My name is Karoline Kullik and I am from Germany. I originally came to Vancouver to attend a World Model United Nations for students.

Because I wanted to stay at least one month in Vancouver I decided to sign up for a language course. Through a search on the internet and with the help of a German agency I found SEC. My time at SEC Vancouver was really great. Right from the beginning everyone working there tried to help me whenever help was needed and they were friendly and made conversation all the time. They helped me patiently to find the perfect course that matches my English knowledge, and my teacher trained and motivated us everyday. Even though I only spent two weeks at SEC I got to know a lot of other students and I improved my writing and listening skills immensely. I do not regret my short stay at SEC and I will perhaps return to prepare for my admission test for university.

My name is Jessica and I am from Switzerland. I have been in Vancouver for three months.

I chose SEC Vancouver because my agent recommended it. I had a really good time here. My homestay family was great and I felt very at home. I enjoyed the classes because the teachers are really great, they do their best to teach you. I made a lot of new friends from all over the world. I will never forget my time at SEC Vancouver! During my time here my English got better and better. Thank you SEC, it was a great time!

I have been at SEC for 5 months and I’m going to stay here for 3 more months. In the school I met a lot of people from all over the world. It is very interesting to learn about different cultures and all the staff of SEC are very kind, friendly and helpful. I took different classes at SEC, I took the general English program that includes grammar, speaking, listening and writing and other courses such as Customer Service Protocol and English Methodology for Children. In Toronto there are so many activities to do, such as visiting CN Tower, Toronto Island, Museums, Restaurants, Pubs, Night Clubs, Shopping Malls and on the weekend trips to other places such as French Canada, New York and much more. I’m sure you’d enjoy your time here. I will always remember my school SEC because here, I have improved my English a lot and enjoy all of my time. I’m sure that this experience will help me in my future

I studied at SEC Vancouver for 2 months this year. The first thing I noticed about SEC was how everyone from different countries ate lunch together and wanted to be friends. It was good to meet people from other countries like Brazil and Mexico and Korea and Japan. I studied English and started in the beginner class. My teachers Keely and Elizabeth and Cathy helped me and now I feel I can speak English strongly. I had lots of fun on activities with students and staff. SEC nights were always good. I recommend SEC for anyone. Everyone cared and if I ever had a problem the staff was there to help me out. I really want to thank Nora and Todd for their help while I was in Vancouver.

I have been at SEC for 3 months and I’m going to stay here for almost 1 year. When I arrive to Toronto I couldn’t understand native speakers and I had a problem with speaking. I took the General English Program which includes grammar lessons, speaking, listening and writing. I started in level 3 and my English is getting better every week. All classes are organized well and teachers are very friendly.

In the school I met a lot of people from all over the world. It’s very interesting to learn about different cultures, customs, and life styles. There are a lot of activities after school (visiting famous places, museums and bars) and great trips to other cities during weekends. All the staff of SEC are very kind, patient, and helpful. With them you can solve problems easily. Toronto is a very multicultural city and everyone can feel right at home. Spending time in Toronto is amazing and I enjoy every minute in this beautiful and the biggest city in Canada. From not being able to speak a complete sentence to entering the university with high-enough IELTS score, the seven-month English study in SEC has made me deeply impressed with strong feelings.

I still remember the first day when I came here, I could not even ask the way where I was going in English. I was extremely worried and really had no idea how to start with. But after learning English in SEC for some time, I was able to communicate simply with others. In SEC, everyone, from students to teachers, was very friendly and tried their efforts to help me, which made me more determined to study hard in a bid to improve my English.

I started with ESL level 3 in SEC, and every week we would have a quiz. Actually speaking I was very scared of any test before, but since I came here, I have not only been relaxed with the weekly test but also an expectation for it because the test is a kind of ruler to measure the progress I have made. Time flies, I completed my Level 6, and based on my original plan, I would go to University at this time. But I found that I was reluctant to leave SEC not only because the friendship with students and teachers but also the further improvement of my English that SEC will bring to me. So I decided to stay here for another session. After one more week of ESL, I entered into IELTS EAP pathway program, which is a real challenge for me because EAP and ESL have a fundamental difference. I spent two weeks to get used to it, which I considered as another success. During this seven-month period, I have got so many helps and encouragement from teachers and students. I have learned a lot and become more confident as well. I am very grateful to SEC teachers and students who helped me to attain my goal, and if I have the chance to be back to Vancouver someday in the future, I will come to visit SEC because my study in SEC is the turning point in my life and I will miss everything there.

