Cactus and Hove Park School celebrate the European Day of Languages
Monday, 28th September 2009
On Friday 25th September, Cactus Language Training took part in a European Day of Languages event at Hove Park School. Germaine Broadbent tells us about the day…
Peyman Shemali, one of Cactus’ Language Course Coordinators, gave a fascinating account of his life, starting in the north of Iran, taking him to Holland at the age of 11 and travelling the world after that as a journalist. Peyman was very clear that he would not have had the opportunity to travel and work as a journalist if it hadn’t been for his language skills - he speaks Farsi, English and Dutch fluently and is currently working on Lithuanian.
Peyman’s fantastic photographs & his international outlook, knowledge and approach mesmerized the pupils. And the international nature of the children we encountered mesmerized me. A Turkish girl who told us about Turkish greetings, two girls from Lithuania & Hungary respectively, Portugal & Brazil, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Sweden and Holland were all represented within the 4 classes we met.
Margot, a polish teacher from Cactus, also came along to teach some basic Polish and easy-to-remember vocab, such as cool = ‘spoko’ and nice = ‘fayne’. Every child who came into contact with Margot was told to look up ‘Myslovitz’ to get a taste of polish music… http://www.myspace.com/myslovitz .
Joining Cactus on the day were representatives from BUPA & Equity Travel and Amex. I introduced myself to all 3 companies. Cactus has worked with them previously but with various staff changes on both sides it was good to make contact again during the day. I also caught up with Cathy Watt & Clare Forder from Brighton University. Cathy is the Director of Routes into Languages South Consortia & Clare the administrator.
Clare Stenning, Director for Languages at Hove Park School, put on a great event - with a lovely lunch too! Cactus has been working with Hove Park School for several years promoting language learning & language take up at GCSE, and we will certainly be back for next year’s European Day of Languages event.
On another note, I should be catching up with Clare soon in my new role as Diploma Ambassador for Language & international Communication within Brighton & Hove, which I’m really excited about. Burt before that, I’ll be meeting up with Therese Cole from the EBP to find out more about the role & its responsibilities!
Tags: hove park school, european day of languages
Posted by Michelle Curtis 2009-09 under Cactus Language Worldwide, Cactus News, Cactus Tailor-made, Cactus News, Passion for language,
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