English for Tourism

Paris Syndrome

2011-06-07T16:29:00.008+02:00

Have you ever heard about the Paris syndrome?

Some Japanese tourists suffer a shock when visiting Paris. Having idealized Paris as the perfect romantic European city for a long time, once in the city they feel disappointed with what they find.

A BBC article by Caroline Wyatt describes this situation as follows:

A dozen or so Japanese tourists a year have to be repatriated from the French capital, after falling prey to what's become known as "Paris syndrome". That is what some polite Japanese tourists suffer when they discover that Parisians can be rude or the city does not meet their expectations. The experience can apparently be too stressful for some and they suffer a psychiatric breakdown. Around a million Japanese travel to France every year.Many of the visitors come with a deeply romantic vision of Paris - the cobbled streets, as seen in the film Amelie, the beauty of French women or the high culture and art at the Louvre.

The reality can come as a shock. An encounter with a rude taxi driver, or a Parisian waiter who shouts at customers who cannot speak fluent French, might be laughed off by those from other Western cultures. But for the Japanese - used to a more polite and helpful society in which voices are rarely raised in anger - the experience of their dream city turning into a nightmare can simply be too much. This year alone, the Japanese embassy in Paris has had to repatriate four people with a doctor or nurse on board the plane to help them get over the shock. They were suffering from "Paris syndrome". It was a Japanese psychiatrist working in France, Professor Hiroaki Ota, who first identified the syndrome some 20 years ago. On average, up to 12 Japanese tourists a year fall victim to it, mainly women in their 30s with high expectations of what may be their first trip abroad. The Japanese embassy has a 24-hour hotline for those suffering from severe culture shock, and can help find hospital treatment for anyone in need. However, the only permanent cure is to go back to Japan - never to return to Paris. To know more you can read the article on Msnbc.com Travel News. Have you ever experienced something similar to this in Paris or anywhere else? Please leave your comments.

Glamping: a new type of tourism

2011-05-25T14:25:00.012+02:00

Recently I heard the word "glamping" related to a new type of tourism that is rising in popularity. What would you say if someone asks you, do you want to go glamping? Do you know what glamping is?

Well, gampling is the combination of two words "glamour" and "camping." If you like going camping, but you want to the comforts of a hotel, then you need to go glamping and not just camping. Some people are put off from doing camping because of the bugs, wild animals, sudden storms, leaking tents, uncomfortable sleeping bags and questionable food. But there is now a new camping option: glamping. Here the tourist is presented with amenities, stays in fashionable decorated tents with pleasant illumination as well as is provided with full-course meals.

Let´s have a look at the following video that illustrates this new type of niche tourism:

What do you prefer: camping or glamping?Please leave your comments

6 or 7- star hotel?

2011-03-29T15:44:00.015+02:00

Until very recently, we thought a 5-star hotel was the highest classification in the hotel range but in the last couple of years some 6 and 7-star hotels have appeared in the tourism sector. Here you can find a list of this sort of hotels. Obvioulsy these hotels offer luxurious accommodation only within the reach of a few as most people can´t afford to stay in them.

But what do you think a 6 or 7-star hotel is? What can it offer that other hotels don´t? Please leave your comments.

Below I have included a video of one of those 7-star hotels built in Dubai:

Tourists Forbidden!

2011-03-13T21:20:00.010+01:00

I have just come across this piece of news about a Colombian Amazon village banning the presence of tourists as they are disturbing their traditional way of life. Have a read and please, let us know what you think. This article should also make us reflect on being a responsible tourist and being an unnoticed presence wherever we go.

Who says flight safety instructions were dull?

2010-10-06T23:15:00.012+02:00

Up to now passengers were used to flight attendants telling them about the flight safety instructions in a kind of robot-like performance, which many passengers found boring and therefore, didn´t pay much attention to. The traditional flight safety card was also often frequently ignored....

BUT

times seem to be changing and we are witnessing new creative ways to get passengers´ attention to important flight safety instructions. Let´s see these two entertaining ways to present such instructions:

So which approach do you prefer as a passenger the traditional or the creative one? Do you really think passengers pay more attention to flight safety instructions with the rap and the dancing? Please leave your comment.

