God Save the Queen…

Just out of curiosity, I did a quick survey of my English class the other day, with the intention of finding out the first impressions of my students on arrival to Cambridge and the UK. I’ve been teaching English in Cambridge for a number of years now, and I’m always interested to find out why my students wish to learn English, what has brought them to England, and what they think of it at the beginning and end of their visit!

Apart from the usual conversation we have about British food, and the love or hate reaction that it prompts or provokes in the majority of students, there were some usual points raised. Ever since the release of the Harry Potter films, I always get at least one student in the class who compares their arrival to the movie, and describes how they’ve arrived at King’s Cross Station expecting to see owls, wizards, broomsticks or the magical platform nine and three-quarters. Yet when I posed my questions to my current class, I had a few surprising answers this time around.

One student replied that he had intended to study English Canada, however over the course of a few months spent living with an ailing grandmother, he had developed such an addiction to the popular and long-running British TV police series, The Bill, that he changed his travel plans and came to study in England instead. How the grandmother had discovered The Bill in the Ukraine, I’ll never know, but I’m always glad to have students who come from all over the world to English courses England, no matter their motivations!

There was another strange answer too, from a particular student who wanted to learn the words to ‘God Save the Queen.’ When I pointed out that it was possible to just search for the song and find out the lyrics online, my student just shrugged and replied that it wasn’t half as fun as finding out in a real-life context. Like I said, no matter the motivation, I’m glad to have them in my class. The rest of the students taking the course intend to sit an English Cambridge exam, or are attending for greater career and education prospects either back in their home countries or in the United Kingdom.

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