Alistair King - a great ambassador for Cactus and our courses
Tuesday, 28th June 2011
Alistair King has been learning Swedish with Cactus since 2009 and in an impressive achievement has now completed all the levels. He kindly agreed to talk to us about his motivations for learning, and his experience of Cactus.
Alistair, a Marketing Manager at London-based legal publisher Justis, began learning Swedish primarily because his partner is from Sweden. In fact, the majority of people on his course were learning for the same reason. Alistair and his wife now have a one-year-old son, who they hope to bring up bilingual, and for Alistair it is very important that he is proficient in both of the languages that his son will speak. Being able to speak Swedish also comes in handy when visiting family in Sweden, although it is by no means essential as most people there speak English to an impressively high standard!
As Alistair also pointed out, learning a language that is not as commonly spoken as the likes of Spanish and French does have other advantages. For a start, with fewer speakers, there will probably be fewer translators and interpreters, which could spell good job opportunities for anyone who achieves fluency. In the case of Swedish, there is also the benefit that once you’ve learnt that language, you’ll also have some understanding of Danish and Norwegian, which have similar linguistic roots.
As Alistair discovered during his initial search for a course, there aren’t a huge amount of language training providers that offer Swedish in group format. He came across the Cactus website via a Google search though, and the user-friendliness of the site and the reasonable price of the course in Bond Street persuaded him to sign up. After completing the first beginners level, he skipped the second and went straight on to do the elementary level course. Since then, he has successfully completed all levels, and is now keeping up his language skills with a weekly conversation course.
Completing all course levels and reaching the level of proficiency that he has in just two years is impressive, and what Alistair has achieved serves as a great demonstration of what hard work and motivation can do. He says that having a clear goal certainly helps you stay motivated, and encourages you to do as much work both in and outside of lessons as possible. That said, he maintains that no matter what language you are learning and why, if you work hard and stick with it, you’ll find after a few months that you feel a real ownership of, and passion for, the language.
Perhaps because Swedish is less commonly learnt than other European languages, Alistair found that he has remained in groups with many of the same students since the outset. As a result, he has got to know them quite well and has enjoyed a real sense of camaraderie during his learning. He has really enjoyed the lessons, and looks forward to catching up with his fellow students each week - especially now that, as a parent, an active social life is not top of the agenda!
Alistair has had three different teachers throughout the various levels, the last four of which have been taught by Josefine. All three teachers have been very good, but Josefine in particular has consistently given balanced, engaging lessons that have proved very successful to his learning. In the conversation classes especially, she knows exactly when to pick up on a mistake or make an observation without impeding the flow of the class.
Overall, Alistair has been extremely pleased with the courses that he has taken with Cactus, and is keen to keep up his skills through further conversation courses and, of course, the help of his family. We wish him the very best of luck with his endeavours.
For more information on Cactus’ evening courses, including listings of the languages offered, please visit www.languagecoursesuk.co.uk
Tags: swedish, evening course, course, language, london, languages, cactus, learning, english
Posted by Laura Lippert 2011-06 under Attitudes to Language Learning,
Permalink
