This website started because I wanted to learn Spanish. Easy you might think, join a class. Well with a full time job and 3 children, and spare time spent trying to keep fit, there didn't seem to be time for me to be a student too. What I did have was time driving which I decided was the perfect way to improve my commute at the same time as improving my Spanish.
Well, the first bit was okay. I learned some basic greetings, and felt very pleased with myself, this was going to be great. Then I hit my first hurdle - the recording told me to refer to page 3 of the accompanying book and do exercise 1 - how was I going to do that whilst driving? Well, obviously I would just have to keep going and look at the book later.
The second hurdle was that the CDs didn't seem to be moving at an even pace. There would be great leaps and I would be wondering what on earth was being said, I couldn't look at the book to try to untangle it all and drive at the same time.
I thought back to school and tried to remember how, 30 years ago, I had learned French. I remembered being given weekly vocabulary to learn, surely this was the way ahead, and if it was recordings I wouldn't just learn the word, but the correct pronunciation. It wouldn't teach me the intricacies of the language, but it would help me to understand what was being said, and to be able to come up with the right word for things when attempting conversation.
I searched the internet and found nothing that really gave me what I wanted. I had a clear picture of how I wanted to learn, and thought that other people probably felt the same. I wanted lists of words that I could learn as a block, to supplement my conversational learning which I was getting from the CDs.
I joined forces with a language teacher, Helen, who brought a whole different view to the content of the site and the target user groups. We are now updating the site with a view to providing a tool to primary schools, and adult education organisations. We would also like to work with secondary schools to GCSE and A level.
Helen's background
Helen has always loved languages, having had a fantastic French teacher at Secondary School and did A-levels in English, French and German. She read French and Criminology at Keele University, spending a year in Limoges, France as part of her studies.
After graduating, she spent some time as a volunteer in Cyprus, learning a little Greek, and has recently been studying German with the Open University. She also studied Japanese whilst at Keele, although she can remember very little of it now.
Helen started her teaching career as a Secondary School teacher and spent 5 years teaching languages in several schools around the county. She set up HS Language Services in 2005, with the aim of taking languages into Primary Schools. The business quickly expanded to include Private tuition, Language Classes and Translation services.
Helen teaches in Primary Schools and tutors privately to all ages as well as organising and co-ordinating the language classes, tuition and translation work.
Tracey's background
Tracey qualified as an accountant in 1993, and has worked for private and public bodies in a commercial advisory capacity. She has 3 children between the ages of 10 and 20 who have all studied or are studying French at school/university, and often has "French only" days at home in the run up to exams. This is quite challenging as she has to rely on what she can remember from school, and looking up words in the dictionary!
Having bought property in Spain for her retirement, Tracey decided to learn Spanish, and as a result set up this website in 2008. She has a clear vision of where she would like to see the business over the coming months and years. Tracey has been working almost full time on the project since Christmas to complete the Primary French, and French/German/Spanish GCSE elements. Having recently trained as an hypnotherapist, Tracey is also studying NLP with a view to improving retention when listening to the recordings
Well, the first bit was okay. I learned some basic greetings, and felt very pleased with myself, this was going to be great. Then I hit my first hurdle - the recording told me to refer to page 3 of the accompanying book and do exercise 1 - how was I going to do that whilst driving? Well, obviously I would just have to keep going and look at the book later.
The second hurdle was that the CDs didn't seem to be moving at an even pace. There would be great leaps and I would be wondering what on earth was being said, I couldn't look at the book to try to untangle it all and drive at the same time.
I thought back to school and tried to remember how, 30 years ago, I had learned French. I remembered being given weekly vocabulary to learn, surely this was the way ahead, and if it was recordings I wouldn't just learn the word, but the correct pronunciation. It wouldn't teach me the intricacies of the language, but it would help me to understand what was being said, and to be able to come up with the right word for things when attempting conversation.
I searched the internet and found nothing that really gave me what I wanted. I had a clear picture of how I wanted to learn, and thought that other people probably felt the same. I wanted lists of words that I could learn as a block, to supplement my conversational learning which I was getting from the CDs.
I joined forces with a language teacher, Helen, who brought a whole different view to the content of the site and the target user groups. We are now updating the site with a view to providing a tool to primary schools, and adult education organisations. We would also like to work with secondary schools to GCSE and A level.
Helen's background
Helen has always loved languages, having had a fantastic French teacher at Secondary School and did A-levels in English, French and German. She read French and Criminology at Keele University, spending a year in Limoges, France as part of her studies.
After graduating, she spent some time as a volunteer in Cyprus, learning a little Greek, and has recently been studying German with the Open University. She also studied Japanese whilst at Keele, although she can remember very little of it now.
Helen started her teaching career as a Secondary School teacher and spent 5 years teaching languages in several schools around the county. She set up HS Language Services in 2005, with the aim of taking languages into Primary Schools. The business quickly expanded to include Private tuition, Language Classes and Translation services.
Helen teaches in Primary Schools and tutors privately to all ages as well as organising and co-ordinating the language classes, tuition and translation work.
Tracey's background
Tracey qualified as an accountant in 1993, and has worked for private and public bodies in a commercial advisory capacity. She has 3 children between the ages of 10 and 20 who have all studied or are studying French at school/university, and often has "French only" days at home in the run up to exams. This is quite challenging as she has to rely on what she can remember from school, and looking up words in the dictionary!
Having bought property in Spain for her retirement, Tracey decided to learn Spanish, and as a result set up this website in 2008. She has a clear vision of where she would like to see the business over the coming months and years. Tracey has been working almost full time on the project since Christmas to complete the Primary French, and French/German/Spanish GCSE elements. Having recently trained as an hypnotherapist, Tracey is also studying NLP with a view to improving retention when listening to the recordings
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