Cactus Language Blog

10 Good Reasons to TEFL

Posted by Sarah under Cactus TEFL, English, Learning a language

Laura Harrison, Cactus TEFL Advisor, gives us the expert opinion…
1. Travel
TEFL gives you a perfect way to see the world and fund your travel. Some people start teaching in one place, fall in love with it, and stay for a long time. Others however prefer to change location every year, and by so doing literally [...]

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Tags:Cactus TEFL, EFL, English Language Awareness, teaching English, tefl, TEFL course, TESOL

Language Holidays for the Over 50s

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, English, French, German, Italian, Learning a language, Spanish

Why learn a language later in life?
With an increasingly ‘older’ population, and people living for longer, it is not surprising that the over 50s and retirees are now enjoying, and demanding more, of their free time. Many now have the time, money and freedom to indulge in existing passions and explore new interests, whether at [...]

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Tags:language learning over 50s, Learning a language, learning later in life, young at heart

Language Learning: Setting Yourself Goals

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, English, French, German, Italian, Learning a language, Spanish

When you learn something new - whether it’s a sport, a musical instrument or a foreign language - it can really help to have a goal, or set of goals. A goal will not only motivate you and provide the impetus to keep going; it will also give you a valuable means of tracking [...]

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Tags:Cambridge Further Exams, CELI, DELE, DELF, language exam preparation course, language holiday abroad, language learning, language learning goals, TestDaf

The Role of Music in Second Language Learning

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, English, Learning a language

A recent blog post made me wonder why language teachers like to get lyrical…
Having attended various language courses across the world, from Cuba to Italy to Argentina, it’s always interested me how local language teachers are so keen to incorporate singing into their lessons. There hasn’t been one course where I haven’t had to listen [...]

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Tags:Argentina, Cuba, EFL, italy, second language learning, singing, tefl, Vietnam

Learning English & German in Brighton…as a Spaniard!

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, English, German, Language Courses UK, Learning a language

Cactus intern Fátima Rego tells us how she juggles English & German during her stay in Brighton
Hello to all. Thanks for your warm welcome! I am called Fátima, Spanish (from the north-north), and I’ve been living in Brighton for three months. I work in a wonderful company, Cactus, that has offered me the possibility of [...]

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Tags:English, German evening course, language courses in Brighton, learn English, learning German

CELTA in Ljubljana, Slovenia - a trainer’s first-hand account

Posted by Sarah under Cactus TEFL, English

Hi readers. I’m Bill Harris, a freelance CELTA trainer, and this is my first report on my training experiences around the world.

I’m writing on my day off in the living room of my spacious apartment in Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia, with occasional forays onto the terrace for some sun.
Slovenia…not to be confused with Slovakia [...]

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Tags:CELTA, Slovenia, teaching practice, tefl

Did Obama get it right or not?

Posted by augusta under Cactus Languages Abroad, English, In the Press, Learning a language

It’s not only Obama’s comment about learning languages that has been interesting over the past week here in New York - “we should have every child speaking more than one language” - but also the responses from a range of groups who agree and disagree with him to varying extents.

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Tags:English, French, Japanese, learning languages, Obama

The Language of the EU

Posted by Sarah under English, French, German, In the Press, Italian

Augusta Nicol, Director of Studies at Cactus New York, comments on Berlusconi’s latest upset
Silvio Berlusconi, the intractable and obstinate Italian Prime Minister, has thrown a tantrum over the fact that EU meetings use the languages that most Europeans speak, and not Italian (read full article in EUobserver here).
He has “advised his ministers to walk out [...]

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Tags:Berlusconi, EU, Italian

Why Study English in New York?

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, Cactus Staff Opinion, English, Language Courses New York, Learning a language

In my case, although there are a lot of Koreans in New York, I chose to come here to learn English. I was studying English in Florida and Hawaii because I was worried that I would not have as many opportunities to practise my English in New York, due to the number of Koreans studying [...]

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Tags:English, english in Florida, english in hawaii, New York

Cactus Opinion: London (by Laura Harrison)

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, Cactus Staff Opinion, English, Language Courses UK

Laura Harrison of Cactus TEFL gives us her thoughts on London
To a self-confessed country bumpkin like me, London had always seemed like a gigantic, alien and scary place. This image was no doubt exacerbated by schoolyard tales of city-dwelling elder siblings, whose witnessing of stabbings on the tube trains and muggings in the park had [...]

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Tags:English, london