Cactus made its first appearance in the Brighton Fringe Festival this weekend! Flamenco Flow had its two final ‘Flamenco con Fusion’ shows on Sunday 11th May - both a huge success - and, as sponsors, it was great to see our new banners on stage standing tall and proud. My work remit stretched to one dress change, handing out flyers for the Cactus Fringe events and even selling CDs! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:Brighton Festival Fringe, dance, flamenco, language holidays, spain, Spanish

Posted in: Cactus Languages Abroad, Cactus TEFL, Cactus Tailormade, Language Courses New York, Language Courses UK, Learning a language, Press Release, Spanish | Comments(0)

Cactus Sales Director Germaine Broadbent speaks about Cactus’ role in the Olympics

What a week for thoughts of the future - particularly London 2012 and the Olympics in general. Cactus’ involvement with the Olympic Games began in 2006 when Cactus Language Training successfully conducted an Olympic English Language Training Course for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics bid team. Sochi won and is now the host of the 2014 Olympic Games! I like to think that our support, research and solid teaching played a part in helping Sochi achieve the success it deserved. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:Beijing, brighton, Cactus Language Training, in-company language training, London 2012, Olympic Games, Olympics, Sochi

Posted in: Cactus Languages Abroad, Cactus Tailormade, Language Courses New York, Language Courses UK | Comments(0)

The team at Cactus has a certain reputation for celebrating whatever event they can possibly justify to themselves is worth opening a bottle for. Birthdays stand out though, and usually see an amount of bubbling alcoholic liquid - be it Koelnsh, Cava or Kronenburg - combined with sickly M&S buns, biscuits and crisps.

Not, however, in the case of Cactus’ own Amy Emerson in Finance. The usual Cactus confection has been utterly upstaged, with the arrival of the latest in a long line of cakes from Amy’s mum. So massive thanks to Cakes R Us!

Cakes R Us
Novelty Cakes Made for All Occasions
Tel: 01273 323 562
Mobile: 07870 793 572

Posted in: News | Comments(0)

TEFL Course Advisor Laura Harrison tells us about her Italian course in Cagliari, Sardinia 

For anyone wanting to sample that legendary Italian hospitality…and cookery, Cagliari is the place to go.

The school in Cagliari is a fantastic place to learn or improve your Italian. It benefits from a perfect city centre location, and is big enough to provide a good learning environment, but small enough that the atmosphere remains personal. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:Cagliari, Italian course, language course, language learning, Sardinia

Posted in: Cactus Languages Abroad | Comments(0)

A government report today shows that the share of pupils in England’s schools speaking English as a second language has reached a new high.  The latest figures translate to around 470,080 pupils in primary schools and 354,300 pupils in seconday schools.

It’s clear that this trend is putting extra demands on schools and teachers alike, who are struggling to cope with the numbers of children arriving from abroad with little or no English.   In fact, local authorities have been calling for emergency funds to help them respond to these demands on education and other services.

Currently, there’s no specific money designated to ESOL training (English to Speakers of other Languages)  in state schools.  The government  needs to make money available but this shouldn’t come out of individual school budgets, as some schools are obviously more in need than others, particuarly in urban areas.

What’s required is a coherent nationwide strategy for ESOL provision.  In particular, SENCOs (Special Educational Needs Coordinators) and EAL link teachers (English as Additional Language) need to be given proper advice and support about training provision.  There also needs to be more funding to help children adapt culturally at their new schools, enabling them to integrate and feel part of school life.

Tags:BBC, ESOL, non-English speaking pupils

Posted in: Cactus Languages Abroad | Comments(0)

Senior Language Holiday Advisor Elvira Rodriguez tells us about her fam trip to Pamplona, Spain (April 08) 

Hemingway fell in love with Pamplona and wrote a few novels based on this proud and ancient capital of Navarra, especially its world-renowned festival of San Fermin (the running of the bulls). Beautiful novels came out of his experience under the titles of  A Dangerous Summer, Sun Also Rises and Death in the Afternoon. Despite Pamplona being widely known for this festival, it lasts just one week and the ”running” each day takes as little as 5 minutes! What do they do the rest of the year? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:language learning, Navarra, Pamplona, pintxos, running of the bulls, spain, Spanish, wine tasting

Posted in: Cactus Languages Abroad, Cactus Staff Opinion, Learning a language, Spanish | Comments(0)

Laura Harrison, from Cactus TEFL, gives us her impressions on Vietnam

My first official ‘FAM’ trip for Cactus TEFL was, it’s fair to say, a good one.

I was told in autumn last year that I would have the opportunity to go to Vietnam, which gave me plenty of time to read up on this unknown and faraway land. In reality, however, no amount of literature could have prepared me for my experience in this hospitable, vibrant and fascinating country, that in all honestly I had never so much as considered visiting before. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:Asia, Cactus TEFL, Ho Chi Minh, teaching English, tefl, Vietnam

Posted in: Cactus Staff Opinion, Cactus TEFL | Comments(1)

Friend of Cactus, Claire Dillon, runs the New York Marathon for the Suzanne Furstner Foundation

On 4th November 2007 Claire Dillon, a close friend of Cactus,  ran the New York marathon in a fantastic 5 hours and 17 mins, in support of the Suzanne Furstner Foundation. Suzanne was a much-loved friend and colleague at Cactus who we tragically lost in a road accident in Spain on 22nd May 2006. She was Head of Cactus TEFL and, outside work, a keen and talented runner herself.

Here are Claire’s reports before, and after, her marathon run… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:Cactus TEFL, Language Courses New York, marathon, New York, Rich Ambler, Suzanne Furstner Foundation

Posted in: Cactus TEFL, Language Courses New York, News | Comments(0)

Steve Watkins, photographer and author of the best-selling BBC ‘Unforgettable’ series, tells us about his experiences with language learning…

1. Tell us a bit about what you do…

I’m a professional travel photographer and author. I’ve been working as a freelancer for the past 13 years and I am fortunate that I get to travel extensively around the world, getting to shoot images of trips and places that I’ve always dreamt of visiting.

2. How many countries have you been to?

Good question! It was 64 but it would have gone up during my last project for BBC Books…it must be about 70 countries now.

3. What languages do you speak?

I speak a few languages with varying degrees of success. By far my best language is Spanish which I speak around intermediate level. I also speak conversational French, a few words of Italian and Arabic and ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ in several other languages. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:career, Italian, language course, language learning, photography, Spanish, travel writing, unforgettable

Posted in: Cactus Languages Abroad, Learning a language | Comments(3)

It’s been whirlwind week for Anglo-French relations with Nicolas Sarkozy’s much anticipated state visit to the UK.  He wooed the British parliament yesterday with a speech in his native language, praising Britain and proposing joint action on key issues such as global warming, nuclear energy and immigration.

Ahead of the visit, Sarkozy had been taking intensive English lessons so that he could impress the Queen, although her French language skills are apparently pretty adept.  We can only speculate about how his conversation came across at the state banquet last night, but his commitment to forging closer relations with the UK through language is clear.  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:Carla Bruni, English lessons, Languages, Sarkozy, speech

Posted in: Cactus Languages Abroad | Comments(2)