I’ve always had a love of languages, right the way back to my teenage years.
- English was the first foreign tongue I learned, and I took to it like a duck to water. It never felt like a chore and getting to know the language was a genuinely pleasurable experience for me.
- Then came German, which I learned up to A-level and found intriguing from a mechanical perspective.
When my professional career took me into the field of languages you might have thought I’d leverage the opportunity to get even more languages under my belt – but in fact, the opposite happened. I spent the last 20 years of my career growing my business and perfecting my coaching and business skills and, while my love and appreciation of languages never left me, making time to learn another language took a backseat.
I really loved getting a flavour of all of the languages the VICI offers and have always enjoyed sitting in on coaching and taster sessions, participating in lessons and joining in with cultural workshops.
My big plan has always been to travel to Latin America, with the objective of learning Spanish to facilitate true cultural immersion during my time there. But I still couldn’t seem to prioritise my own Spanish learning journey with everything that was going on around me.
The thing that finally changed this came from a totally different direction – my son. Being French/English bilingual, I wanted him to further capitalise on his language abilities and encouraged him to take Spanish at school – something he wasn’t at all happy about! To help support and inspire him, I promised that I’d learn Spanish at the same time.
I started with enthusiasm, but over time, my regular learning dwindled a little. Other things seemed to take precedence and, bit by bit, my learning slowed down.
Then when Covid hit, my Spanish journey had to be put on hold again. All thoughts of travel to Latin American went on hold, I needed to ensure my business was okay through the crisis and therefore, I stopped learning altogether.
All this is to say, I completely understand from first-hand experience that as much as people want to learn, they sometimes struggle. Without being properly engaged and having a programme that’s custom-built to meet your exact needs, it’s so easy to flake on your learning commitments.
That’s why at The VICI, we bend over backwards to put together programmes that will fit around you, work around your commitments and keep you engaged. To find out more about what we can do for you just book a consultation or send us an email.
Plus, March and April are Spanish focus months at The VICI, and planning them has been so exciting – it’s really got my language juices flowing and made me want the same thing for me that we’re organising for our clients!
To join in, connect with our Spanish Facebook community, book your place at our Spanish Accelerator day or read about our Spanish Discovery Programme.