Student Life and Extracurricular Activities – B2 English Listening Exercise

9 classical music 10 website 11 Thursday 12 train tickets

13 festival 14 front row 15 youth hostel

16 team-building 17 heavy snow 18 podcast

Liam: Hi everyone, my name is Liam, and I’m in my second year at university. I’m here to talk to you about my experience with extracurricular activities, specifically the university music society. When I first arrived on campus, I assumed most societies were dedicated to sports, but I was thrilled to find such a vibrant music scene. We explore various genres; while a lot of my friends in the group absolutely love jazz, my personal passion has always been classical music, which is actually the main focus of our ensemble.

Getting involved was surprisingly easy. I used to spend hours looking at noticeboards around the campus for information, but I actually found all the audition details and schedules on the university website. They do have a social media page now, but the official site is where everything is properly organized.

Once I joined, I had to figure out my schedule. I originally hoped we’d rehearse on a Tuesday, as my timetable is pretty light that day. However, it turns out the society gathers every Thursday evening. We use the main rehearsal hall, and it’s always the highlight of my week.

But without a doubt, the greatest benefit of being in this society is the support we get from the university’s music department. They have a special fund for society members. While they don’t cover the costs of our instruments, which is a shame, they do heavily subsidize our train tickets. This means we can afford to travel nationwide to watch professional musicians perform, which is incredibly inspiring.

Last month, we took full advantage of this funding. We had a long debate about where to go. Some members wanted to see a standalone symphony performance in London, but we ultimately chose to attend a weekend festival up north instead, simply because it featured a much wider variety of acts over three days.

The venue was absolutely spectacular. When we booked, we fully expected to be placed right at the back in the balcony, given how cheap our student rate was. But thanks to the organizers, we were actually given seats in the front row! Seeing the musicians up close like that was an unforgettable experience.

Of course, we had to be mindful of our budget when it came to accommodation. Staying in a hotel was definitely out of the question for us. We looked into renting a large guest house, but we ended up booking a youth hostel right in the city centre. It was basic, but it was cheap, cheerful, and perfect for our needs.

Going on these subsidized excursions isn’t just about listening to great music. Some lecturers view it as a purely educational experience, but for me, it acts as brilliant team-building. You get to spend hours chatting with people you might only usually see during rehearsals, and it really strengthens our friendships.

It wasn’t all perfect, though. We had a major issue on our way back to campus. I had been worried about potential delays because of a train strike I’d heard about on the news. As it turned out, it was actually heavy snow that caused our journey to be delayed by over three hours! We were exhausted by the time we got back.

Despite that, we’re already planning our next steps. We currently write a short newsletter about our activities, but next term we are going to launch a podcast. We want to interview student musicians and review the professional concerts we attend. So, if you’re interested in music, I highly recommend joining us!

9 posters 10 confident 11 primary schools 12 independence

13 keyboard 14 rhythm 15 patience

16 stickers 17 behaviour 18 summer camp

Liam: Hi everyone, my name is Liam, and I’m a second-year university student studying Music and Education. I’m here today to talk to you about a fantastic community outreach program I’ve been involved in over the past year.

When I first arrived at university, I knew I wanted to do some sort of volunteering. I initially thought about joining the sports coaching team, as I love football. But then I saw some posters around campus advertising the music outreach project, and I knew immediately that it was the perfect fit for me.

The premise of the project is simple: a group of us go into local schools to deliver short talks and put on musical performances. I expected to feel quite nervous before our first school visit, given that presenting to a room full of energetic kids can be daunting. But because we’d rehearsed so much as a team, I actually felt surprisingly confident when we arrived.

We do get requests from different types of educational institutions. We occasionally go to secondary schools to talk to teenagers, but the vast majority of our visits are to primary schools, as the younger kids seem to respond best to the interactive nature of our music.

Our sessions are divided into two parts. Before the music starts, we give a short talk about university life. We don’t focus much on the academic side or the exams, because that might be boring for them. Instead, we talk about the independence you develop when you leave home and have to manage your own time and meals.

Then comes the fun part—the performance. My main instrument is the guitar, and I was hoping to play that. But we already had two guitarists in the group. So, I ended up playing the keyboard for these sessions, which was a fun change and really helped round out our sound.

We play a mix of classical and modern pop pieces. We assumed the kids would be fascinated by the catchy melodies, but actually, it was the rhythm of the pieces that got them clapping, stomping, and jumping around. It was amazing to see how naturally they reacted to the beat.

Being part of this project has helped me develop various personal skills. My public speaking is definitely better, and I’ve learned how to project my voice. But it’s my patience that has truly improved the most, especially when dealing with very excited children who all want to ask questions at the same time.

Keeping a large group of kids focused isn’t always easy. To keep them engaged, we originally tried handing out badges as a reward for answering questions, but those turned out to be a bit too expensive to buy in bulk. So now we give them stickers at the end of the session, which they absolutely love and proudly stick on their jumpers.

We always make sure to ask the teachers for feedback after our visits. They often say our sessions inspire the kids to pick up an instrument, but they told us they were most impressed by the positive effect on the children’s behaviour for the rest of the day. They are apparently much more focused in their afternoon classes.

Looking ahead, our group has some exciting ideas. We’re not planning to expand to more schools during the academic term, as our university workload is too heavy. However, we are organising a summer camp next year to bring all the kids from the different schools together for a full week of musical activities.