Meet Jamie, Cactus’ ‘record’ evening course student
Monday, 2nd November 2009
In October 2009 Jamie Wilkinson started not one, but THREE evening language courses with Cactus! We found out his motivations for learning, and what he thinks of the courses so far…
Jamie, a Pharmacy student at Kingston University, is currently learning French, German and Croatian with us at various centres around London…quite a feat for anyone, but especially someone in full time education! He would like to work internationally within his industry in the future, and is keen to gain foreign language skills in order to achieve this.
Out of all the languages that he is learning. Jamie is currently most proficient in French. Like most people in the UK he was taught French in school, but felt that that his skills were still fairly basic when he left secondary education. It was only when he secured a two month placement in France at the end of his third year at university that the need arose for him to re-kindle his schoolboy French. He used various self-study materials to do a bit of brushing up before he left, although he still struggled a little to start with! He really enjoyed his time in France though, and decided when he returned to keep up his new found French skills with an evening course once a week.
Jamie also learnt German at school, but again felt that the skills he gained in this language were minimal. He is taking an elementary German course at our Bond Street school, and feels that this method of learning suits him better than the strict, exam-focussed environment of secondary school.
Croatian is a language that Jamie has never learnt before, but one that he feels will become more useful as Croatia heads towards joining the EU. He has attended conferences in Croatia, and has friends from this part of the world, both of which have inspired him to choose this language.
So far Jamie is enjoying all of his classes. He says that all have a suitable number of people per class- no more than 12- and his teachers are all competent and friendly. For him, it’s nice to be able to learn in a fun environment, without the stress of exams hanging over his head.
When asked whether learning so many languages at once means that he ever gets confused, he said that he is quite strict about allotting one day per week to each language, so that he only focuses on one at a time. So far this seems to be working ok!
His one piece of advice to other people considering taking an evening course would be to make sure that they always do their homework. Jamie himself is very dedicated when it comes to studying outside of lessons, and makes sure that he watches foreign TV channels and listens to foreign radio stations. He also makes use of self-study CDs and downloadable learning resources – his MP3 player is full of useful material that he can listen to as he goes about his daily life, which ensures that he can really immerse himself in his learning. A great example to follow!
More about evening language courses in the UK
More about evening language courses in the US
Tags: croatian, evening course, language course, language, course, london, languages, cactus, france, learning, german, french
Posted by Laura Lippert 2009-11 under
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