It has been half a month since I came back to Guangzhou from Zhuhai. Coming from the peaceful coastal city to a bustling metropolis, I feel an immense amount of pressure. However, almost every night GLV comes into my dreams and I can see the teachers and classmates talking with fervour and assurance in English.

A long time ago, I was told that GLV was a good place to learn English. But I didn't think so because, in my mind, learning English needed a good language environment. I thought studying abroad would be best, so I chose a private college in Malaysia , since I knew that English is the official language in Malaysia , and they have total English education in college.

However, everything was not as good as I expected. Overseas students needed to first take language classes, and then, after taking an examination, we were divided into three levels and each level had only a part-time English teacher. Every day classes were from 8 a.m.- 12:00 , but we never started on time. If we began class at 8:30 , that was our lucky day! The teachers always found excuses for being late. Sometimes they excused their absence by saying that they didn't feel well or that an emergency had occurred. In most classes, the teacher gave us some material such as newspaper to read and then asked us to find essay topics. The dullness of the classes almost killed me.  

Since most overseas students came from China , we always spoke Chinese outside of class. The only way to learn good English was to hire a private teacher at a high price. When I moved from level two to level three, I had to stop class for one month because my teacher quit his job. We couldn't start class again until the school hired a new teacher. There was no dining room in the school so we had to take care of meals by ourselves. The school dormitory was far from the school and a school bus picked us up in the morning and brought us back in the afternoon. If you missed the bus, you had to walk for an hour to get to school. Sometimes even a taxi driver would decline you because the trip was too long.

After being in Malaysia a couple of months, I felt my English hadn't progressed very much – there was little difference from before I had come there to study. I was so disappointed. I had spent so much time and money and I had to go back to China . Finally, some friends suggested again, “Go to GLV, it will be good for you.” So I decided to try two weeks at GLV.

When I stepped through the doors of GLV, I felt as if I had entered a big warm family. There were more than 40 foreign teachers from different countries that stayed with us from morning to evening. We had many opportunities to practise our English with foreigners. The students at GLV were not allowed to speak Chinese; everyone had to obey GLV's rule of “English only” to keep a pure English environment.

The school divides the students into different levels according to the their English ability. There are classes from the morning to the evening. Apart from studying in classes, the students are provided with different kinds of outings where they can use and practise their English. During the warm-ups, the three meal times or in evening programs, the foreign teachers show us their different characters -- lovely, enthusiastic, humorous -- they use different ways to patiently teach us.

“Open Your Mouth, Open Your Mind, Open Your heart.” That's what I learned at GLV. Communicate in English, make new friends and get to know each other. At the beginning, we were afraid of opening our mouths to speak English, but in a couple of days, with our teacher's encouragement and help, we began to communicate in English with our classmates. I found my English was progressing, and my confidence began to improve. I even spoke English in my dreams. Jimmy, my teacher, was a Chinese man, but his English teaching was as good as other foreign teachers. His class was full of liveliness and humour and we learned English very easily. Every class passed quickly.

My life at GLV was always spiced up with activities such as singing, dancing, games, and all kinds of sports. Students also had many choices for the evening program every night. On the weekend, we went for barbecues, hiking or to the beach. We always enjoyed the presentations on Friday afternoons the most; each class prepared a show, singing, poetry, speeches or skits, which showed strong team-work.

At GLV this big, warm, harmonious family, teachers and students becom good friends. When students finish studying and leave GLV, everyone's eyes are filled with tears, creating a scene of touching farewell..  

As Ping , the owner of GLV, said “I hope everyone can not only learn English well in at GLV, but make many friends as well.”