How to Talk About University Life in English

- If you are at university,

or you're going to go to university

where you need to speak English,

then make sure you learn these phrases,

so you can talk confidently

about university life, in English.

Otherwise, you may find

you lose all your confidence very quickly.

Let's start learning.

(upbeat music)

Hello, this is Keith from the YouTube channel

English Speaking Success, and also I run the website,

the Keith Speaking Academy,

helping you speak better English, full stop.

(Keith laughs)

Great, keep it simple, Keith, great slogan.

Helping you speak better English, full stop.

Love it.

So, listen.

Oh, by the way,

if you are preparing the IELTS test,

then do remember, you can study with me online,

I have a self-study online course.

You can go to my website, check it out.

IELTS Speaking Success: Get a Band 7+.

There's a link below.

If it's right for you,

go ahead and join.

Now then, imagine,

hmmm,

your first day at university,

maybe in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia,

or another country where you need to speak English,

and you're milling around,

you're meeting new students and they start speaking to you

in English about university life.

Things like,

the dorms, their placements, pastoral care,

the student union, lagging behind, and you're like,

"Ooh, what do those phrases mean?"

Or maybe, they ring a bell,

but you're not sure of the meaning.

Uh-oh, awkward.

So what do you do?

Well, of course you can ask.

That's absolutely fine.

But, if you want to be well-prepared,

and keep your confidence high,

then what you should be doing is learning

all of these phrases today, right now,

in the peace and quiet of your home,

so that you're ready and well-prepared for university life.

(swooshing sound)

At the end of this video,

you will know lots of essential vocabulary and phrases,

so that you can talk about university life in English,

including your subjects, your year,

where you live, campus life, and studying in general.

In addition, I'm going to tell you,

what I think, is the biggest mistake students make

when they're studying abroad, and what you can do about it.

Oh, and I almost forgot.

I also want to share with you a fantastic tool, which, gosh,

I wish I had had when I was studying a foreign language

at university.

I actually studied French,

and there's an interesting story,

I'm gonna tell you in the break about that.

But I wish I had had this tool,

which is on my phone, and you can get on your phone,

it's called Elsa Speak,

and it helps you build your pronunciation,

and your vocabulary, as well.

It uses cutting-edge AI to give you feedback

on all aspects of your pronunciation.

It's brilliant.

But listen,

I'll tell you more about that later.

(swooshing sound)

Right now, let's get stuck in.

So first of all, we're gonna talk about your subject,

what you're studying at university.

Now let's begin with the basics, okay?

The first thing is, have a look at this sentence, right?

I'm studying, blank, university.

What is the preposition, right?

Is it in, on, at, under?

(Keith laughs)

I hope it's not under.

If you say under then you're in big trouble.

No, what should it be?

Right, I'm studying at university.

It's at, I'm studying at university.

Notice the at we pronounce uh, uh.

There's a glottal stop.

Uh, I'm studying, uh, university.

Or I'm studying uh college.

I'm studying, uh, vocational college.

Uh, great.

So, these are the different things we can say.

Notice we don't say the.

(swooshing sound) I'm studying at the,

no, university.

I'm studying at university.

However, the only time you would say the,

is if you say, which university it is.

I'm studying at the University of Edinburgh.

But I'm studying at Edinburgh University.

Most universities have decided which form

they officially use.

So it will depend on your university.

But by and large, we don't say the.

(swooshing sound) Now,

there are two kinds of students at university.

There's the student who is there for the first time

studying their first degree.

And they have not yet graduated

or finished passing the final exam.

And the other kind is the student

who has already done one degree,

they have graduated and they are doing a second degree.

(swooshing sound) The first one

is an undergraduate,

because you're under the graduation.

You haven't graduated yet.

So if it's your first time at university,

your an undergraduate,

if it's your second time and you've already got one degree,

then that's after graduation.

After we say post.

A post-graduate student, right?

So you could be an undergraduate student

or a post-graduate student.

I wonder which one you are.

And let's just explain a bit more detail,

the different types of degrees, right?

So typically most students for their first degree

will do a Bachelor's degree, right?