A Bit of Role Playing

2010-05-18T00:10:00.013+02:00

Role-Playing is an important practice when learning a language but it becomes even more relevant if we are teaching English with a specific purpose that implies dealing with specific situations, like in this case ENGLISH FOR TOURISM STUDIES.

In the last couples of weeks my second-year-Tourism students have been practicing situations in different contexts:
1. in a restaurant with a conversation between a waiter/waitress and a customer. It involved ordering at a restaurant and dealing successufully with problems during the meal.

2. in a campsite with a conversation between the campsite receptionist and the just-arrived camper: reservation, checking-in, etc.

Thanks to all my students for their cooperation and especially to Gonzalo, Silvia, Patricia and Ignacio. Remember all my students´videos are at http://www.youtube.com/user/Englishfortourism

48 hours in...

2010-05-14T13:34:00.015+02:00

Very often tourists take what we call city break holidays in which they spend a couple of days in a well-known city. To be able to make the most of such a short visit, it is a must for the traveller to have a leaflet with tourist information for a city break visit. This is typically known as a 48 hour-in-a-city report. As a Tourism student you should know how to write this type of leaflet. It has to follow a certain pattern. Let´s see in the following document the parts a 48 hours-in-a-city report must have. This is just a basic example whose structure can be modified:

Open publication - Free publishing - More tourism

For examples, click here to read a 48 hours in San Francisco report and watch the following video about 48 hours in Singapore by Simon Calder from The Independent, who has a whole collection of 48hours in....

What about in your city? What would you recommend tourists to go and see if they only have 48 hours in your?

Are we culturally aware?

2010-04-01T21:42:00.012+02:00

When travelling or working in the tourism sector, you are likely to meet different people of different cultures. Different cultures have different protocols. So it is very important to be aware of such differences so as to deal with people in a suitable way and not to create tense or offensive situations. What is considered appropriate behaviour in one culture can be inappropriate in another. When working with people from different cultures, you need a solid understanding of the norms of that culture.

It would be really interesting if you could share with us any cultural faux pas tourists or foreign people make while in your country. I will be waiting for your comments.

Here are two videos Gabriela, a teacher of English and Italian living in Paris, sent to me about this topic. Thanks Gabriela for sharing them with me: VIDEO 1, VIDEO 2

Also here are some pages you may find interesting:
http://www.culturosity.com/pdfs/What%20is%20Cultural%20Awareness.pdf
http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://chinafta.nzte.govt.nz/solutions/culture/business-etiquette.html
http://www.culturosity.com/articles.htm

Tourism stereotypes

2009-10-23T15:29:00.017+02:00

Quite often professionals of the tourism sector (for example, tour operators, travel agencies, etc) tend to resort to cultural stereotypes to promote their tourists products but cultural stereotypes can be dangerous because they are too general (they do not distinguish between the different cultures or regions within the same country) and therefore they simplify the cultural richness of any country.

There are many stereotypical images of Spain, the country where I live. I found this postcard in a tourist spot in Seville a couple of weeks ago and it made me reflect upon the cultural image tourism sometimes conveys. This postcard, using the letters of "Spain", summarizes many stereotypes that are associated with Spain: bullfighting, olives, sun, wine, the letter ñ and flamenco dancing.

Is this the way foreigners see Spain? Do you think stereotypes give an accurate portray of a country? Which cultural stereotypes are typically associated with your country? I hope to hear from all of you as I am very interested in your comments. Thanks for your participation.

Picture by Mikel Urmeneta for kukuxumusu

Preparing a tourist presentation

2009-09-27T00:51:00.018+02:00

This year like previous ones (see the post from last year), I asked my students to prepare a tourist presentation for their final project. It is very important to develop the skills involved with preparing a tourist presentation of a place in English as students could be asked to do so at any moment in their careers ,like for example: working for a Tourist Board or for a promotional tourist company, tour operator, etc. As a guidance, I gave students some basic instructions, which I have included below, and I chose Japan as the place they would make their presentation about because it is a long way away from Spain and students don´t know much about it. In this way, their project would give them the chance to get to know Japan a little better and to make an effort to present to others a country which they are not very familiar with.

