Evdo

How people of Leicester spend their free time
A Report on a Survey and Questionnaire
Conducted in Leicester
2nd-5th September 2014

Authors / Researches: Valanidis Giorgos Zhang Yaqi Mouskou Evdokia

Pre-Sessional English Course 2014
De Montfort University, 8th September 2014

Table Of Contents:
1. Abstract …………………………………………………………………. 3
2. Introduction ……………………………………………………………... 4
3. Methodology. ………………………………………………………….....5
4. Results …………………………………..…...........................................6
5. Discussion. ……………………………………………………………….9
6. Conclusion and Recommendations ……………..…….......................11
7. References ………………………........................................................12
8. Appendix…………………………………….…………………………....13

Diagrams
Figure 1: Nationalities…………………..……….……………………….…6
Figure 2: Activities……………………………….…………….………...….7
Figure 3: Preferred places…………………………….…………………...7
Figure 4: Time on leisure activities…………………………………......…8

1. Abstract:
Leisure time is necessary and is particularly valuable because of intensification of work, the fast pace of life and loneliness of modern man. This report investigates how people in Leicester spend their free time. It aim is to help government have a better understanding on how residents spend their free time and concentrating in developing and improving people’s life qualities. The results showed that most of the people have free time more than 2 hours. The majority of people who answered the questionnaire were students and their mainly activities that are preferred are Surfing on Internet and Watching TV or Films. Generally it is observed that people and mostly students choose to stay indoors for leisure time. To conclude, despite the fact that most people prefer to stay at home also there is a percentage of people that prefer to spend their time outdoors because Leicester is a place with many facilities that everyone can take advantage of them.

2. Introduction
It is commonly believed that free time is something that everyone need. Also it is true that we live in a complex and stressful world and a big variety of people suffer from workload and they do not have extra time for leisure activities. This project focuses on the leisure time of people in Leicester. The purpose of the survey is to explore if people have free time, how they spend their free time and what activities they prefer to do in order to provide some recommendations to the town council for the development and improvements on the facilities in Leicester. However, this research has some limitations since it focuses mostly to international students. International students are just a group, which cannot reflect the residents or local opinion here, which is not very comprehensive, and result in our discussion has preference which is not dialectical.

3. Methodology:
The strategy that was used in this study was based on quantitative and qualitative research.
Questionnaires were prepared by all the members of the research team in order to provide some observations in numerical representations. Thirty people, both females and males from Leicester with deferent nationalities were asked to complete the questionnaire, which was delivered by hand. It was made clear to them that the survey was taken anonymously and the results were for the research purpose only. The ages of the respondents were separated into three groups, starting with 18 years old and under, 18-25 and 25 years old and over.
It was chosen to have different ages in order to have more a variety of answers and opinions.
Moreover based on the results that were collected from questionnaires the graphical descriptive analysis was conducted with the help of computer software. Different kinds of charts were used in order to have a more clear view of the data and make the comparisons easier.
Besides this the quantitative research’s aim was to provide some more in-depth insights and generating ideas and hypotheses from the quantitative research. Considering the fact that the survey’s focus was mostly to international people who live in Leicester, limitations are exists, as a consequence the results may not be sufficient and representative.