You'll be doing a Bachelor's for example,

a BA, a Bachelor's of Arts or a BS, a Bachelor's of Science.

There are different kinds.

Those are probably the most common.

If you're a postgraduate student,

then you could be doing a Master's degree, an MA,

an MA, Masters of Art or an MS, Master's of Science.

And again, there are different kinds.

Or you might be doing a Doctoral degree, such as a PhD.

Let's have a look closely again at the grammar

behind these sentences.

Have a look at this sentence.

I'm blank, a bachelor's, blank, Chemistry.

What are the missing words?

Right, you would probably say,

I'm studying a bachelor's in Chemistry.

In would be the preposition here.

Now, as well as studying, you could say,

I'm doing a bachelor's in Chemistry.

Or, if you want to be a bit fancy,

I'm pursuing a bachelor's in Chemistry.

We can also say, I'm studying for a bachelor's in Chemistry.

There are different ways, right?

And of course we can say the same for a master's or a PhD

I'm studying for a master's in education.

Great, now have a look at this picture

and give me a sentence about this woman.

And just to help you along,

you may say something like,

she's, mmm, a masters, mmm.

Right, there are many possibilities.

For example,

you might have said,

she's pursuing a master's in literature,

or she's doing a PhD in history.

Lots of possibilities.

Just remember the in, remember to keep practicing.

Next.

(swooshing sound)

And just before I move on,

I do want to mention the words major and minor.

A major, a bit like in music,

(musical chord) you have a major chord

(musical chord) and a minor chord.

A major is a subject that is the main subject

that you study.

A minor subject is a study that is less important.

It gives you extra credits,

but you don't have to do a minor subject.

In England we don't tend to talk about this,

but I know in America they do use it as a noun

and as a verb.

So it's a major.

I major in history.

I majored in French actually.

And I minored in business studies.

So to minor in something as well.

So I wonder what about you?

What do you major in?

Nice.

Let's move on to talk about the next area.

Okay, so now we're gonna talk about, well,

the nitty gritty subject of your studies.

Which is why,

well, the main reason you're at university, right?

Your studies.

First phrase is, to hit the books.

Now this does not mean literally to hit the books.

It's idiomatic and it means

to study and to study hard.

This evening,

I need to hit the books.

I need to study hard.

Next, we say,

to go to lectures or to attend lectures.

So you need to go to lectures.

Try and get the intonation.

You need to go to lectures.

Repeat after me.

You need to go to lectures.

Or, you need to attend lectures.

You need to attend lectures.

Lovely word stress.

Very, very nice.

Now, when you go to university, you will have lectures,

seminars and tutorials.

What's the difference?

Well, lectures, normally is with lots of students, right?

Maybe over a hundred.

And there's a teacher who will lecture., convey information.

(swooshing sound)

It's kind of a one-way process.

You take notes.

You say, thank you and you go home.

That's a lecture.

A seminar and a tutorial are often quite similar,

it depends on the country.

But basically, (swooshing sound)

a seminar is much smaller.

It's more informal.

And typically,

you have a chance to ask questions and to debate issues.

(swooshing sound) Seminars,

when I was at university

were normally like 20 to 30 students.

Tutorials can be similar.

(swooshing sound) But they're again,

they're smaller, very small group of students,

more interaction asking questions, discussion.

And also tutorial is used for the one-on-one.

(swooshing sound) So you often

get a chance to have a one-on-one with your tutor.

And that will be a tutorial.

Tutor, tutorial.

Makes sense, right?

Great.

Of course, as you study, you have to do assignments.

Next phrase,

the teacher gives out assignments.

Or, the teacher hands out assignments.

You, as the student

have to hand in an assignment.

I have to hand in my assignment.

Can you say with me?

I have to hand in my assignment.

Lovely, great.

When you hand in your assignment,

you will get, well in Britain, you'll get a mark or a score.

It may be an A, a B, a C or 80%, 90%.

It depends.

I think in America,

they tend to use a grade rather than a mark.

But the same idea, it's how well you've done.