Japan Assignment Instructions

These are two of the best final projects. You can also see them in our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/Englishfortourism:

I want to thank Juan José Murillo and Francisco Antonio Cañizares for their work as well as the rest of my students who also did a great job.

Our Own YouTube Channel

2009-09-06T16:20:00.010+02:00

I hope you had a great summer. I wanted to start this new academic year opening our own YouTube channel called "English for Tourism" where all my students´ videos and work will be gathered so that anybody interested in English for Tourism can use them for educational purposes. The channel is still under construction as plenty more videos will be added. This is our channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Englishfortourism. You can also find the videos on the bottom right hand side of this blog. I would like to thank all my students for their work and collaboration as well as all the other people who participated in their work.

A Passenger Survey at an Airport.

2009-08-03T02:23:00.014+02:00

Quite often students listen to situations in English related to tourism or they are asked to do some sort of role plays in the classroom in which they take roles they will have to assume when they start working in the tourism sector. Why not take students out of the classroom and to authentic places so that they can practice English in a real situation? That is why last May, aftert doing a listening about a passenger survey at an airport, we decided to carry out a passenger survey in a nearby airport, where students would have to use English to communicate. Thus, we ended up going to Faro airport (Portugal) which is one and a half hour from our town, Huelva, in the southwest of Spain. An example of the questions from the survey are included here although each student made slight variations:

Questions at the Airport

Below you can find a sample video of the work students did during a morning at Faro airport (Southern Portugal). If you want to see the rest of the videos students recorded carrying out passenger surveys, go to the right-hand side of the blog and you will find them in the section "My students´videos":

Here are some pictures that illustrate our trip to Faro airport in Portugal:

Celebrating Europe

2009-06-10T00:15:00.016+02:00

This is the result of a writing forum I created for my students so as to celebrate Europe Day last May 9. They had to answer the question What does it mean to you to be European? And this is the word cloud I created from their answers.

If you would like to know more about Europe Day, click here.

Too fat to fly?

2009-06-09T01:17:00.006+02:00

What about if you were charged twice for your plane ticket because of being obese? This controversial policy some North American airlines are starting to put into practice is being questioned by many people. These airlines often claim that a common complaint from their passengers is having to sit next to an obese person. Obviously this policy has its defenders and its detractors. Watch and listen to the following video and please give your opinion on this matter.

Asking Politely

2009-05-03T16:45:00.019+02:00

When dealing with customers (tourists, guests, etc), it is very important to be polite to them so that they feel that they are being treated in a special way. Indirect Questions in English allow us to be able to ask certain questions while sounding more polite than if we asked using a simple direct question. Have a look at the following presentation in which you will find different expressions to begin using indirect questions.

Indirect Questions for Politeness

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Checking a schedule on the phone

2009-04-28T17:32:00.011+02:00

Last week we did some oral practice about talking on the phone and checking information while on tour. Here you will find a role-play conversation between a tour guide (Miriam) and a hotel receptionist (Antonio).

The tour guide has the following information: arrive 13.00 (later than booked), non-smoking section, 16 pax, 2 vegetarian, no children.

The receptionist has this information: arrive 12.30, non-smoking section, 18 pax, no vegetarian meals booked, no children/high chairs.

Thanks Antonio and Miriam for your cooperation in class.

English For Tourism Vocabulary

2009-04-26T20:46:00.022+02:00

Just a few weeks ago I saw a programme which I find ideal to present vocabulary in a way that is clear and easy to remember. Here there are some examples I created. I hope you find them useful! There is a trial version, click here to know more about it.

Pay Toilets in a Plane?

2009-03-29T12:15:00.009+02:00

Can you imagine being charged for using the toilets on a flight?

Well...this is not far from happening. The Irish lowcost airline Ryanair is planning to do just that. Please read the article to find out a little bit more and watch the video to hear Ryanair´s Chief Executive´s reasons for this policy.

- What is your opinion on this?

- Can you make any sense of this policy?

