French course in Brighton: staff review

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Course Coordinator at Cactus Amy King reports back on her 10-week French evening course in Brighton…

Having studied a bit of French at school and then taken lessons alongside my degree course at University, I was eager to continue learning and consolidate my knowledge so as not to let it slip completely from memory. I found a 10-week level 3 French course to be exactly what I needed to help me to revise and refresh my memory.

The teacher, Helene, was very dynamic and had a contagious passion for teaching that couldn’t help but muster enthusiasm from the students, even on evenings when we may be feeling a little weary after a long day.  She encouraged us all to speak a lot during class (jokingly scolding us if she heard too much English!) and gave us a lot of help to perfect our pronunciation.  One of Helene’s strengths as a teacher was that she provided an assortment of learning materials and ensured that there was a lot of variation in what we learnt in class.  Lessons would combine a mixture of speaking, reading and listening exercises, with written work mostly saved for homework.  Helene supplemented the exercises that we worked from in the course book with worksheets that she had created herself and articles that she had found. This, I think, showed her dedication to the class, as when she was reading a French article about Brighton, one of her first thoughts was of her students and copied this article for us all to read.

I was very lucky in that I was in a group with only a small number of students, which made me feel a lot more confident speaking aloud in class.  Having been rather self-conscious at school putting questions forward to the teacher and speaking in front of my peers, I felt very comfortable in this group as all students in the class got along very well.

One of the best parts of the course for me personally was that I was really able to see my development and progression. When recently reading an email that was written in French, I was really pleased to learn that I was able to translate and understand the majority of it.This has really encouraged me to keep learning and to move on to level 4.

Cactus offers a range of evening and part-time language courses all around the UK. Please visit the Language Courses UK website for full listings of languages, locations and to test your level.

Italian course in Rome: Cactus staff review

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Over the Christmas Holidays, I decided to refresh my Italian by taking a 1-week Advanced Italian Course at the language school we work with in Rome, Italy. Upon arriving, I was pleasantly surprised by the attentiveness of their staff and the accuracy of their level test which placed me in the appropriate C2 classes. My instruttore, Giuliano, was warm, friendly and highly knowledgeable in Italian grammar and culture, helping me in my attempt to perfect my ‘Condizionale’ or Conditional conjugation of verbs. The class was a small group of 4 Italian-speaking foreign students, so my lessons were very individualized and tailored to each student’s specific needs.

image My morning (9-12) classes allowed for ample sightseeing in the afternoon and evening hours; as you might imagine there is plenty to see and do in Rome! I spent my first day visiting the grand Colloseo (Colloseum), followed by a quick ride on the line 2 Metro to the Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain), which was by far my favorite Roman tourist attraction. Continuing on my journey, I encountered countless ruins as well as the Roman Soldati (Roman Soldiers), who guarded the ancient marbled structures in hopes of pitying the inevitable moneta, or coin, from the less seasoned traveler.

As it turns out, my trip to Rome was far more exciting than I could have ever planned. Halfway through my course, Italian university students decided to bombard the San Pietrini streets near Piazza del Popolo in protest of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s proposed education and tax reforms which, according to my instructor, “benefited only rich and wealthy politicians and not the general popolo.” image My classmates and I were intrigued by the instructor’s thoughts and comments on confusing Italian political agendas; and I gained a great deal of understanding with regards to Italian politics.

During the weekend, I took the two-and-a-half hour train ride down to the waste-ridden, quaint, Napoli, my new favorite town. Naples was facing a Garbage Crisis (with some trash piles as high as small buildings) further emphasizing Italian resentment against Berlusconi and his inability to solve common problems. Aside from that I can confirm that all rumors about Naples are in fact true…that is, they do produce the most AMAZING pizza I have ever indulged upon! And by the way, if you’re planning on doing any shopping, I advise to save it for Naples, which will definitely give you far more bang for your buck!

To conclude my Roman holiday, Sunday was spent visiting the Citta’ del Vaticano (Vatican City) and although I arrived too late for mass, it was an inevitably spiritual experience. My first trip to Rome was a successful one, and it will definitely not be my last!

Be sure to book your language course at the school in Rome – you will not be disappointed!

Cactus offers Italian immersion courses in Italy, and Italian evening courses in the UK, the US & Canada.

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Spanish course in Brighton: Cactus staff review

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Cactus intern Anne Blank tells us about her Spanish evening course in Brighton

I had just started my internship at Cactus and was really happy to hear that we offer Spanish part-time courses in Brighton. As I really love languages, I decided to take a 10 week part-time course in Brighton.

