About Me

My own language learning journey

I have always been surrounded by other languages. I moved to Norway when I was 2 with no knowledge of the language at all, the child of two British parents. At 3, I started at the local kindergarten and within a few months I was at ease with the language; within a year I was fluent. I would surprise my parents with what I came out with in Norwegian. Mum still recounts tales of when they would be out and say to a local “Just a minute, I need to ask my daughter to translate” and they’d turn to me. The local would look down at me, surprised. I was not yet 4.

This exposure to another language and culture so young clearly had huge benefits on my development: I picked up several languages easily at school and beyond. I studied languages at Oxford University and have lived in France and Spain. I have taught both Spanish and French in secondary schools in London and Saffron Walden, as well as teaching English abroad to primary and secondary school children. My latest adventure was with my husband when we moved to Copenhagen for 8 months: I loved learning Danish there, although it’s a very tricky language because of its impossible pronunciation – you might have picked that up if you’ve seen any of the Scandi-Noir series. Spanish of course doesn’t have that problem, being a phonetic language.

Learning languages is a real cornerstone of my life so far. Now I’m really excited about passing that on to my daughter and other young kids, who are such sponges and really do pick up languages so much more easily.

Mother and teacher of a preschooler

As a mother of two young children, I can see just how valuable learning a language from a young age can be. When my daughter was 1, I started singing songs and chatting to her in French and reading French stories with her. We had lots of fun just the two of us.

Then in March 2022, after conversations with local friends keen for their young kids to learn Spanish, I decided to start up Spanish classes for them. In the space of only a few weeks, my daughter went from knowing no Spanish at all, to counting to 5, singing a Spanish song, saying ‘hola’ without much prompting. After my first class, in which I introduced animals, she was recognising Spanish animals and the noises they make.

Now more than a year on, we read Spanish stories together, sing lots of songs in the car, play games in Spanish and watch some Spanish kids TV. But best of all, she is always asking how to say things in Spanish. I can’t believe the progress she’s made - the Spanish has been such a hit and I think the difference with the French is that she’s been learning it alongside other children.