I will be waiting for your comments

PODCASTING

2009-03-22T00:01:00.011+01:00

Here are some of my students´ podcasts related to topics linked to tourism: reasons to travel, opinions on tipping, flying, etc. These podcasts are produced by my students through a voice forum in which they participate on a regular basis. Thanks to all of them for their participation and their interesting opinions.

Are We Being Responsible Tourists?

2009-03-08T20:32:00.009+01:00

In the last decade or so we have started to hear the term Responsible Tourism and to read articles about it. Here I am including a video that shows how RESPONSIBLE TOURISTS are needed. The video displays how the Italian canal city of Venice is becoming dirtier and dirtier. The locals are complaining that mass tourism has made their canal city dirty, and authorities have launched a campaign to raise awareness about this and encourage tourists to be responsible and respect the places visited.

A piece of good news

2009-03-07T13:14:00.008+01:00

Apart from sharing with you online teaching and learning material related to English for Tourism, today I also wanted to share with you a piece of good news which I received last week. On Tuesday I was granted the Award for the Excellence of Online Teaching 2008 at the Universidad de Huelva. I would like to thank the university, both my classroom and virtual students, all of you that follow this blog and those that often write to me encouraging me to continue with this blog and my work. A sincere THANK YOU!

Here is a picture of the award:

Going Green! Eco-friendly destinations

2009-02-07T15:38:00.011+01:00

Many of you may have heard terms such as Ecotourism, Sustainable Tourism, etc. Nowadays more and more tourists are concerned about the impact their visit may have on the environment and culture of the place visited. As more regions and countries develop their tourism industry, it produces significant impacts on natural resources, consumption patterns, pollution and social systems. People who are going to work in the tourism sector should be aware of this new trend. Let´s have a look at this brochure with suggestions about eco-friendly destinations. Comments as usual are welcome, so feel free to leave them.

EcoTourism

View more documents from maochoa35. (tags: ecotourism)

How can I complain?

2009-01-25T22:52:00.007+01:00

When working in the Tourism sector it is very common to receive oral and written complaints as tourists often complain about some aspects of their holidays. In order to be prepared, let´s have a look at how you can complain in English in an oral or written form and also how you are supposed to answer complaints properly.

Written and Oral Complaints

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: english complaints)

Happy Holidays

2008-12-25T23:17:00.004+01:00

To all of you who follow this blog

wherever you are

Thank you for your comments and participation in this blog during this year which is ending.

Airports: home sweet home?

2008-12-17T17:58:00.006+01:00

We have heard a lot of stories about passengers stranded in airports due to bad weather (specially in winter and due to snow). Also we may have seen the film The Terminal starring Tom Hanks, in which a passenger is forced to live in the terminal of an airport due to political reasons. However, it is not frequent to hear about someone who doesn´t want to leave an airport and prefers to stay there till his visa runs out. This is the story of a Japanese man who refuses to leave a Mexican airport. Click on the video to listen to this story:

This story can lead to interesting conversations with your students if you raise questions like:

What would you do in an airport for a whole day?

How would you spend your time there?

Can you think of any reason why he doesn´t want to go back to his country?
Are there similar cases to this one in your own countries?
Please feel free to write any comments about similar stories to this in your countries.

Online Guided Tours

2008-11-23T12:21:00.005+01:00

One of the most commons tasks when studying English for Tourism is to be asked to make a guided tour about a certain place. This website is a great source for students where they can see examples and learn how to give a tour. All the continents are represented.

A matter of pronunciation

2008-11-09T17:11:00.004+01:00

When dealing with pronunciation, students quite often say that it doesn´t make any difference if they pronounce the word correctly or not. Well, show them this video and perhaps they will be convinced: sinking or thinking?

CVs and Covering Letters

2008-10-26T11:43:00.008+01:00

When students hear words like CV and covering letter they usually ask me the same question: what should I include in my CV? and what is a covering letter? It is important students understand that their CV and the covering letter that goes with it should be carefully written and they have to take their time to write down the information they want to include in both documents. It is not something to be done in a rush. CVs and covering letters have their own structure. Frequently students skip important parts or they don´t highlight some of their experience required for a certain job well enough, which could result in not being selected for the job they have applied for. In a labour market like the tourism industry, in which there are a lot of jobs but also a lot of people competing for one, you have to remember CVs are the entrance door to the labour market, so getting a job could depend on how successfully your CV manages to present your experience and your personal qualities for that job.
So as not to go wrong here are some tips about writing a CV and a covering letter. As usual any comments are more than welcome.