I had already learned Spanish for more than two years at school, but I didn’t feel very confident in using the language. I booked to start at Spanish level two, but I realised after my first lesson that the level was too low. Thankfully it is possible to change your level, and after talking to my colleagues I decided to go in at level four.

It was a really good decision to change level, because I changed to a course where I could practise the pronunciation rather than just grammar. After just a few lessons I already felt more confident using the language. It was a class in which I could learn to express myself and talk to native speakers. We also practised the grammar which was more of a revision for all us students, but it was really helpful.

Amaia, my teacher, was an amazing person who is passionate about teaching Spanish and giving her students an insight of the Spanish culture. She was very kind and helpful. We had a lot of fun, but we also worked really hard to improve our Spanish. In each lesson we played a game in order to learn new vocabulary or we just talked about our daily lives. We discussed different topics from our book but Amaia also prepared her own texts. To learn more about the Spanish culture we sometimes met in a Spanish bar, to have some Sangria or Spanish red wine. YUM!

As we were just a small group of students, our teacher had more time to look after each individual student, which was very helpful. It was sometimes a bit hard because Amaia tried to avoid speaking in English; on the other hand was it really good, because it can be exactly like this if you go to Spain.

All in all I can say, it was muy bien and I enjoyed learning more about the Spanish culture and language.

Cactus runs evening and part-time language courses in schools across London and in cities nationwide. Courses are available in over 20 languages and on regular start dates throughout the year.

Chinese course in Brighton: Cactus staff review

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Cactus intern Anne Blank tells us how she got on with her beginner’s Mandarin evening course in Brighton…

After taking a Spanish course in summer, I wasn’t really sure which course should be next. As I really love different languages and cultures, I thought I should learn something completely new. So I had a look on the Cactus website and the decision was easy: Mandarin!

I’d already heard different stories about the Chinese language and I was a bit scared, but mostly excited. It is such an unknown language for me (and I guess also for most European people).

As I didn’t want to go to my first lesson unprepared, I decided to do a little bit of research. After doing some research I was even more excited.

When I arrived at St.Giles College in Brighton, my teacher welcomed me with a friendly “Ni hao” (hello). At first we talked about the reasons why we decided to take this course and it was really interesting to hear other students’ answers. There were reasons like moving to China, travelling to China, having Chinese relatives or just being curious, as I was.

We were given an overview of the four different tones in Chinese, which constitute the most important part of the language. In the first two lessons, we learned to introduce ourselves. Finally I was able to say: “Níhăo. Wõ jiào Anne. Wõ laizi Dé gué. Hên gāo xing rénshi nin.” (Hello, my name is Anne. I’m from Germany. Nice to meet you!). I could also ask people what their name is and where they come from.

My teacher Jieshang is in one word: AMAZING! She really likes teaching and giving us an insight into her culture. She was always well prepared and made sure that we felt comfortable.

As I’ve already mentioned, pronunciation is a very important part of the Mandarin language, so we were given lots of speaking exercises to help us feel more confident with the different tones. We also watched different clips online and tried to understand as much as possible.

We also talked about the different customs in China. I learned about the meaning of the different colours, numbers and animals:

– Number 2 is a good number in Chinese culture. There is a Chinese saying “good things come in pairs”. It is common to use double symbols in product brand names, such as double happiness, double coin and double elephants.

– Red, corresponding with fire, symbolises good fortune and joy. Red is found everywhere during Chinese New Year and other holidays and family gatherings. Red is strictly forbidden at funerals as it is a traditionally symbolic coluor of happiness.

We went on step by step with our book (which is a very good book) and learned more and more. I was really surprised that there is also a chapter where you start learning how to write the Chinese letters. It is more like painting, because you have to make sure that each line is “painted” correctly.

All in all I can say that the course was “hên hăo” (very good) and I really enjoyed it. I have the feeling that I learned a lot and I’m looking forward to learning more Mandarin.

Cactus runs evening and part-time language courses in schools across London and in cities nationwide. Courses are available in over 20 languages and on regular start dates throughout the year.

