How is Cactus’ approach helping increase the number of people learning a language?
Friday, 18th September 2009
Everyone who works at Cactus is passionate about languages. We love finding ways to inspire others, and are happy that we help so many people each year to learn such a priceless new skill.
Traditional methods of language learning have not always proved popular or successful with British people. In fact, it is often because of bad experiences at school that people are put off learning in later life, which is a shame.
Learning a language ‘your way’
At Cactus, we work under the banner ‘learn a language your way’. We feel that it is important to offer would-be language learners enough options to ensure that they can learn in a way that is convenient for them in terms of group size, pace, focus, location, timetable and frequency.
Fortunately, our vast range of learning options means that this is possible for everyone. We offer evening courses, week-intensive courses, weekend ‘crash’ courses, language courses abroad and one-to-one/tailor-made training – all of these with either General or Business focus.
Affordability
An aspect which can really discourage people from learning a language is the expense involved. Outside of secondary and tertiary education, any options to learn a language will cost you.
We aim to keep our prices as low as possible, and offer as many discounts for returning customers as we can.
Fun and relaxed environment
For us, it has always been of prime importance to ensure that we offer our clients a FUN and relaxed way to learn a language. The more enjoyable the learning experience, the more successful it will be. Our evening courses are all designed to offer this kind of learning environment, as are the language courses that we offer abroad. In fact, we now offer many courses abroad that are coupled with sporting and cultural activities to add to the element of fun, and complement time spent in the classroom.
Cultural interest
The way we see it, the more language learning can be linked to cultural aspects of the language and the countries where it is spoken, the better. We encourage our teachers to incorporate all of these elements into their classes, and ensure that students who go abroad to study are exposed to this side of things as much as possible. In some places we are even able to offer language courses that are coupled with cultural ctivities – for example, tango dancing in Buenos Aires, fashion design in Milan, cookery in Aix en Provence and even classical singing in Bologna!
Wide range of levels and languages
People in the UK often assume that if they want to learn a language their only options will be French, German, Spanish and possibly Italian. This is where we come in – we offer language training in more than 30 languages, meaning that people can learn whatever they want. Learning a language that is less commonly learnt than most can be really exciting, not to mention useful! Who needs to stick to the same old European languages when you have the likes of Mandarin, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish and Thai to choose from??
Tags: english, spanish, french, german, learning, italian, tailor-made, location, languages, language, cactus, course, language course, language learning, portuguese
Posted by Laura Harrison under Attitudes to Language Learning,
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