I studied in Calgary, Alberta before coming to SEC Toronto. I really like SEC. I enjoyed SEC more than my studies in Calgary. The teachers were very good and they helped to correct me when I made a mistake. They made me feel very motivated to study. I liked the daily exercises that they gave me. I feel like I learned a lot in my classes and they helped me to prepare for my placement.

I made a lot of international friends while I was studying at SEC. This helped me to practice my English. I stayed in a homestay which also helped me to improve my English skills. The homestay coordinator at SEC was very helpful to me and always gave me very good support. I worked at Sammy’s Restaurant in Toronto. Working has made me learn a lot. I learned how to live in Canada, and how to be responsible. Working has helped me to be confident when I am speaking English. At Sammy’s Restaurant I had to be a cashier so I spoke to a lot of customers everyday. This made me improve my speaking skills a lot. Actually, I learned how to be a multitasker at work. I was a cashier, I refilled the coffee and tea, and I helped to keep the area clean. I learned a lot about myself. I feel like working at Sammy’s Restaurant was a very good experience for me. I never imagined working in that type of job before. I am leaning to be organized, and responsible. I have to be on time for work everyday at 6:30am! I have improved my speaking and my listening a lot. I have to work with people everyday. I am meeting people from all over the world. I think that the EWP Program is a really good program because I learned how to speak English and then I learned how to live in the Canadian culture by my work placement experience.

I began studying IELTS in SEC from May 25th. I had never studied IELTS before but I needed an IELTS score to go to college, so I decided to study IELTS in SEC.

I learned Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking module of IELTS from Graham for 5 hours from Monday to Friday.

In my case, I am poor at Listening and Writing. However I could improve my listening skill by Graham’s teaching. I could listen to Graham’s lecture like college lecture everyday. Therefore I am used to listen to native English speaking. Graham revised my writing almost everyday. It was really good for me because I could reduce my mistakes. Especially, I could improve IELTS by practical tests which I wrote every Friday. Actually it was pressure for me when I took speaking test from Graham but it was really good practice for real test. Finally I got Over band score 6.0 since I studied IELTS in SEC for 7 weeks. Listening 6.0 , Reading 6.5 , Writing 5.5 , Speaking 5.5

I had a great time in business protocol course. At first I didn’t think that I take this course but I learned about Business English through BEC course in SEC before and it caused me to take a Business Protocol which means I became interested in Business English more. And I heard that this course is a little difficult because there are few Asians and many international students in Business Protocol. I thought that this is a chance to speak English with international students more and I need to have confidence, for I’m shy and if I talk something in front of people or strangers, I am so nervous that I have difficulty expressing my opinion even though my first language, Japanese, so I decided to take this course and I tried to change my shy character.

In this course, I could learn many kinds of things such as a job interview, how to make resume, how we can be successful in business, and especially how to do presentation in front of lots of people. In my case, as I mentioned earlier, I’m shy though through presentation every 2 weeks, I got confident to speak English in public. Also I could learn not only how I can grab attention of audiences such as a business thing but also how to communicate with international classmates, which means we did every presentations with group so we needed to talk about it and cooperate each other, however, sometimes there were problems with them because of different opinions, different perspectives and among other things. At that time I felt difficulty of making our presentation with a group and I was state in panic in my first day, but when we talked our culture each other and spending a lot of time together, we were beginning to understand us each other and we got along before we knew it.

In the last day, we had a big presentation and many SEC students came to our presentation. I was so nervous but I believed in my partner and myself because we practiced a lot until we were satisfied. I cannot forget that satisfaction of finishing our presentation. I was full of achievement. I felt this class was so nice and I made a good decision to take this course all over again.

And when this course was finished, my classmates told me that you are not shy anymore and they talked to me my first impression and how I changed. I was so happy to hear that and I achieved my goal in this course. At the same time, I felt sad and felt like crying for the thought of not being able to take this course again with same members. I like this course, SEC teachers and my classmates.

Thanks to my fabulous teachers and classmates, I had a great time with them and I could learn a lot of things. I’m sure that this experience will lead me to a good direction and when I look for a job in Japan, the knowledge that I learnt here could be useful in near my future. Thank you so much.