French evening course in Brighton: Cactus staff review

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Language Course Advisor Jennifer Maynard tells us how she immersed herself in culture and cuisine during her 10-week French course…

I’ve been taking language courses for years now, many of which concentrate around the basic GCSE criteria, i.e. what pets do you have? How many brothers and sisters do you have? Do you live in a house or an apartment? Of course, all of this is helpful to know, however it is much more exciting and useful to have real life conversations with the teacher and with other people in the class. A class in which you can learn to express yourself, just as you’d need to when abroad and using the language in question, is just what I was looking for.

I was extremely lucky to find that this is exactly what Cactus was offering. To begin with, Helène is French, which helped with perfecting the authentic French accent. She’s a lovely lady with a wonderful personality and very excited about teaching us French and sharing her culture with us.

The tasks and conversations revolved around our true interests and daily activities. Helene is really passionate about food and her opinions really shine through. By witnessing Helene in action it has been possible for me to express myself with new phrases and learn about many of the culinary delights France has to offer. I especially enjoyed the homemade Choux bread with fromage! I even learnt how to make a Swedish desert thanks to the multicultural array of students in the class.

Above all, I am relieved I now know how to warn people that we don’t have enough vin rouge for our camping trip!

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable course with some very lovely people that are hungry for la langue française.

Cactus runs evening and part-time language courses in schools across London and in cities nationwide. Courses are available in over 20 languages and on regular start dates throughout the year.

Japanese course in Tokyo: blog entry #2

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Hello world!

I am currently writing this entry while on a Shinkansen (Japanese Bullet Train), and boy has it been an adventure! I was waiting in line to get on, thinking that since someone was in front of me, there was a rule that you had to wait until they said it was okay to enter the train. Apparently he was just waiting for the next train. So, I missed my train by one second – literally! Fortunately, the staff at the station was very understanding and told me to go on the next one, which would arrive 6 minutes later. I’m now on that train, and it looks like I’m getting to my stop earlier than before! So I’m happy to say that I’m still looking forward to an awesome weekend with some friends that I made on my first trip to Japan.

I’ve been going every weekend to the Cat Café and let me tell you that it really makes the homesickness hit me less. It’s relaxing and enjoyable. I’ve also gotten really good at metal games. This is a big thing in Japan. You put a metal coin into a slot and aim it to get more coins out. Meanwhile you get chances to earn more metals and even a jackpot every now and then. My friend and I have won the Jackpot four times already. All the Japanese stare at us when we do because it’s weird to see a foreigner who actually knows how to play.

I’ve also had fun at the local Mai-Dreamin Maid Café. In case you don’t know what a Maid Café is, I’ll explain. It’s a restaurant-type place that has lots of cute food and all the workers (except those at the bar) are dressed up as lolita maids. Before you eat or drink anything, you “bless” it to make it yummy. It’s all very adorable. Usually the regulars are older Japanese men and the occasional foreigner – but they’ve come to recognize me as a regular too. It’s quite expensive, but lots of fun. It’s a great way to practise Japanese too!

In class, I’ve learned a lot. I now know how to speak informally with friends. When I came I could only speak very formally, so it’s useful. I can’t wait to show my friends what I’ve learned. I also have learned around 130-140 kanji, although I’m not perfect at all of them.

Today I say good-bye to one of my good friends, Jose. He’s from Spain. On Thursday we had a final going away party (although there were many before this). Our teachers even joined us! Can you imagine having beers with a professor? In America that’s kind of taboo, but apparently here it’s okay. It was really fun, and also helped a lot with my speaking. It was almost like I got free one-on-one time with my teachers. I could ask them questions if I didn’t know a word and got to know them a little better.

Anyway, Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!!

Dana is studying Japanese in Tokyo with Cactus. Cactus offers language courses in over 30 languages, in 60 countries and 500 destinations worldwide.

Dana wrote about her initial impressions of Tokyo when she first arrived, and we will be posting another blog entry by Dana at the end of her course. For anyone thinking about taking a language course abroad, this offers a unique insight into life in a foreign country, including the fears and excitement that come with a long-term course. Thank you to Dana for contributing to our website!

Image: The image at the top of this page is of a polaroid that Dana was given at the Maid Café, with Dana on the left and one of the bartenders (who likes to be called “Hisama”) on the right.

German course in Vienna: settling into a new life abroad

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Moving to Vienna was a sudden decision, prompted by my husband’s job offer there. German was always an option at school which I chose not to take, believing that Spanish and French would be more useful to me in the long run – a choice which has paid out as I found myself living first in Spain, then France, and more recently in Mexico, due in these instances to my own work prospects.

