During the immersion semester, Aaron stayed with the host family of Mr and Mrs Robert Heslop. He shared with us his cultural expedition with a typical English family. "Mr Heslop is an English gentleman. I learned a lot from him. He opened up my eyes to the English culture. I learned a lot in particular at the dinner table. Mr Heslop advised me on various aspects of table manners. He has a superb collection of knives and forks, each piece serving a different function."

Aaron found that Englishmen enjoy debating. "The topics may vary, but it fascinated me when they debated on different issues; politics and religion were among their favourite subjects. Immersing myself in their social gatherings helped to brush up my critical thinking. I once debated with them on East meets West cultural dilemmas. It was such an interesting experience and I found it was also a good way to get to know my new friends better."

Recalling the first few weeks of living in the host family, Aaron said he sometimes couldn't catch what was being said when jargon or slang were used. To get into the culture, he forced himself to learn quickly and found some expressions really interesting. To quote a few: "lad" for boys, "lass" for girls, "bonnie" for beautiful, "mint" for cool, "canny" or "classy" for good. "I would never have learnt such things from books without the immersion experience," Aaron said.