Now we've talked about doing assignments

and basically an assignment is like homework.

So at school we talk about homework,

at university, we sound much more grown up.

So we use a grownup word, an assignment.

It sounds much more serious.

Assignments are pieces of work you have to do,

but you also have them: (swooshing sound)

dissertation and thesis.

Now again, the meaning of these change,

depending on the country.

In the UK,

a dissertation is normally done

at the end of a master's degree.

It's a larger piece of work.

It goes into much more depth.

And it's based on research.

The thesis is similar,

(swooshing sound) but even bigger,

going deeper.

And you do it at the end of a PhD.

(swooshing sound)

And I think if I'm not mistaken,

in America it's almost the other way round.

The idea though, dissertation and thesis,

is that it's a deeper piece of research.

It's a deeper work based on research.

So you've got assignments,

you've got dissertations,

you'll have your thesis.

Of course, you also have coursework.

You have to do coursework.

which are different activities and pieces of work

you do throughout the year that are part of your evaluation.

So you will get credits based on the coursework.

The other part of evaluation is the exams

that you have to do.

So all of that is your evaluation,

or assessment is the other word that we use.

Another useful collocation or phrase

is to meet the deadline.

So when your tutor gives you an assignment

or hands out an assignment,

you will have to meet the deadline.

You have to hand in the assignment on time.

So to meet the deadline or to make the deadline

is to give assignment back

within the correct amount of time.

Sometimes that's very difficult

and you find that there's so much work

that you are falling behind.

Or we can say, I'm falling behind.

I'm lagging behind.

Both of these means you cannot keep up with the work.

There's too much work,

and you're not going to make the deadline.

What do you do in that case?

Go and chat to your tutor.

Tutors have office hours.

In England we often call them consultation hours

or open door.

Either way, open door, office hours,

you go and talk to your tutor,

tell them you're having problems and that you need more time

or more support

and see if they can extend your deadline.

Now they may, they usually don't actually.

And this, I think this is an important tip, right?

Because when you go to study abroad,

especially in America or the UK,

the approach to studying is very different from school.

You need to be very proactive

and you need to manage your time.

Nobody's going to come and take you step by step,

holding your hand, telling you what to do.

You're left to your own devices.

You have to do it on your own.

So you must be independent.

You must learn time management and really be proactive.

Those are my tips for you when you go to university abroad.

Let's move on.

Right, time for a brew.

Or a cup of tea.

Or whatever you fancy.

Listen, I want to tell you about a tool

that will radically help improve your pronunciation

and build your vocabulary.

I mentioned it earlier, Elsa Speak.

But before I do,

I want to tell you a funny story,

something that happened to me when I was younger,

that you may identify with.

Now, before I went to university where I studied French,

I actually had a chance

(bubble popping) to visit France.

I went there on holiday and I remember very vividly

an experience at lunchtime when the shops were closed,

which confused me, but hey, it's France.

And I went up to this guy, French guy in the street,

and I thought, right,

I'm gonna ask him what time do the shops open?

So I went up a bit nervous and said,

(Keith speaks french)

And the guy went,

(Keith speaks french)

So I tried again with,

(Keith speaks french)

And he was like,

(Keith speaks french)

(Keith laughs)

And I'm like, what?

He doesn't understand?

I've been studying French at school since I was eight.

10 years, I've studied French.

and he doesn't understand me, what's wrong with him?

Problem was, it wasn't him.

Problem was me.

And the problem was my school,

that we had learned French

and we'd focused on reading and writing,

but hardly ever on pronunciation.

And if we did pronunciation, you know,

it was with my teacher

who had the same terrible pronunciation as me.

So, what hope did I have?

And I realized, oh my God,

I can't communicate because of my pronunciation.

So, I wish I had had a tool

(swooshing sound) like Elsa.

So many students ask me, Keith,

how can I improve my pronunciation quickly?

Well, hmm, it's a good question.

But actually, a better question is,

how can I improve my pronunciation

step by step at a deeper level?

And that I think is what you need.

And for that,

I think Elsa Speak,

the mobile app is a fantastic tool,

And I'm gonna tell you about Elsa, Elsa Speak.