Now, though, I don’t have a choice. We arrived here in Vienna about 1 month ago, and although the majority of Austrians speak good enough English to make me wince with embarrassment at my own linguistic deficiencies, I still can’t imagine living in a country where I can’t manage the basics, whether it’s asking for bread in the Bäckerei, or getting a different size pair of shoes.

So here I am back in language classes, studying German at the partner school that Cactus works with in Vienna. We have a nice small class of 10 students, and lessons are from 9.00 to 12.15 every day (except national holidays, of which there are unfortunately 2 during my 2-week course).

Each day the classes are divided into 2 parts – for me the first part is grammar for 1 ½ hours with Sabrina, and then conversation with Verena, also 1 ½ hours. It’s intensive, but good, as I feel myself improve daily and build confidence with basic sentences and ideas. German isn’t easy, but it’s not the nightmare I’d imagined either, as a lot of vocabulary is similar to English, so with a good amount of guesswork I can get by. I look forward to classes every day, as the other students are nice, and I feel like I’m in the middle of the group – not held back, but not holding others back either.

And we have a nice social scene too – out to the local wine bar one night, and a tour round Stephansdom (the main cathedral) on another day. There are also waltz classes and a day trip out of the city to look forward to – we’re kept busy whether it’s for study or pleasure.

Students are here for a variety of reasons, as we find out in the first class. A Japanese student has just got married to her Austrian boyfriend, and they plan to live here, so she needs to be able to survive, just as I do. We also have an Italian in the group who is a ski instructor, and she wants to be able to take groups of Germans and Austrians skiing in the Italian Alps. And others are taking it purely for the pleasure of learning a new language, and also believing that it will help them in the workplace in the future. Whatever the reason, we’re a motivated bunch, and we make good progress from the basics through to the grammatically challenging parts.

My course ends too soon for my liking, and way too soon for my level of German to be good enough yet. So I think I’ll definitely be back as a student again for another few weeks. I’ll just take a little time out first, for a chance to practise on the unsuspecting Austrian public.

Cactus runs a variety of German courses in Vienna for all levels and ages. In addition to group and private German courses, we offer music courses, teacher refresher courses, academic year courses, and summer activity courses for under 18s.

If you want to learn German before you go, why not consider an evening language course at home? Available in the UK and the US & Canada, these short-term courses are the ideal way to brush up your language skills before an overseas trip.

German evening course in Brighton: Client review

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Cactus client Dan Broadley tells us how he hopes his evening course in German will help him retrace his roots…

You would have thought, having German-speaking heritage, that I would have shown an interest earlier. You would have thought that, when faced with the option of studying either French or German at school for my GCSE’s, I would have thrown myself into some serious Deutsch! I didn’t! Not only did I shun my German speaking lineage, but to add insult to injury I went on to achieve a truly awful F grade in French! “Sacre-bleu!”.

My Grandfather, Erich Bauch, a German speaking Czech from the town of Teplice in the Bohemian region of Czech Republic, would be most aggrieved to learn that the extent of my German is currently limited to the very, very basics…and by basics I mean that I can say “guten tag”, “auf wiedersehen” and I do a mean “eins, zwei, drei”…and that’s pretty much it! A terrible state of affairs!

I’m sure that he tried to impart some basic German phrases on me – he even used to sing to me in German – but it seems that none of it sank in. So when faced with the opportunity of learning German with Cactus, I saw it as the chance to right a terrible wrong! My first lesson is in Brighton later this month and I can’t wait!

This year has already been one for reconnecting with my roots. In the Spring I travelled to the Czech Republic for the very first time and went to the town where my family once lived. We even found the old house that they, being Jewish, had to abandon when the Nazi’s invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939, forcing them to flee to England.

My Grandfather, only 15 at the time, was one of 669 mostly Jewish children rescued by Nicholas Winton (now Sir Nicholas), an English stockbroker who saw the plight of the Jews while on a trip to Prague. Winton arranged trains to take the children to England and found sponsors for them in the UK so that they had a place to live once they were here.

Winton kept his humanitarian exploits secret for many years and it was only when his wife found a scrapbook (complete with a list of all of the childrens’ names that he had saved), in their loft at their home in 1988, that his heroics were bought to light. My Grandfather was one of the extremely lucky ones who were not only saved, but who were actually reunited with their families once in the UK. He never really spoke of exactly how he came to England; I think looking back to that time was too upsetting for him. It wasn’t until after his death in 1998 that we found his name on Winton’s list.

