Past Blog Posts

Learning a language can increase your brain size!Learning a language can increase your brain size!

January 13th, 2015 by Sarah Adams

According to Swedish scientists, learning an additional language can increase the size of your brain. The study focused on a control group of hard working, Medical and Cognitive Science Students from the US. By measuring their brains before and after the language training, a group of researchers had the unique opportunity to observe what happens to the brain when a language is learnt in a short period of time.

The Swedish MRI study, showed that students who had learnt or were learning an additional language had considerable brain growth in comparison to students who were not bilingual having unchanged brain structures.

According to The Telegraph, learning an additional language can improve the functionality of your brain by challenging it to recognise, negotiate meaning, and communicate in different language syst... Read More »

Changes to the National Curriculum for primary schools

May 29th, 2014 by first tutors

From September 2014 languages will become a compulsory subject within the national curriculum for primary age school children in Britain.

Schools will have a certain amount of freedom to chose the language they intend to teach. At present there are 7 on the list to chose from. These include both modern and classical languages - French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Spanish, Latin and Ancient Greek.

It remains to be seen whether schools and teachers are sufficiently geared up to teach languages and if they have the right resources in place. One wonders how many Latin and Ancient Greek teachers and tutors are out there in primary schools.

Britain has always lagged behind our European neighbours when it comes to learning a foreign language, so in principal this must be seen as a great move.

As a language tutor do you feel the list of languages being offered is appropriate? What do you make of Ancient Greek being on the list of approved languages? Are there ... Read More »

Top 5 Languages You Should Learn in 2014

August 1st, 2013 by Dexter Findley

Congratulations! If you're reading (and understanding) this then you know English, the one language in the world that will get you somewhere everywhere. An official language of a prodigious percentage of countries, it may not be a local tongue but its basics are known almost universally. But say you want to learn another language, one that will be useful, rather than one that just gets you bonus points while on holiday? Which one should you aim for? Here are the Top Five.

... Read More »

Learning Languages through the Movies

July 17th, 2013 by Dexter Findley

It's long been established that 'immersing' yourself in a language is one of the best ways to learn. However, not everybody can jet off and live in their chosen country for a few months. There are various language-learning packages available which claim to simulate this immersion - the most notable of which is Rosetta Stone - but there is another way to experience it: by watching films in the language.

This was my experience. I'd learnt French to AS level at school, but hadn't used it for years and my once passable knowledge and conversational ability was waning. So, I decided to dive into the world of French cinema for a refresher course. To begin with, I watched some kids' stuff with a limited vocabulary - Asterix and the like. I kept the subtitles on for the first few films, just so I wouldn't get lost, and to pick out the more obscure words. I had to play back some of the dialogue a few times to get my head around it, but after a surprisingly short time I felt l... Read More »