Cactus Teacher Awards, Jan-March 2014: WIN a course & reward your teacher

The Teacher Awards are your chance to let everyone know how great your teacher is!

The Cactus Teacher Awards were launched in January 2013 and run each term of our evening and part-time language courses in the UK and the US.

If your teacher wins, he or she will receive a £100 or $100 voucher prize and you will receive a FREE 10-week evening language course!

The winning teacher will also receive a certificate stating that he or she has won the Cactus Teachers Award.

teacher_awards_certificate

To enter your teacher in the Teacher Awards, simply visit and ‘like’ the Cactus Language Teacher Awards page on Facebook and submit your comments on:

“My teacher deserves to be nominated because…”

Terms and Conditions Apply.

The closing date is Friday 28th March 2014.

Good luck! We look forward to receiving your comments and to awarding the course and prize money at the end of term!

Cactus Teacher Awards Winners – Autumn 2013

Drum roll, drum roll…announcing the winner of the Cactus Teacher Awards!

As usual we ran our Cactus Teachers Awards last term and were delighted to receive wonderful comments about our teachers from many students. Thank you to our students for taking the time to tell us about your teachers, and congratulations and thanks to our teachers for consistently delivering such high quality and inspiring courses.

Our winning comment for the Autumn 2013 term was for Lina-Flore Beaujoie, who taught our French Beginner 1 course in London Holborn-Russell Square. Lina wins a £100 voucher and her student, Victoria Krivolap, wins a free 10-week evening course.

Here is Victoria’s winning comment:

“My teacher deserves to be nominated because she is the most creative person with her own approach to the learning process. Our lessons are very diverse: we read, listen, play different educational games, do quizzes and discuss different topics…so we cover not only the simple vocabulary.

Lina-Flore Beaujoie is passionate about her work and I, as her student, feel this passion and enjoy it. She puts her heart into the way she teaches the language.

I was really surprised by her methods and strategies because of my personal results in the French language in such a short period of time.

The best trait of character she has is that she keeps an eye on every student and treats him or her as if it was a private lesson! Each of us can feel like it is a one-to-one tutorial lesson and that is so great!

Every task that she gives shows how much she wants us to learn French really well. She encourages our efforts to go further than a textbook; we listen to CDs, view DVDs, etc. And she invites us to take part in funny language games which make the lessons so entertaining and interesting. Studying should be fun and Lina-Flore knows it!

Two hours of French lesson pass as one moment…I always feel sorry at the end of the class that now it is one more week to wait for the next one.

All in all, she is the best teacher I have ever had and if anyone asks me whom I can recommend for French tutoring, I would definitely name my teacher – Lina-Flore Beaujoie.”

On receipt of her award, Lina commented: “I feel very lucky to work for Cactus. The support and care you show for your team is truly commendable”. Alongside her voucher Lina has also received a certificate confirming her award.

Special mentions also go to the following teachers who received excellent comments from their students:

  • Lorea Acebes
  • Monique Baudet-Smyth
  • Anna Boratyn
  • Arek Arkadiusz
  • Emma Punchard

Congratulations to everyone and we look forward to another successful year of language learning and teaching!

Spanish Evening Course in Brighton: a first-hand account

Having put my languages on the back burner since having kids, I thought it was time to brush up my Spanish – and, at the same time, hopefully inspire my little ones. An evening course was the perfect way to do just that…

As a busy working mum, fitting a language course into what was already a frenzied week was slightly optimistic. But sometimes you need to stick your head out…this was something I wanted to do, and surely the kids could cope without me at bedtime once a week. So it was that I ran out the door, notebook in hand, one rainy Wednesday evening to my first Spanish Intermediate 3 class.

Week 1

Any doubts as to whether I should be doing a course were put to rest as soon as I walked through the door. Straight into Spanish, smiles all around, and a teacher who I warmed to immediately – a fun, bubbly Spanish señorita who seemed as mad about languages as I am. There were only five of us in the class – three of whom had progressed from previous courses – which was the perfect number to encourage class interaction and allow us individual attention from our teacher, Emma.