Visiting my homeland this year for the first time was a truly amazing and emotional experience, one that I will never forget. It bought home exactly what my family went through and the terrible upheaval that they endured. The next step on my personal pilgrimage is to finally learn a language that I should have learnt a long time ago. I only hope that I can do my old Grandad proud! With the help of Cactus I’m sure that I can!

Dan has just started his 10-week German course, and will report back on his progress once it has finished…

Cactus runs evening and part-time language courses in schools across London and in cities nationwide. Courses are available in over 20 languages and on regular start dates throughout the year.

Japanese course in Tokyo: blog entry #1

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Coming to Japan, there were many things that I was worried about.  As far as I could tell, I was the only American going to Japan through Cactus. Would I fit in? How am I going to communicate with my dorm mates? What will my classes be like? How will I survive three months without my parents or my dogs? Well, a week and a half has gone by and most of these fears have disappeared.

As it ends up, there’s another American in my dorm. Her name is Beverly. She’s really sweet and has helped me out a lot with conversational Japanese already. My other dorm mates are Chinese, but the dorm manager is Chinese and can speak English, so communication isn’t a problem. My room is nice; I have a shelving unit, a hanging unit and a balcony to hang my laundry. That’s something that I didn’t expect. Although driers are available, the Japanese don’t typically use them, so I had to go out and buy laundry clips.

They are very big on being environmentally friendly. Most people use public transportation. They also use cold water to wash their dishes – something that my mother thinks wouldn’t clean the dishes well enough. It’s really hard to throw trash away here because of all of their laws about it. But in my dorm, all of the trashcans are labeled, so it makes it easier.

Classes aren’t that hard either. We’re still in review, so who knows if it’ll pick up in the next week. Instead of switching classrooms and teachers like in America, we have the same teacher all day, but they change depending on the day of the week. We are in the same classroom every day with the same kids. My classmates are cool. They come from all over. The majority of my classmates are from China and France. The other countries represented are Colombia, Spain, Sweden, Australia and Belgium.

I miss my family and my dogs very much, but Beverly showed me this place called Nekorobi. The best way to describe it is a cat café. Literally it’s a room with twelve cats and you pay by the hour to sit, play with them, and eat or drink. It really helped with my pet/home sickness. I think it’s really cool that Japan has things like that and I look forward to discovering more interesting places in Tokyo.

Dana is studying Japanese in Tokyo with Cactus. Cactus offers language courses in over 30 languages, in 60 countries and 500 destinations worldwide.

We will be posting another blog entry by Dana mid-way through her course and at the end of her stay in Japan. For anyone thinking about taking a language course abroad, this offers a unique insight into life in a foreign country, including the fears and excitement that come with a long-term course. Thank you to Dana for contributing to our website!

Spanish evening course in Brighton: Cactus staff experience

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My Cactus colleagues who speak several languages fluently inspired me to learn another language, and due to my personal preferences I decided to learn Spanish. I was very excited after booking my first course and was thrilled at the thought of being able to speak another language.

Now, I have already completed 3 Spanish evening courses in Brighton and I’m looking forward to joining another course in October. My teachers at every level were very friendly and helpful, and the classes were fun and engaging – we played many games which were always a hit with the class.

As I progressed to higher levels, my vocabulary improved and I started feeling more comfortable with the language, but I should admit that I haven’t been very good at doing homework and practising outside the classroom. Even though just attending the classes has helped, it isn’t enough if you want to get most out of your course, which I realised just after completing two courses.

I think it’s important to explore the kind of learning you would personally prefer outside of class and follow it. I don’t really like just reading course books, so I wanted to do something different to just reading and writing in my free time.

I love movies so I watched two Spanish movies during my last course – Regresar and Apariencias, which are both South American movies. Watching these movies has been entertaining as well as a learning experience. I am also thinking about registering with Blockbuster as as they have several Spanish (and other world cinema) movies for rent. I also like online games, so I searched for websites which offer free online games and found Digital Dialects, which is a good website with lots of games to practise vocabulary and verbs.

I am sure if you identify what works best for you, learning a language would be more rewarding and enjoyable than you think.

Do you agree with me? Please post your comments and share your experiences.

Cactus runs Spanish evening courses in Brighton and other cities across the UK. Courses are also available in the US and Canada.

Those wishing to practise their newfound language skills abroad can take a Spanish course in locations across Spain and Latin America. Learning a language in the country where it’s spoken is the ideal way to immerse yourself in the language and culture.