Risa Matsuoka

I lived in Palmerston North, New Zealand for one year and 9 months. I learned many things that I would never have learn't about in Japan.

I went to ETC Learning Centre for 22 weeks. I think the school was really good to me and I got score for my IELTS exam. They have a lot of good teachers, and administrators. You can ask anything you want they will help you and give you suggestions.

My class had 10-13 students. They came from China, Korea, Japan and Thailand. My teachers were really friendly and kind, so I could ask many things about how to improve my reading or how to write better stories. I talked about rugby games with my tutor ( I like ALL BLACKS )

The school had a lot of activities for example a sports day! (I played football and basketball with my classmates!) We went canoeing on a lake. We also went to a farm, made some Easter eggs, had a Christmas party and so on.

ETC arranged work experience for me at a small shop. I worked as a volunteer every Saturday or afternoon at the Trade Aid shop in Palmerston North for 6 months.

I truly enjoyed being a volunteer. My jobs were opening the shop and cashier, customer services, cleaning up the sop and closing the shop and counting the money. All the shop workers are volunteers. The aim of the shop is to help opoor people in other countries. The money from the sop goies back to the people who make the products in countries such as; Malaysia, Viet Nam, India, Korea and so on. I enjoyed communicating with customers but sometimes it was hard to understand what the customer wanted because if I've never the name of the product I couldn't find it, so another volunteer helped me alot. It was good opportunity to improve my English especially, speaking and listening skills.

I was glad to choose ETC because I was able to pass my English test. They also arranged for me to go to UCOL, the local Polytechenic school to study hospitality course. I gained a Certificate in Food and Beverage Services NZQA-level 3. Now I have a good job working in Japan but I miss my friends in New Zealand.