The next two hours flew by as we played language games to get to know each other, one of my questions focusing on why my classmates wanted to learn Spanish – a topic that always fascinates me. One girl, for love – of course. Think Spanish boyfriend, in-laws, future bilingual kids, etc. Another dreamed of moving to Spain. Nice. As for me? I just want to get back the Spanish I learnt years ago and which has laid dormant in my head for more years than I wish to calculate. I also want to inspire my kids, to have them grow up thinking languages are cool. I got home that night to find my poor husband frazzled after a chaotic bedtime. But as the little ones bundled into our bed at 6.30 the next morning, asking me to teach them phrases in Spanish (we got as far as “Hola! Me llamo Oliver” and important toy names such as “elefante” and “peluche”), I realised that perhaps this could be a great thing for all of us.

Weeks 2-9

The weeks proceed with us learning exactly what we had requested in our initial course questionnaires: to learn common Spanish expressions, to understand the real Spanish you hear in the streets, and to gain general confidence in speaking. Lessons cover a variety of exercises to ensure we are improving all language skills: listening to role plays, singing popular songs, reading articles from newspapers and media, writing short texts, discussing topical issues in Spain and the world, and so on.

Emma is quick to pick up on any mistakes and ensure that we all understand, in a fun and inclusive way. Intuitive, smiling and radiating enthusiasm, it’s impossible not to get caught up in her passion for teaching, and I think of the lucky school students who she teaches in her day job for having such a natural ‘profesora’. When I was at school it was rare to have a native language teacher, and I can’t think of better GCSE motivation than having someone like Emma at the front of the classroom.

As for us, back learning as adults, we progress quickly too. New vocabulary and phrases are always listed on the whiteboard and topics lead off onto fun and random tangents such as “We just found out the word for blueberry…let’s name 10 other fruits as quick as we can!”. We’re kept on our toes for the whole lesson and the classes fly by, week after week. For me, personally, it never matters how tired I might have felt beforehand…I always leave feeling exhilarated, with a spring in my step. I get home to find that bedtimes have become calm and tear-free, but can’t sleep because I’m excited by all this new Spanish in my head.

Week 10

We round off our final lesson listening to Spanish music and playing a Spanish word game, a glass of tinto de verano in hand (never mind that it’s November) and garlicky olives, chorizo and jamón serrano on the table before us. After all, it’s as much about soaking up the culture as it is about learning verb tables, right?

I feel sad that my brief window of Spanish each week has come to a close but, with the renewed confidence and motivation it has given me, I know this is just the beginning of my renewed love affair with Spanish. Phoning home to check on the kids and hearing a small voice say “Hola mama!” the other end tells me that it’s all worth it.

Sarah took a 10-week evening Spanish course in Brighton at Intermediate 3 level, with teacher Emma Punchard. Cactus offers more evening and part-time language courses in Brighton, London and other UK locations.

Snap a Seat competition: your chance to WIN a 10-week language course

Would you like your next evening course to be free? Simply take a picture of what the Cactus Language experience means to you and it might be…

The Cactus ‘Snap a Seat’ (previously Tweet for a Seat) competition was launched in January 2013 and runs each term of our UK evening and part-time courses.

The idea is for Cactus students to tell us about their language learning, by taking a picture of what the ‘Cactus Language experience’ means to them.

The winning entry receives a 10-week evening language course in the location of their choice!

Previously only open to Twitter users, entries can now be received in three ways:

1) By uploading your photo to our Facebook wall using #CactusLE,
2) By uploading your photo to Twitter using #CactusLE,
3) By sending it to us by e-mail: marketing@cactusworldwide.com.

Terms and Conditions apply.

To date we have received some wonderful entries: see Alice Dipper’s winning picture from the April-July term 2013 and Elena Giulia Venturini’s winning picture from the Jan-April term 2013.

The closing date for the current competition is Friday 13th December 2013.

Good luck! We look forward to viewing your pictures and to giving a free language course to our next winner – the perfect Christmas present!

Cactus Staff Review: French Language Course in Brighton

Sebastian Clemens, intern for Cactus Language, tells us about his 10-week French Language Course in Brighton.