4. Results:
A questionnaire that was prepared by the research team includes 10 questions related to leisure time. It was delivered by hand to thirty people with different nationalities in Leicester and people who live in Leicester currently. With the help of computer software, the data from the questionnaires was converted into charts. The first figure shows the nationalities of people who volunteers in the questionnaire and it is observed that the majority of people are from China. Then at figure 2 a pie chart is presented showing the mainly activities of people in Leicester. Figure 3 shows a bar chart that illustrates the places that are preferred for leisure time. The final graph is a bar chart, which gives some information about the time that people spend on leisure activities.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Discussion
This part focuses on analyzing the results from the questionnaire in a more depth insights.
Figure 1 presents the range of nationalities of people who volunteered in the survey. It is cleared that the majority of people who answered the questionnaires were international students. More analytically 30% were students from China, 23% of people were from England, 17% from Greece and a small percentage of participants were from India and Japan. Based on these results, it could mean that the population of Leicester might increase over the years because of the large number of international students who are choosing to study in Leicester. Based on that it can be predicted that the income of the government in UK will rise significantly.
Figure 2 presents the activities that are preferred by people, most of them like surfing on the Internet and watching TV/Films. Also only 8% of people like shopping. A probable reason why surfing in the Internet is the mainly activity for most people is that it provides you the ability to keep in conduct with others through the variety of social sites. (Unknown Author, 2011).The fact that the majority of the responders were international students makes Internet one of the best ways to contact with their families and friends. Also through internet shopping can be made online since many shops in Leicester have their own online website. Considering all the above it could be concluded that most of people do not prefer to do something active and creative in their free time. As a result this may not help them develop their socializing skills and may face some difficulties in cooperating with other colleagues in the university as most of the responders are international students.
According to figure 3, it can be observed that the majority of people prefer to stay indoors. Actually seven out of twenty-five people prefer to stay at home and only three people prefer to go at the town centre at leisure time. Barrow (2013) identified similar results with this report. This might happens because almost all the cafes in Leicester, as a common place of entertainment for most people, close too early at the evening while some other restaurants and bars that remain open are too expensive. Also in the UK and especially in Leicester the shops at the town centre might be expensive for most of the respondents of the research because considering the fact that most of them were form China, life in Leicester may seems expensive in comparison to their country. This supports the findings of Killelea (2013), which have showed similar results.
As for figure 4, the bar chart shows how many hours, people spend on their free time. It is illustrated that most people who answered the questionnaire have more than two hours free time and a small number of people have one to two hours or less an hour for free time. This may happens because the majority of the respondents were students who their program is not so busy than an older person who have more obligations in their daily routine.

Conclusion and Recommendations
Leisure time is a valuable and essential need because of the exhausting daily routine of modern men. The purpose of the present study was to examine how people in Leister spend their free time. Based on the results from the questionnaire that was collected from thirty people with different nationalities and ages it can be clearly seen that people in Leicester and mainly international students have more than two hours to spend on free time. Also the most popular leisure activities were surfing on the Internet and watching TV or films. As for the most preferred places it was observed that the majority of people prefer to stay indoors.

Generally the findings showed that people did not use their leisure time efficiently and creatively. That might happened because the respondents of this report were mostly international students with deferent culture and habits and they cannot be compared with the local people.

It is suggested that the Government should take some actions for the improvement and development of the facilities mostly for students or organizes various events for international students in order to introduce and give some information about the activities are provided in Leicester. Also it will be good to build or renovate shops with special products to be easy for international students find goods from their country.

References

BAROW M. (2013) What do British people like doing at the weekends? [WWW] Available from: http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/weekends.htm

KILLELEA A. (2013) The cost of living: How prices in UK compare with rest of world [WWW] Available from: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/cost-living-how-prices-uk-2859861

Unknown Author (2011) Keeping in Touch [WWW] Available from: http://www.expatinfodesk.com/expat-guide/keeping-in-touch/ [Accessed 05/09/14]

Appendix

Questionnaire

Part 1 Basic Information
1. Are you Male or Female?
a) Male b) Female

2. Indicate you age.
a) Under 18 b) 18-25 c) 25+

3. Your nationality _________________

4. Do you have free time?
a) Yes b) No
*If yes, please continue to part 2, if no, this is the end. Thank you for your cooperation.

Part 2: Leisure Time
1. How much time do you spend on your leisure activities each day?
a) Less than an hour b) Between 1 to 2hours c) More than two hours

2. Who do you like to spend your free time with?
a) Friends b) Family c) Alone

3. What activities do you like to do in your free time?
a) Watching TV & Film b) Sports c) Playing Video Games

d) Listening to Music e) Dancing f) Shopping
g) Surfing on Internet h) Other

4. Where do you prefer to spend your free time?
a) Gym b) Cinema c) Home
d) Park e) Town f) Shopping Centre
g) Other

5. Do you have any hobbies?
a) Yes b) No

6. What are your hobbies?

a) Watching TV & Film b) Sports c) Playing Video Games

d) Listening to Music e) Dancing f) Shopping
g) Surfing on Internet h) Other

Thank you

References: BAROW M. (2013) What do British people like doing at the weekends? [WWW] Available from: http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/weekends.htm KILLELEA A Unknown Author (2011) Keeping in Touch [WWW] Available from: http://www.expatinfodesk.com/expat-guide/keeping-in-touch/ [Accessed 05/09/14] Appendix