Recent research suggests that language use outside the classroom is vital for students who want to reach high levels of proficiency and that a balance between classroom and out-of-class learning is important (Lai, 2015). This is all the more so for students of English in Australia, where there is often a strong expectation that students will be 'immersed' in English language environments outside the classroom (Kashiwa & Benson, 2017). Indeed, this is stressed in the marketing promises of many Australian English language colleges. A review of some of the major college websites reveals the use of attractive images of groups of young people happily engaged in indoor and outdoor social activities. This Brief Report presents some preliminary findings from two exploratory studies investigating the expectations that ELICOS students have about opportunities to use English in Australia in real-life out-of-class settings, and what the reality of out-of-class life is actually like for them.