I studied French for three years at school but never had the opportunity to put into practice what I had learned as I have never visited France. So a language course with Cactus seemed like the perfect opportunity to brush up on my knowledge and skills. I did not remember much from school so I decided to take a Beginner 2 French class, which turned out to be a good decision for me as the level was neither too high nor too low.

After revising some of the basics of the French language like the alphabet, personal pronouns and grammar structures, the whole class was surprisingly quick at forming sentences and because of this my confidence grew when speaking in just a few hours of the course.

I think one of the reasons for my quick progress was due to the full immersive teaching method used. I believe this is the best feature because instead of translating words into English, the teacher explains, illustrates and describes language structures and words in French, helping the class understand and remember more. It is a lot of fun once you get used to this method and feels much more effective when learning a language.

The lessons lasted for two hours and time usually flew by with speaking, listening and writing exercises. There were occasional games and the lessons never felt boring and every week was a mixture of gaining new knowledge and revising what we had learnt in our previous lessons.

The homework helped me to keep track of the content covered in the last lesson as I found that sometimes it was hard to keep track of my progress, particularly because I am working and found I did not have a lot of time to revise.

I find that I still struggle with understanding spoken French on the radio or TV, but definitely hope I can continue some studying the French language on my own in the future.

If you would like to follow in Sebastian’s footsteps and take a French language course, then Cactus offer a variety of courses throughout the UK, US and in France.

Cactus Staff Review: French Language Course in Brighton (in English / en français)

Christina Niedermeier, marketing intern for Cactus Language, tells us about taking a French language course in Brighton after not having studied French for several years.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to start again, especially when studying languages – or so I thought.

When I was at school in Germany, I took French lessons for three years and I really enjoyed them. But when I had to decide which A levels I wanted to take, I dropped French because I wanted to focus on other subjects such as English, History and Maths. With my focus on other subjects, I did not think about the French language for a very long time and thought that I would not have the opportunity to study it again.

However, this February I came to the UK to do an internship in the marketing department of Cactus Language and as a member of the Cactus team I have the opportunity to take a free 10-week language course here in Brighton. As I was surrounded by people speaking different languages every day, I felt inspired to take them up on the language course but I was not sure which language to take as there are many to choose from. For that reason, I had to ask myself whether I wanted to learn a completely new language or did I want to refresh my really rusty French.

After a while, I decided to take a French language course with Cactus because I had already spent some time learning the language and wanted to revive the bits of French I still had in my head. I did the on-line level test as I was not sure of my language level and began an elementary level French course.

Before my first lesson started, I was fairly worried because I felt like I had forgotten everything I ever knew about French. I think many people who stop speaking a language for some time will feel the same. At the beginning of my course I found I was hesitant and struggled with the easiest of sentences but I knew that the grammar and vocabulary had to be somewhere in my head. I just needed to find them again.

Our French teacher was great and covered basic French grammar in the first few lessons, so everything came back to me step by step. So far, I can use basic French grammar again but I know it will take a little bit longer and a lot more work until I reach my former level. However, now that I have taken the first steps to start learning French again, it’s easier to keep going. I also have the motivation to improve because I will be attending university in Rabat, Morocco’s capital, for a semester and their second official language is French.

Version française

Parfois la chose la plus difficile à faire est de recommencer, particulièrement lorsqu’il s’agit d’étudier les langues étrangères, ou du moins c’est ce que je pensais.

Quand j’étais à l’école en Allemagne, j’ai suivi des cours de français pendant trois ans et j’ai vraiment adoré. Mais quand j’ai dû décider quelles matières je voulais prendre pour mon test de fin d’année de lycée (A levels), j’ai laissé tomber le français parce que je souhaitais me concentrer sur d’autres matières telles que l’anglais, l’histoire et les mathématiques. Etant focalisée sur ces matières, j’ai arrêté de penser au français pendant longtemps et je ne pensais pas que j’aurais l’opportunité de pouvoir à nouveau l’étudier.