It's a mobile phone.

It's not a mobile phone.

(Keith laughs)

It's a mobile app that basically,

it uses artificial intelligence, voice recognition,

to give you feedback on your pronunciation.

It looks at all aspects, sound level, phrase level,

conversation level.

And the feedback it gives you tells you how close you are

to a native speaker or a proficient speaker,

and where you need to focus to get better.

I mean, brilliant.

This is like having a personal tutor in your pocket

you can call at any time and just practice with.

Love it.

Listen, let me show you a little bit how it works.

(swooshing sound)

So, when you go in, you can see, it looks at mixed skills,

linking, intonation, different sounds, dropping consonants,

those ending sounds.

So you can study different aspects.

You can also study by game type, pronunciation, intonation,

or listening or others.

You can study by topic.

There's a whole range of topics,

lifestyle, small talk, work, education,

for example.

Let's have a look at one

because we're talking about university today.

Here's one about freshman year.

Do you remember?

First year at university.

Meeting your roommate sentences.

So we can go in and find an interesting phrase here.

Let's play.

- [Elsa app] It's good to be prepared.

- And I repeat it.

Let me make a mistake though.

(app chimes)

It's good to be prepare.

(app chimes)

Look at that.

And it's identified in red, the mistake, prepared.

And it tells me try again.

It's the D sound.

And if I click,

it actually goes through all the different sounds

and tells me where the problem is.

I didn't even make it.

So, I can try again.

I can actually play it more slowly.

- [Elsa app] It's good to be prepared.

(app chimes)

- It's good to be prepared.

(app chimes)

Yes, excellent.

Now, that's much better.

And by doing this, I can get better and better and better.

Step-by-step progress systematic.

That's the way to build up pronunciation.

Now, as Elsa are sponsoring this video,

thank you so much, Elsa,

then you get a discount if you want to sign up

for the mobile app, you can download the app,

but then,

(swooshing sound) if you buy

a one-year membership,

you get a massive 30% discount.

If you sign up for a lifetime membership,

that teacher in your pocket for life,

you get an 80% discount.

Yes, eight, zero.

(swooshing sound) 80% discount

on the lifetime membership.

Mad, brilliant.

So listen,

you can go below,

click on the links below, download the app,

find out more, claim your discount.

And I guarantee

you will see your pronunciation

building up, your confidence growing,

your vocabulary building up as well,

and finally, becoming a more effective communicator

in English.

For those of you preparing IELTS,

you will probably, hopefully, be familiar

with the pronunciation features

you need to control a master for IELTS.

(swooshing sound) Things like

individual sounds, words stress, sentence stress,

connected speech, intonation.

If you're not sure about these, man,

go and check out this video. (swooshing sound)

And I explain all of these aspects of pronunciation

and how you can work towards them.

And then, go and download

(swooshing sound) Elsa app,

the mobile app and start practicing.

Great.

Thank you Elsa.

Thanks guys. (swooshing sound)

Let's move on to the next bit.

Thirsty work all of this teaching.

Let's move on.

Right, let's move on and talk about

(bubble popping) which year you're in,

or which year you're studying.

I'm gonna look at both the British phrases

and the American phrases.

Some students ask me which one is better.

It doesn't really matter.

You may have, you know,

situations where you're speaking to an American,

but you've learned British English and there's a confusion.

Don't worry.

That happens to native speakers.

We just explain.

I remember once right, when I went to America

and I bumped into quite a lot of students there,

and I remember one guy came up to me, then he said, no,

I said to him, "So what do you do?"

And he said,

"Yeah, I'm a sophomore student."

And I said, "Oh right."

"That's an interesting subject."

And he went, "No, I'm a sophomore student at university."

Right.

And I'm thinking, and I said,

"Well, what does sophomore mean?"

And he went,

"Well, I'm a second year student."

Oh, right.

It happens.

We don't have to be perfect.

We just need to be confident, right?

So, let's have a look.

If you're at your first year in university,

in British English,

we would say,

I'm a first year student, very logical.

