 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Students' JourneysDuring the road trip we asked students from colleges, universities and schools to write about journeys that were significant for them.  These could be real, physical journeys or metaphorical journeys. We had a tremendous response from the people we met. On this page, we have brought together our very favourite pieces. On Thursday 30th November 2006 we announced two winners - a BBC choice, and an audience choice. See who won our journeys competition here. 1. Adam Kodana Coulibaly
See who won our journeys competition here. 2. Aigul Kissel
I have been living in Germany for the last five years. Germany is far away from my home Kyrgyzstan. Unfortunately because of expensive flight tickets to Kyrgyzstan I have only been back twice. That is why a journey home becomes an important event to me and compulsory to my husband. The day of my journey to Kyrgyzstan begins very early at five o'clock in the morning. Although I have already packed my bags ready in the evening I check again and again that I haven't forgotten anything. At the same time I make such a noise that my husband has to get up and tells me to take care on my journey. Then my husband brings to me the airport and at last I am in the air on the way to Moscow where I have to change plane. When later I am in Moscow 's Sheremetyevo I observe keenly the huge difference between Planet Germany and Planet Russia, which is only two hours away. I associate Sheremetyevo with very bad coffee and with yellow and green-faced people. During the intermediate stop I don't leave Sheremetyevo but I think that all Russian people have green faces and all coffee shops in Russia have untasty coffee! The flight from Moscow to Kyrgyzstan takes about four hours. This is enough time to have many thoughts about my family and my friends in Kyrgyzstan. On one hand I am happy - I will see them again. On the other hand, I worry about the changes that I will see. When I am at last in Kyrgyzstan all that then happens I see through as if a veil. I see my parents who have aged, I see a tall stranger who must be my little brother, I am so indescribably happy but I am exhausted. I realise suddenly that I didn't eat today. There are so many things to do but first of all I want to sleep! See who won our journeys competition here. 3. Annick Horter
'Homeless' I am sitting in the train just thinking about former times, And now it is so quiet in here I am feeling lonely without you. Where was that you call your home? Where was the safe place? There is no space on earth for me. 'Cause no one has a helping hand, just living in the no-mans land. Please help me if you hear me cry, and show me how to deal with. See who won our journeys competition here. 4. Chihiro Mori
'On a Coach' Too much distance between us See who won our journeys competition here. 5. Dongmin Kim
'Blackpool' hopefully and frustrating See who won our journeys competition here.
6. Eun Hye Cho I love my journey for school. I always go to school on foot. Someone say to me "Are you crazy?" I know that why they say to me like that. Because my journey takes about 40 minutes on foot, but if I take a bus it just takes 15 minutes. I have special reason this journey. It is very simple reason, but it is quite important motivation to me. Especially this journey is very educationally to me. I just like staring for people, but it has different meaning. As you know, Manchester city is a metropolitan city. A lot of different people live in here. For example 'Rushholm' is famous for exotic mood. In my case, I always go through this street, so I see a beautiful and fantastic shops, clothes, foods and several advertisements and so on. Moreover, a lot of Muslims live around this street, so I wanted to know Muslim's culture and religion. Of course, it is good motivation learning another culture, so I like journey. Like this I always learn a lot of things on my journey. Everyday and every time I want to see a people and learn their thinking. Accordingly, my journey is my good teacher I think. See who won our journeys competition here. 7. Maria Matecna 'Train Journey' It was 5 months ago. My parents came to visit me. I made a plan for them - visiting Blackpool. We woke up early morning and set off at the railway station. I bought 3 tickets to Blackpool. We took the train and the trip could begin. We were in very good mood. After one hour I decided that we passed many towns and we're sitting in the wrong train. We got off in Chester. We had rest in there. We were walking through the town and enjoyed Chester. We returned back to the railway station at about 2pm. The man on the information station said to us that it's not possible to get straight from Chester. We had to buy tickets to Liverpool - so we continued there. We stayed in the centre of the town. We visited museums, Albert Dock and many historical buildings. At the end at about 6pm we took the train to Blackpool. We were there only 2-3 hours. But we were happy that we arrived. The weather was lovely. Our journey took 12-13 hours but we visited 3 towns instead of 1. We came back full of experiences. See who won our journeys competition here. 8. Migdelia Bracamontes Ignacio
'My best journey was arrived in U.K.' At the airport in Acapulco , Mexico everything was wonderful, my family, and my friends Liz and Claudia came with me to say bye-bye. Unfortunately my best friend Shintia (whom I love), could not be there, but she was ringing me all the time. It was a wonderful time for me, there were many tears and best wishes for me. However, I saw my mother's face age in a few minutes because of the worry about where her daughter was going and all of the questions and concerns which come into the mind of a loving mother whose daughter is leaving such as: - Who will she be? and how will family take care of she? Everybody knows what goes through the mind of a mother. My packing philosophy had been 'never return', and I had all of my winter clothes so of course my bags were huge (the perfect excuse for having lots of bags). However, now I am in England. It's great and superb country to live. See who won our journeys competition here.
