is also a lot of historical and cultural places you can visit.

Here are some of the restaurants you might want to try out.

Here are some of the popular clubs.

Here are some of the pubs in Canterbury.

Here are some of the historical or cultural places you might like to visit.

If you do want to try something outside Canterbury, its very easy to get a bus, couch or train to places like, Dover, Broadstairs, Whitsable or of course London. The biggest mall in Europe, Bluewaters, is only an hour away on the couch. Here are some of the places outside Canterbury you might want to visit.

Academics

An obvious reason people come to university is to get an education and leave with something new to add to their CV. There are a lot of facilities on campus to help you accomplish this for example the Templeman Library and the many computing laboratories available around campus which have programs specific to your course. There are several people available to help you including, mentors and tutors for some courses and the Help Centre is available to everyone.

Campus

There are lot of things to do on campus. If you are living on campus, you don’t always need to go to town to shop. There are bars in the colleges and at least one bar is open throughout the vacation. There is a general convenience store on central campus, a small shop in Eliot College open from 0800-1500 on weekdays and a mini super market in Park Wood. There is also a Blackwells bookshop with a wide range of both fiction and non-fiction books and a range of cards and gifts. If want a quick snack there are vending machines at every turn. NatWest and Barclays Bank both have branches on campus, with 24hr cash dispensers.  Newspapers, fax and photocopying facilities are available in the College Receptions.

When you do need to get off campus there are regular bus services to the centre of the town, Whitstable, Hales Place and other locations.