How to write a CV and a Covering Letter

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Afraid of phonetics?

2008-10-12T14:42:00.012+02:00

Learning the sounds of a new language can sometimes be tough for some students, especially those sounds that are inexistent in their respective mother tongues. It is very important to be able to communicate successfully what we want to say and sometimes pronunciation becomes an issue as communication breaks down due to words being pronounced incorrectly. Here you have a great website in which students can have fun reviewing the English sounds they already know:

What you should know when travelling in Europe

2008-10-12T12:47:00.008+02:00

Millions of people from all around the world visit Europe every year. Here you have some important information tourists or business people should know when coming to Europe. I often ask my students to do a similar report about their own country as there is always something that differentiates one country from another even within the same continent. I think a report like the one below about any continent/country would be very interesting. Please if you have something similar about the country/continent where you live, let me know!

Tourism in Europe

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The 100 top tourist destinations

2008-09-21T20:49:00.007+02:00

Have you ever thought about which your top tourist destinations in the world or in the continent where you live would be? Have you ever been asked by clients in a travel agency or simply by your friends where to go on holidays? If you want to save some time and effort, show them this list with the 100 top destinations around the world based on tourists´ feedback. This list can be useful if you are working with your students on suggesting destinations for holidays. I am sure not everybody will agree as preferred destinations can be very personal.

Get your own - Open publication

Tipping or not tipping that is the question

2008-09-13T19:08:00.006+02:00

Tipping or not tipping that is the question. Many tourists that travel to other countries are not aware of the different tipping customs existing in different countries. So it is very important to get acquainted with those customs so that you can advise tourists wisely and avoid any uncomfortable situation. Please if you read the following presentation and you would like to comment on anything, write to me at maochoa35@gmail.com. Any comment is welcome.

How much do you tip?

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Tourist presentations, what to say and how to say it!

2008-07-06T17:45:00.004+02:00

When working in the tourism sector you could end up working for the Tourist Board and giving presentations about the area, country where you live so as to present that area to people who know little or nothing about it. So as to make my students acquainted with the process of preparing a presentation and the different stages it involves: research, compiling information, selecting pictures, music, introducing audio, giving it format, etc. This year as a final assignment I asked my students to prepare a presentation about Japan, a country they hardly knew anything about. They had to prepare a powerpoint presentation about one famous Japanese city. In the presentation, they were asked to focus on what to do in that city/town, tourist attractions, traditions, curiosities, etc.

Here I include just one example by one of my students from the Andalusian e-learning Campus called Luna Meschiari. Luna, thanks for letting me post your work!

Do you know the basics about air travel?

2008-06-22T22:45:00.006+02:00

Imagine you are working in a travel agency and a customer who has never flown before asks you what he/she should know about travelling by air. Have a look at this video where you will get to know the basics about air travel. Would you add anything else?

VideoJug: Basic Air Travel

Low cost airlines, is everything for sale?

2008-06-07T11:54:00.004+02:00

Low cost airlines are reducing costs these days so as to offer cheaper and cheaper fares to passengers. Thus they charge passengers for food, extra weight, headphones, etc. Have a look at this video which satirizes low cost airlines and the fact they almost sell everything so as to make a profit. What is your opinion on low cost airlines?

Complaining practice

2008-06-01T22:08:00.008+02:00

We are currently dealing with written and oral complaints in tourism. I asked my students from the third year of the Tourism Degree to perform a short role play based on a complaint related to the tourism sector. Thank you Cristina and Tamara for volunteering to be the first ones! This is a complaint about a hotel room.

Where in the world?

2008-05-25T14:17:00.029+02:00

When you work in the Tourism sector it is important to have a good knowledge of where places are: imagine you have to book a holidays for some clients, or you just have to recommend some vacation to a client or simply you are just curious about exactly where a tourist comes from. Check your world geography playing this game. I bet you don´t find it that easy. Good luck! PLAY!
If you want to concentrate on your European geography knowledge, you can do this QUIZ.
Thanks to Ana Concejero for letting me know about the World Traveller IQ game.