9. Naoko Shimamura
I went to Paris from 19, March to 29, March, 2006 by myself. This trip was my first one on my own. When I left Narita airport, there were a lot of Japanese people around me on the plane, but when I arrived at Copenhagen for transfer, there were only 2 or 3 Japanese including me. I was surprised by that. I arrived at C.D.G. airport at 21.00. Japanese girl was only me, so I was drifted away from others. I heard Parisians are cold-blooded, they don't like to speak English, so I felt nervous when I knocked the door of the hotel. At first, I seemed to have lost my way, so they asked me ‘What's happened?' I was confused then, but they were kind and spoke English to me. I think the most interesting thing in Paris is a station attendant. One day, I went to get a Metro then I met a man, station attendant. He asked me ‘Are you Japanese?' I said ‘Yes!!' Next, he began to say ‘Get's!! Get's!!' I could understand. He performed famous Japanese entertainer ‘dandy Sakano' I burst into laughter. He performed one after another. Where did he learn that? How did he know? He made me happy. After that, we said to each other ‘Merci, Au revoir'. Then I liked Paris. See who won our journeys competition here. 10. Bienvenu-Noël Kwale 'From Manchester to Barnsley' After I claimed my asylum on October 2005, I had an accommodation at the refugees Centre in Barnsley . Every weekend, people could leave the centre and come back on Sunday night. In this way, I came to Manchester to see my family. It was my wife who came to look for me. I just brought a briefcase. On Sunday, when I wanted to return to the Centre, I was afraid because I did not know to speak English and it was the first time I wanted to make a journey alone. I was also worried because at that time the sunset came early, so I thought it could be difficult to find the Centre. As I had a ticket return, I said to my wife 'Goodbye' and got on the train to Sheffield. When I arrived there, I asked the staff for the platform and the train to Barnsley. Every time, I looked impatiently on the screen. I was very shy. When the train arrived at Barnsley station, I went to the bus station and asked the driver to drop me at the bus stop near the Centre. I was very happy as I found the Centre. That is really a very good experience for me about journeys in the UK. See who won our journeys competition here. 11. Tefla Al-Jufairi 'Last Glance' I looked at you with tears filling my eyes ... And they keep wondering why? ... I glanced you for the last time ... Every time I see you something inside me is burning ... I won't get you out of my mind ... Life is hard and we know it right .... I faced hell with no one on my side ... I wanted to let it go ... Here I'm in a cold night ... Every time I see your smile ... And now you're gone ... I love you with all my heart ... Your picture still in mind ... I compared the world with you ... Every night you come in mind ... Your eyes, your smile, and the way you talk ... I love you and I miss you ... See who won our journeys competition here. 12. Weizhi Kong
One day when I travelled to Thailand I met a interesting gentleman from Southampton in a restaurant and I tried to read the menu but I failed because I couldn't recognise the characters. So I ordered a fried egg and the waiter seemed to understand me. An unexpected dish of fried rice was served after a couple of minutes. I was surprised and resigned. The gentleman said to me, 'Next time you say "I want a lobster" - you will be served a fried egg, maybe'. See who won our journeys competition below. Two students won ipod shuffle mp3 players for their entries. The Audience Award
|
|
||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||
Listen to Adam read his entry
BBC Learning English