Setting a good example - Cactus’ Director of Studies demonstrates multilingualism at its best
Friday, 11th December 2009
Director of Studies at Cactus, Rod Mitchell, tells us about learning and maintaining his impressive set of language skills.
1. How many languages do you speak, and to what level?
I can speak quite a few languages - six well, some not so well, and ‘bits and pieces’ of others.
Well : English and Brokan (bilingual), French, Italian, Irish, Kalau Kawau Ya
Not so well : Sardinian, Tok Pisin, Gaelic, Dutch, Spanish
Bits and Pieces : Indonesian-Malay, German, Japanese
But I also used to know more of some, like Farsi and Vietnamese - but now I’ve pretty well forgotten everything.
2. Where/how did you learn them?
Some by living in the community and just by communicating (Brokan, Italian, Sardinian, Kalau Kawau Ya, Tok Pisin).
Some at school, university, language college or by by ‘teaching myself’ and then by living in the community and otherwise communicating (French, Indonesian-Malay, Dutch, Spanish, German, Japanese.
3. Which do you use most?
Right now : English, French, Italian, Spanish - but it changes according to where I am and who I am with
4. What is your favourite language?
My favourite languages – Irish/Gaelic (ancestoral languages), Brokan/Kalau Kawau Ya, Sardinian (my wife’s language) …
5. Which was the hardest to learn and why?
Well - none of them, really. The learning is not so difficult, it is the opportunities for ‘keeping things up’ that is harder! You’ve got to make time.
6. How do you keep your language skills up?
By using them, reading, on-line resources (multi-media), and so on.
7. What were you doing prior to joining Cactus?
I was managing a small language school in Tuscany.
8. What are the main aspects/components of your job here?
I manage pretty-well everything to do with the academic side of things, along with Jenny, the Academic Director, and Augusta, the Director of Studies based in the US.
9. What challenges have you encountered since you started?
The challenge that ‘jam kerat’ does not exist - you just can’t stretch time in this place!
10. What are you enjoying most about the role?
Pretty well everything really, although, of course, it would always be nice to spend more time with our students and teachers!
Tags: language, languages, cactus, italian, learning, german, french, spanish, english
Posted by Laura Lippert 2009-12 under
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Posted by Richard on 02/01 at 11:57 PM
Do you think anyone can learn languages, or that in fact, some people really are just gifted?