Travelling in Europe

2008-05-25T11:19:00.008+02:00

There is an interesting website that gathers all the information you need to travel within Europe. Have a look!

Remember Europe is a continent with thousands of years of history and a rich cultural heritage! So there is much for the traveller to discover and explore and all made much easier thanks to the European Union (EU). You can cross many borders within the EU without being checked and the euro makes it easier to move from country to country. If you drive, your driving licence and motor insurance policy issued in one EU country are valid in all the others. And you can use your mobile phone everywhere.

Working in Europe

2008-05-15T16:07:00.015+02:00

When you apply for a job, it is usual to include a curriculum vitae, or CV (called résumé in the

). This is a list of your personal details, educational history, qualifications, experience, and interests—that is to say, the story of your life from a professional point of view. Europass is a new way of helping people to make their skills and qualifications clearly and easily understood in Europe (European Union, EFTA/EEA and candidate countries) and move anywhere in Europe.

There are many different models of CVs but you should definitely start using the Europass Curriculum Vitae. Have a look at different models of Europass CVs and then write your own Europass CV online.

Celebrating Europe Day (9 May)

2008-05-12T14:31:00.005+02:00

You may have come across a reference in a diary or elsewhere to the fact that 9 May is "Europe Day" and perhaps asked about its significance. Probably very few people in Europe know that on 9 May 1950 the first move was made towards the creation of what is now known as the European Union thanks to The Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950.
I have a question for you all as a way to celebrate "Europe Day." WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE EUROPEAN? Please, feel free to participate leaving your messages!
Have a look at this video for inspiration!

Is Europe a country?

2008-05-11T18:41:00.005+02:00

When working in the Tourism Industry, it is important to have a good knowledge of geography and know where countries are. Imagine that you have to give someone advice on going to some country and you don´t even know where it is on the map. It would be very embarassing!

Have a look at this video and see how someone struggles with locating Budapest and states Europe is a country:

*Please ignore the comment on women.

How many languages do you speak?

2008-05-11T00:54:00.009+02:00

Language learning is something that everyone can do. You're never too old or too young to learn a language!
In many countries it is quite normal for most people to be able to use several languages. These people are better able to move between countries for educational, professional or other reasons. Their linguistic skills are attractive to employers.
The European Commission wants everybody in the Union to share these benefits. In its 1995 White Paper “Teaching and Learning: towards the learning society”, it set the objective of all EU citizens being proficient in three European languages: their mother tongue plus two more.
Have a look at this map from a report of the Eurobarometer of Europeans and their Languages from 2006. Do the countries from Southern Europe have anything in common?
If you cannot see the map, click on it.

Describing a festivity

2008-05-10T18:32:00.004+02:00

As this weekend the El Rocío festivity is taking place, I found this video about El Rocío in English that can help students to learn how to describe festivities and present them to people who know nothing about it. Enjoy!

Spanish Festival - El Rocio

Can you say.....?

2008-05-10T18:02:00.007+02:00

One of the most common problems students have is pronouncing English words. Speaking and pronouncing words in a way listeners can understand is a very important skill in the tourism industry.
So as not to make a big deal of pronunciation let´s have a look at this video and have a good laugh before starting to work hard again!

The beginning

2008-05-10T17:31:00.003+02:00

I have been working with ICT and the teaching of English for several years now. Although the idea of creating a blog crossed my mind many times, I never found the time to sit down and do it. However, today was the day and I finally decided to give shape to that blog that was always lingering next to me.
I have been teaching English for Tourism (level B1) at the University of Huelva since 2004. In the last 4 years I have managed to gather plenty of online resources to help my students so I thought why not to share my findings with everybody else? and of course, why not get some feedback from people? As you can read in the heading of this blog, this blog is meant for those people interested in English in relation to tourism, although any other student of English will also find it useful and perhaps some teachers could find useful some links, videos, etc posted here. So I hope this is the beginning of a fruitful blog . . .