SGI Student Podcast

It is a selection of ideas gathered by students themselves over five days. “We made it for anyone who is interested in our classes, as an exercise to learn English and a souvenir to show our friends and family.”

There are 7 parts:

• Recommendations in London
• Interview with an interesting SGI student
• A translated joke from Russia
• Strange UK
• Grammar in under two minutes “used to”
• The news
• “Call my Slang”, a game show involving colloquial phrases

Please let us know your feelings about this podcast so that the next students can improve on it (if possible).

Well the first thing to say is that SGI has a remarkable spread of students from across the globe. SGI students come from everywhere! So far this year, we have welcomed through our doors, a staggering 63 different nationalities! So, with some justification SGI can truly claim to be an international language school with a great international mix of students.

There are of course some nationalities and countries which are better represented than others. As you might expect, ‘local’ Europe makes a good showing with particularly good numbers from France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Other European countries well- represented are Russia, Poland, Switzerland, Portugal and the Ukraine. Outside Europe, the highest ranking student numbers come from Japan, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and China.

So, How do they get here?…..

Well, living in the internet age as we do, an increasing number of students are booking directly through one of our websites, either using our main English language site or one of the many local language websites we now have. Obviously it has proven to be a great help for people to be able to book a course in their first language….we currently have translated sites in Italian, German, Arabic, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Korean, French, Chinese, Turkish and Japanese.

After an internet search, the next highest source of students comes through personal recommendation. Obviously, this is very satisfying for us here at SGI, if ex-students are recommending us in good numbers then that means we are providing a good service.

Of course, we still have a good number of students that come through the more traditional source of overseas agents. Particularly popular with Asian and South American markets, agents provide a local point of contact for students, very often on a face-to-face level and understandably this remains a great source of reassurance for those a little nervous about taking a language course far from home.

Finally, what else can you tell us about the students….?

Well the truth is, the SGI student profile is incredibly varied at the school and I think this is because we offer such an incredibly extensive range of courses. From study holidays to serious academic courses, from intensive immersion one-to-one courses to twice a week part-time evening courses, the range of classes offered is really quite exceptional and so people attending courses at SGI come from all walks of life, from recent graduates to senior managers the mix is incredible!