大象传媒

2007年7月25日 格林尼治标准时间10:26更新

A Chinese Student In Leeds 利兹大学的一名中国留学生

大象传媒 Learning English is running a series of student diaries in which Chinese students living in Britain write about their experiences in this country. Our first student is May Han Hong who is studying in Leeds, a city in the north of England.

I spent my first month in Leeds at a beautiful art deco style 装饰艺术风格 hotel in the city centre.

What luxury! (My husband's company were paying – not me - he he… ) I lived in this hotel with my husband for a month. My daughter, Jing Wei, was still in China at that time.

I will never forget the wonderful food I ate at the hotel, especially the English cooked breakfast.

It was like being on holiday. I didn't have to clean or cook or even make my own bed. It was very useful though because it allowed me to 'find my feet' 适应新环境 in a new country and gave me spare time to organise my new life

My house 我的房子

But 'all good things come to an end' 好景不长, as they say, so after one month we moved into a two bedroom rented terraced house 排房 quite near Leeds University.

In China we lived in a small apartment. Here in Leeds we have a four story house. It is fully furnished 家具齐全的 with good quality furniture including electrical appliances but we had to buy things like towels and kitchen stuff like cups and plates.

My favourite room is my bedroom. It's in the attic 阁楼 and has a skylight 天窗 – something I've never seen in China. I can sit in bed and look at the stars on a clear night.

My university time 我的大学生活

I decided to spend some of my time in the UK improving my qualifications 资格 rather than just sitting around being a 'lady of leisure' 闲妻靓母.

I enjoy being back at university studying after so many years working.

The School of Education at The University of Leeds has an excellent reputation. It's ranked 排名 one of the top five or six in the UK.

The tutors are easy-going 随和的 and approachable but very professional. They set high standards that they expect me to meet. They always have time to answer my questions.

Student life at the Leeds School of Education is always enjoyable. I've attended many well organized events including a Greek night, a trip to the Peak and Lake District in England, a Christmas party etc.

I thought it would be 'a piece of cake' 轻而易举/小事一桩 to get a Masters degree. I only had to complete four modules 科目 of work. I was wrong! My problems began when I had to write assignments 作业. The University has very strict rules about writing structures for assignments. I also have to provide a detailed list of all the sources 资料 I've used. The tutors check all essays thoroughly for plagiarism 剽窃/抄袭 too.

I've learnt through experience that it's no good leaving everything to the last minute. It's best to start an assignment early then when I have the first draft 第一份草稿, pass it to my tutor for feedback then I work on it again to improve the content. I keep in regular contact with my tutor too and that's been very helpful.

Springtime in Leeds 利兹的春天

I often walk though Leeds Hyde Park on my way to the University. There's a Hyde Park it seems in nearly every UK city.

Soon after I arrived in the UK, the spring flowers began coming out. The yellow daffodils 水仙花 were particularly beautiful.

I enjoyed some wonderful sunny spring days in this park. I love the variety of flowers in Hyde Park and the lovely green grass.

Summer floods 夏季洪水

While spring here was sunny, we've had bad floods 洪水during June and July. The towns around Leeds have been badly affected. The rain has just kept on bucketing down 大雨倾盆. We've had flash floods 暴洪. My house hasn't been flooded but many people are still homeless.

Travelling around 四周游览

A wonderful thing about Leeds is that it's a fairly small city and it's surrounded by countryside. We have a car and we like to drive into the countryside around Leeds during the weekend.

I hope to go on a trip to Europe in August because these countries are so close and it's possible to get cheap flights from the UK if you look around on the internet. There are so many things I would like to do during my time here in the UK – but so little time…

Your comments 你的评论

I hope you feel better now in England. My name is Xing Xiang (That is my Chinese name). I am a Vietnamese. I am learning Chinese. I love Chinese and China very much. I lived in China (Shen Yang and Nan Ning) to study, 4 years ago. When I just went to China, my feel the same to you. So I know how do you feel. But everything will be fine. Now, I live in Hanoi with my husband and my son. My son is one year old. I was learning English 1 year, so my English is not good now.
Chen Xing Xiang, Hanoi, Vietnam

Dear May, Many thanks for your valuable suggestions. I will do as you tell me to do. I will make great efforts to create opportunities to improve my speaking and listening.

On the other hand, I have another question. Can I enhance my speaking by doing more writing?

Once a British English teaching expert told us: “The more you read, the better you will write. The more you write, the better you will speak.”

What do you think of this point of view? Please give my best regards to your family. Thanks for 大象传媒 Learning English website! Yours sincerely,
Yanfei, Shanxi province, China

Hi, May, Thanks for your answer. I am studying in foundation year just in Leeds. I have joined IELTS for 2 times without much success in China, so i am studying in the language centre in Leeds Uni. I am not so confident in taking my next IELTS. Can you help me?
Anon, China

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