International House: Belfast

About me: I'm a university student from Germany and I wanted to improve more my English for some subjects at university.


In my class, we were just 6 students and one time 9 students. I have to say my course was planned for 7 weeks but unfortunately I voluntarily stopped after one month (pandemic). But nevertheless my English has improved so much within 1 month, incredible!
I was really happy with my teachers: Genny, Kathryn, Sophie Thank you!! I could ask countless questions every day. I had really luck with my teachers, they always created funny lessons, always something to laugh.They did their job with passion.
About the location I have to say, you are very near to the Sandhurst Apartment, only 1-2 minutes (student apartment). The Botanic Avenue is amazing! You can find so many different cafes, restaurants, pharmacy, book shops, supermarkets like Tesco and so on. It's only 7 minutes by walk, Starbucks also.. The distance from the school and the city hall is by walk 20-25 minutes, it depends.
You have at school WiFi for free, a big Nespresso Coffee maker and a snack machine. If u are very hungry u can try to go in the break to the next mini supermarket, by walk it takes 8-10 minutes. You have also many computers at school, you can use these for free. I have also to add, that I liked the purple colors inside of the school. It creates a different feeling, instead of just white walls..
About the activities I have to say, Nick makes the activities much funnier! The school offers every day mo-fr different activities.
We also did a BBQ Partys, it was amazing.

I have nothing to criticize, only one big important thing: The housing is very old. My course was at February. We always had issues inside the class. It was very very cold. Sometimes you cold feel the breeze from the windows. Not even the mini electrical heaters could help. Sometimes I had to sit with scarf and jacket during the lesson. The cold was very unpleasant...

All in all, I was very pleased.

my course was 2 weeks but I learned a lot
I liked the teaching method

The teachers are good in general but i think that the classes can be more interesting because the most of days are boring. The acomodation was good,simple and a little bit expensive although its enough.

The teachers and the classes were great, though I wish the tables were a bit bigger, but that is just a minor issue. The location of the school was near the city centre, which was perfect. I very much enjoyed the social program because you got the chance to experience the nature, get in touch with the history of Belfast, and then have a good night out in the city. The housing accommodation was good, though there was some trouble with the Wifi connection. In general I had a very good experience studying at IH Belfast!

My personal experience, as I said, was amazing. Since the first day everyone, the staff and the teachers received me very well. All of my complaints were resolved or they tried to help me, indeed. Should I have liked to to have been moved to another apartment, it was not possible. The house was very well located, extremely near the school, and this was a key point for me.

About the school and the classes, I have only one complaint, about one teacher who was narrow-minded. During my concert, she was almost racist and didn't care for others' cultures. In my opinion, this is a big problem in a school, manly in an international one, isn't it? Aside from this fact, all the teachers that I had were perfect. I would like to thank all of them.

I fell in love with Belfast.

The school was in a perfect place for me, near restaurants, markets, bus station and so on. The teachers were really good ones and it was a nice surprise to learn English in so directed and comprehensive way. I had a good time there and I just can't remember something that I didn't like.

In my two weeks at international house I learned more than in a few English classes in my homeland. I like the teachers and the atmosphere. Would do it again!

In general I liked the activities; the size of the classes, extrovert teachers, and people at home. I think that I improved my level. However, in my opinion, one aspect to improve is the planning of contents among weeks and the control of students. It is not a big problem because it is always possible to see the things in different ways; but if you are there for two weeks to study English it is important to make the most it and to know the most possible content in an organized way. The control of the learning every week and every student would be an option of improving.

The teachers are friendly, and they are very helpful..
What i didnt like about the school or student nationalities is that i think it had too many Libyans, so i think if they mixed nationalities better then it would be easier to learn English.


Thanks