In America, they say you're a freshmen.

I don't know if you have a fresh woman,

probably not.

A freshmen.

We do have the word, a fresher in English,

in British English.

We also say I'm a fresher.

In fact, also at the,

before the academic year begins,

we have a week where students can go to the university,

get to know each other.

They sign up for different clubs

and it's called freshers week.

So we also have the word fresher, I'm a fresher.

In the second year in English, British English,

surprise, surprise,

I'm a second year student.

In America, remember?

I'm a sophomore student, with an American accent of course.

Third year, I'm a third year student, surprise.

In America, I'm a junior.

And then,

in the fourth year in America, I'm a senior.

The fourth year in England, we would probably say, yes,

it's my final year.

Or I'm in graduation year.

Something like that.

We wouldn't really have-

you wouldn't say a fourth year student.

You'd probably emphasize it's your final year.

Now another interesting phrase is, to take a gap year.

Now to take a gap year

is to take a year off either before you start university

or at the end of university after graduation.

And it's a gap either between school and university

or between university and work.

So, I took a gap year.

I took a year off and I went to America

to work as a waiter in a French cafe, strange,

but I studied French at university.

So I took a gap year.

I know these days,

it's really difficult with COVID to take the gap year,

but nice expression to know.

The other useful expression is people

may talk about a placement or a placement year.

Now a placement is when you

take a time from your university studies

and you go and either study abroad,

work in a company, or get experience working in your field.

So you can have the expression,

I'm on my placement year,

or I'm doing a placement.

If you're studying medicine,

you may say, well, I'm doing a placement in London Hospital,

for example.

Great.

Before we move on,

the final difference between British and American English

is we talk about, in Britain we talk about terms,

which are normally three months of study.

We have three terms in the academic year.

And I think in America, they talk more about semesters,

which is a similar period of time.

And I'm not sure if they have two or three semesters

each academic year.

You can go and ask an American friend and find out.

Okay, let's move on.

So undoubtedly,

you will remember, from the start of the video,

I said I would tell you the biggest mistake

students make when they go to study abroad

in an English speaking country.

That mistake is

that they think because they're in an English environment

that magically their English level,

especially spoken English, will just get better and better

and better.

It's not true, it doesn't happen.

The reality is for most students studying abroad,

their English level over time is just flat.

And for many, it actually goes down,

especially their spoken English.

And you're thinking why?

Well, think about it.

You're studying, let's say mathematics in England.

And every day you're studying with your books

and you're writing or typing

and you're not practicing spoken English.

And the vocabulary you're using is the same subject specific

vocabulary you're always using.

And even when you're socializing,

you're just using the same language again and again,

you're not growing.

The only way to grow

is to study and practice.

That is the magic,

is when you study English and practice English together.

If you only practice,

you go 'round in circles.

If you only study, you don't practice,

you don't build up the fluency.

And I think it's a big mistake

that students just forget about their English

when they're studying abroad and their level goes down.

So what you can do is, take some time,

even a little bit of time,

and I know you're super busy,

but study and practice English when you're studying abroad.

And the other thing you can do,

(Keith laughs)

you won't like this but,

is avoid your compatriots

Your compatriots are the people from your country.

Now, compatriots are great, of course,

but if you see one coming towards you,

go the other way.

Because otherwise you're gonna speak your own mother tongue

and not get the chance to practice English.

So avoid them unless you speak to each other in English,

and go and practice with English speaking people.

It's your opportunity.

That's one of the reasons

you're in an English speaking country.

Right, let's move on.

Right let's move on and talk about where you live.

So when you go to university,

whether you're an international student or a local student,

you have a choice of places to live.

One of the most popular is a dormitory.

We often abbreviate that to a dorm.

A dormitory is basically a big building,

full of lots of rooms

where lots of students can live together.

So you may say,

I'm living in a dorm.

The plural is dorms.

So you could say, well, the dorms are great.

The dorms are so convenient.

The dorms are really spacious, or not.

Now actually in the UK, we tend to say, halls of residence,

I think is more common.

So you may say,

I'm staying in halls of residence,

or I'm staying in the halls of residence.

