July 2008

June 2008

The results are in!  All students who took the IELTS test did really well, and the top student in the class was Kayo, with a score of 7.5!  We are proud of all the students who took IELTS. 

As they say on TV, "In other news" the snow is falling in the mountains, and it looks like we will have a great ski/snowboard season.  No snow falls in Mount Maunganui though, even though we have a small mountain.  Nope, to ski or snowboard we have to drive down to Mount Ruapehu, about 3 hours from here.  Two of our staff members, Carol and Jackie took a group of students there recently on a hiking trip.  Unfortunately it rained quite a lot, but it also snowed, which was great because 2 students had never seen snow before! 

Sam from Saudi Arabia                  Carol keeping warm                       Jackie's happy to see the sun

We have passed the shortest day of the year for the Southern Hemisphere, which was 21 June.  If you live in the North then you had the longest day, so we hope it was nice and warm!  Even though it was short here in NZ it was a beautiful day, what we call a "cracker" in New Zealand.  Next time you are talking to someone about the weather, why not try using this expression?

You:        Hey Brian, it's a cracker day, let's go fo a surf!

Brian:      Well I would, but I'm actually a dog, so I can't.  In fact I shouldn't really even be speaking. 

You:        Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that.  Well, see you later!

Brian:      Woof!

May 2008

Where is the time going?  It's May already!  Our exam students are counting down the days until their IELTS and Cambridge exams, and we are sure they will do well.  Other students are completing their Working Holiday English courses and have found jobs working in the Kiwifruit industry.  Did you know that 77% of New Zealand's kiwifruit comes from our region?  That' s a lot of fruit!  All that fruit needs a lot of workers, so if you are thinking of a working holiday in New Zealand, talk to us!  We'll help you improve your English and find a job with confidence!  To learn more about New Zealand's favourite fruit, have a look here

This month we attended the ANZA workshop in Sydney, and met a lot of great agents from around the globe.  It was a fantastic event and we can't wait for next year's ANZA which will take place in Sydney. 

April 2008

It's back off to Saudi Arabia to meet our agent partners there.  This time our Arabic counsellor, Mr Amjed Hanna, will represent us.  Amjed speaks Arabic as a native language, so if you want to ask us something but aren't too confident in English, you can ask him!  Please click on the 'Contact Us' button and type 'Message for Arabic counsellor' and he will reply.  Too easy! 

 This is Amjed

March 2008

Well the summer shows no sign of leaving soon, but we are not complaining!  It's another busy month here at MMLC, our exam preparation class kicks off on 17 March and our teachers are going on a training course to keep their skills in tip-top shape.  There's still time to play beach volleyball every Tuesday though, and this year the team is doing well!  It must be the influence of our secret weapon, Fred from New Caledonia and his power serve!  We will miss Fred when he leaves to start his course at Bay Of Plenty Polytechnic, but I'm sure he'll come back to play for us...

This is where we play!

February 2008

Well here we are in February and it is hot hot HOT!!!  this is the best summer we have had in many years, our students are all loving going to the beach after school.  The waves are nice and if you have ever thought about learning to surf it is the perfect time to be booking a surf course!  The water is warm and the waves are nice.

We visited Tahiti last week, where our partners at Air Tahiti Nui organised a FANTASTIC "Study and Discovery" salon for Tahitian students wanting to study in New Zealand.  The event was a great success and our thanks goes out to our friends at Air Tahiti Nui not only for putting together such a professional event, but for their warm hospitality during our entire stay.  A huge thank you to you all and we can't wait for next year!!

If you are looking to fly somewhere in future, or you are in Tahiti and want to book a course here, make sure you contact Air Tahiti Nui!  They are very friendly and are always willing to help!

We've had lots of former students visiting us this week.  Phil from Switzerland liked New Zealand so much that he decided to live here after finishing his course, so it was great to see him after 2 years still enjoying life here in NZ.  Michael, also from Switzerland studied a year ago and has come back with a friend to go surfing.  We love to hear from all our former students, so remember, if you want to let us know your news, email us, we'd love to hear from you!

UPDATE JANUARY 2008!!

My gosh, has it really been so long since we updated this blog????  Well I guess we have been a little busy, since we have moved into a new building!  In the last weeks of December our building was finished and with a lot of help from friends, students and staff, we spent 3 days moving into our new premises.  The all-new building features a games room, spacious classrooms, large lounge with internet space and more!  Here are some pictures of our new school, more are coming soon!

    The main lobby area                          Outdoor courtyard                           A place to relax...

30 July 2007

Snow Trip

Last week we took a trip to the snow, and everyone had a great time.  Some people had never skied before, so they enjoyed learning, even though they were a little sore the next day!  We're planning to do another trip very soon. 

We have to say thank you to the team at Pipers Lodge for providing a very comfortable stay and lovely cooked breakfast.  This is definitely the place to stay when you go skiing. 

The MMLC ski team on Mt Ruapehu.  Christina was so hungry she started eating the snow...

19 July 2007

We have been very quiet with news recently, sorry about that!  Anyway here is a brief roundup of what we have been doing recently....

Saudi Arabia

Our director visited Saudi Arabia in April, lucky guy!  He visited a number of our partner agents there, plus a few former students.  Here are a couple of friends he met in the desert:

Seriously though, Geoff would like to thank all the wonderful people he met for their friendship, generosity and hospitality while visiting The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

Turkey

We are very happy to have our first student from Turkey at school.  Halit is a very popular student, and a great cook!  The only problem is he won't sit still long enough for us to take his photo...

Snow

Next week we will have our first school snowboarding trip for the season.  This is Mount Ruapehu, located 3 hours South of Mount Maunganui.  (We have to go there, because there's no snow on our small mountain here)

Add Your News

If you're a former student please feel free to email us with your news.  Tell us what you've been up to, send us pictures, and we'll put it all on this page!