Spanish teacher Jill Ingham from Manchester explains how Language for Fun has impacted her life.
I really enjoy Jessica’s pep talks on our teachers’ forum and her words of wisdom frequently resonate with me. Last summer she talked about how we never know what effect we might have on a learner’s life. As teachers it’s easy to focus on what went right or wrong with the mechanics of a particular lesson and fail to appreciate when we may have unwittingly ignited or rekindled something more profound.
I retired from the University of Manchester Business School in April 2023. By September I was saying to my husband “I’m not done yet!” He looked up knowingly. I then spent a few weeks exploring options, from psychotherapist to teacher of English as a foreign language, both of which I have been involved in previously.
Then in March last year came Jessica’s invitation to discuss a collaboration, and everything changed (on her second attempt to invite me – I’m very glad she persisted!). A few weeks later I started as a tutor in Spanish for franchisee Rosie D’Urso in Manchester. I am so thrilled to be back in language teaching after years of doing other things that have been interesting and fulfilling but didn’t quite tick the box.
The other reason I am so grateful to Jessica, Rosie and LFF is that my younger brother died very suddenly in July 2023, and I had been supporting our mother who is 93. Language for Fun has provided me with a new focus in the face of grief and I’m now full of anticipation for the year ahead and beyond.
On another recent training session Jessica mentioned the type of learner who is a linguist at heart but something happened in their lives and they’ve lost confidence. Our LFF class might be their first venture out in a while. Well guess what? That was me over thirty years ago, creeping gingerly into an Italian class at the Warwick University Language Centre, before then changing to resume Spanish at a language centre in Birmingham. This led me to do a two-week intensive language course in Salamanca, followed by a first-class degree and then a PhD!! The rest is history.
It isn’t just our learners whose lives can be improved via Language for Fun, it can happen for tutors too!