Cependant, au mois de février de cette année je suis arrivée au Royaume-Uni pour y faire un stage au sein du service marketing de Cactus Language et, en tant que membre de l’équipe Cactus j’ai eu l’opportunité de suivre gratuitement des cours de langues pendant dix semaines ici à Brighton. Etant entourée de personnes parlant différentes langues chaque jour, cela m’a donné envie de suivre un cours de langues, mais je ne savais pas lequel prendre car le choix était important. Pour cette raison, j’ai dû me demander si je voulais apprendre une langue complètement nouvelle pour moi ou si je voulais rafraichir mon français très rouillé.

Après un moment, j’ai décidé de prendre les cours de français avec Cactus parce que j’avais déjà passé quelque temps à apprendre cette langue et voulais faire revivre les petits fragments de français que j’avais encore dans ma tête. J’ai fait le test en ligne comme je n’étais pas sûre de mon niveau de langue et j’ai commencé au niveau élémentaire.

Notre professeur de français était génial et a couvert les points de grammaire de base pendant les premières leçons, ce qui fait que tout est revenu petit à petit. Maintenant, je peux de nouveau utiliser quelques points de base de grammaire française mais je sais que ça me prendra un peu de temps et beaucoup de travail avant que j’atteigne mon précédent niveau. Cependant, maintenant que j’ai repris les premiers pas pour apprendre de nouveau le français, c’est plus facile de continuer. J’ai également la motivation de m’améliorer car je vais aller à l’université de Rabat, la capitale du Maroc, pendant un semestre et que leur seconde langue officielle est le français.

If you would like to follow in Christina’s footsteps and take a French language course, then Cactus offer a variety of courses throughout the
UK, US and in France.

Cactus staff review: Italian 10-week evening course, Beginner 3

Our Operations Intern at Cactus Language tells us about her 10-week Italian language evening course in Brighton

When I arrived in Brighton 12 weeks ago, I was very happy to hear that I would have the opportunity to participate in one of Cactus’ evening language courses. I have always been extremely fascinated by languages, so much so that when I was 15 and in the 10th grade of school, I was learning 5 different languages as my school offered a wide range of both obligatory and voluntary language classes.

As I had learnt Italian for two years, I decided to register for the Italian Beginner 3 course in my first week at Cactus Language. In my opinion, Italian is one of the most beautiful and colourful languages in the world and listening to people speaking Italian makes me think of lovely Italian towns, amazing landscapes and sunny and carefree holidays.

The 10-week Italian course was the perfect chance for me to refresh and engage in the Italian language again. The lessons not only provided me with this excellent opportunity but also allowed me to meet some new and interesting people who were also studying Italian for a variety of reasons. I really appreciated getting to know some of them personally and forming friendships whilst learning the language. The atmosphere in my classes was very lively and a lot of fun.

Our native teacher Roberta was great and extremely enthusiastic. I was fascinated by the way she taught with a wide variety of methods and materials so that the lessons were never dull. I especially enjoyed how the tasks seemed to relate to real situations, such as working on and presenting Italian dialogues during ‘un viaggio in Italia a Roma’. She easily managed to keep everyone involved and coped well with the different abilities of the class. If anyone was unsure about something, she was always happy to help and, if necessary, explain again using examples to make it clearer.

Having a native speaker of Italian as a teacher was a huge advantage, and it really reinforced what we learnt. I benefitted from the fact that Roberta only spoke English where clarification was needed and used Italian for the rest of the time in the lessons to communicate with us. Further to this, it improved our listening skills and she encouraged us to speak Italian at every chance to advance our speaking skills and especially our pronunciation. The tasks she set us were well balanced between all the disciplines, reading, writing, speaking and listening. I also appreciated that we always had the possibility of homework and that Roberta gave us good advice for self-studying at home during and after the course.

Given the opportunity I would definitely do this course again, as it was a great experience, and if I was staying for longer, I would definitely continue with my Italian course at the next level. I feel that I have made progress with my Italian and I hope to get the chance to use it again soon.

The course really inspired me to travel to Italy and to visit the country.

Grazie Roberta!

If you would like to follow in our intern’s footsteps and take an Italian language course, then Cactus offer a variety of courses throughout the UK, US and in Italy.

French course in Brighton: staff review

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.

Spanish course in Brighton: Cactus staff review

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

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.