I think these are very popular choices.

And the benefits, especially for students are, well,

you get to meet lots of other students.

So socializing is really easy.

Also, they tend to be very close to the university.

So it's convenient for studying

and maybe different activities you're doing.

And finally, everything is included in the price.

So normally you don't have to worry about cleaning

or cooking.

It's all taken care of.

Of course you pay for it.

It's often called,

catered accommodation.

So, halls of residence are usually catered accommodation.

You go there and it's a bit like living in a hotel.

Now, not everybody likes that.

Although, a lot of first year students like it

because it just makes life easier.

But very often people in their second year,

at least in Britain, would go for renting a flat,

or going into private accommodation.

Of course the benefits are

you can choose who you want to live with.

Typically four or five people would live together,

renting a house.

Also you're more independent,

living life like you probably will in the future.

So learning how to cook, clean,

and all of those really interesting but important skills

you need.

The final option, of course,

but probably not if you're an international student

is living at home.

It's interesting, in Britain,

a lot of students choose not to live at home.

They would rather go away from home and be in a city.

So they're far away from their family,

becoming more independent.

This is more challenging nowadays, of course,

with the pandemic.

But by and large,

I think British people like to live away from home

when they go to university.

Right, let's move on.

Next let's talk briefly about different organizations

and people on the campus.

So the campus, I'm sure you know,

(swooshing sound) is the land

and the buildings where the university is.

Now, on campus,

one of the most important organizations

in Great Britain is the Student Union.

And when you go to university,

most students join the Student Union.

It's basically a student led organization

that looks after the students.

(swooshing sound) It will look after

things like student rights,

student wellbeing, and health.

They can help with housing, legal advice.

They also organize social events

to help students socialize and mix in.

So they do a whole wide range of activities,

seen as a really important part of the student experience.

Also, we have student societies.

Now basically,

these are clubs or societies organized by students

focusing on different hobbies, activities, sports,

maybe even politics,

any kind of special interests that students may have.

Again, they're seen as being really important

in student life in Britain.

Because going to university

is not just about academia and studying.

It's really an important opportunity to learn social skills,

networking, different sports, different activities,

other skills that you will need in your future life.

And it's also,

you take a break from studying.

Too much, studying doesn't help.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,

as we say in English.

So it's important that you take part

in these societies as well.

Finally, talking about wellbeing of students,

student support is a very common phrase

and collocation you'll find when you go to university.

Student support consists of many things.

One of the key ones is what's called the personal tutor.

So you have a lot of tutors,

but your personal tutor

is somebody that is allocated to you.

And that tutor will help you with your academic studies

and they give pastoral care.

Pastoral care is looking after your general wellbeing.

So maybe not just how you study,

but other problems or difficulties you may have,

whether it's about trouble with your landlord,

mixing with friends, health problems, mental health,

all of that pastoral care they will provide.

Okay, let's move on.

(swooshing sound)

So my friend, we have talked today about, well,

how to talk about university life in English, right?

Looking at subjects, studying,

where you live, life on campus and so on.

And I've even told you remember,

the biggest mistakes students make.

Remember the magic formula.

Study English and practice English.

And that's how you can make sure

your English gets better and better.

Even when you're studying abroad.

Also to remind you,

if you want to improve your pronunciation

and become an effective communicator,

(swooshing sound) check out Elsa mobile app,

the links are down below, download the app,

start practicing.

(swooshing sound) If you sign up

for a one-year membership,

you get a 30% discount and with a lifetime membership,

a tutor for life, you get an 80% discount.

(swooshing sound)

It's crazy, but it's true.

Go and check it out.

And if you think it's right for you, go ahead.

(swooshing sound)

That's it from me today.

I am very interested to find out about your studies.

If you're going to study abroad

or you're already studying abroad,

(electronic ping) tell me about it.

Tell me about what you're doing in the comments below.

Leave me a comment

and I look forward to reading your messages.

In the meantime,

I will see you shortly in the next video,

just around the corner.

Take care my friend, all the best.

Bye-bye.

(upbeat music)