Sarah Barrett: Introducing Foreign Languages to Children

This is the actual Fluency podcast helping you become a better language learner by providing motivating weekly inspiration as well as top tips and tricks from expert guests. And now your host, Kris Broholm.

Yeah, I mean, I started learning languages in in school. So probably about 12. I didn't my family don't didn't really do languages and about 12 I started French. And then when I was 13 in senior school, I did some German and my German teacher told me I told my mom, I was quite good. So I opted to do that. So I did. So I did French and German. We we call it GCSE. I don't know what you would call it in in Denmark.

Yeah, well, yeah, it's it's well, it was I'm from Northern England, so it's a different setup. But I started about we went to senior school about 13 which you go then until your till you finish more or less. This obviously schooling is different in different countries. So I did um, GCSE German and French, and then sorry, my notifications. I did GCSE German and French. And then when I was doing my A levels, I quite fancied doing some Spanish as well. So I did Spanish in a year alongside my A levels. Um, and I didn't yeah, I did all right, really. I got As and Bs and quite enjoyed it.

Right.

Right.

That's interesting, for sure.

Yeah, but I don't know I was just I was just I just felt so strongly that I wanted him to be able to speak with his his oma and his German family. And if we didn't pass on German to him, that would be that would be missing for him. But we also found some lovely French books and Spanish books in charity shops. So we used to read to him in different languages as well. Just because we could. And it never I don't know it never occurred to me that wasn't normal if that makes sense. It's just what we did.

Yeah. Well, that's interesting. So when today's 17 18.

17th Josh now, yeah. It's a bit scary. It makes me feel so old.

Time flies.

Oh, it so does. And Yeah. Um, yeah, and then when Josh was seven, so 2007, I had Jasmine and then shortly afterwards, I had Emily. And we did some languages with them, but actually having two girls in such close succession was a bit manic anyway. So we did bits we did bits with them, but it wasn't quite structured just because life was a bit chaotic with three kids. Although but we did I think, oh, yeah, we did stuff, but just not it wasn't quite consciously really.

Right.

And then when the girls were small, I started a toddlers' group. Yeah, that was I started doing the crèche at church because there was no one doing it. So I thought if I if I start running it, then other people will join in. So we we sort of set up that and in that we were singing and playing together and just having fun. And then a little bit um, it's actually it's a It comes from quite Christian basis because that's where I'm from. And they um, it was things like you'd you'd get your mirror out and sing a song about how you're special and God loves you, or you'd get your there was a prop for every single song we did. So we sort of it was really structured, but it was really simple. It was it's all about building up the children and letting them see that they're important. And actually if the mums are there teaching them how to encourage their own kids.

Right.

Just something as random as that. So actually for me, it's perfect because I I just naturally sing very loud. That's just I don't have a quiet. I don't think I have a quiet button full stop anyway.

Yeah.

Which is in a teaching setting is perfect. So yeah, so we just do a lot of so when we're in the classes we have we do we sing in target language, we have a story, we have puppets, we make things and it just we just have lots of fun and it just happens to be not in English really.

Right. It's actually when you when you think about it, like you've said a few minutes ago, you said, it to us it seemed natural or like obvious. But when you think about it, it really isn't, you know, how many parents in England, do you think uh speaking any other language to their kids who are of course, non-immigrants? Um, you know, and I think the number is is probably close to zero, if not zero. So it's very interesting.

Yeah. I I like I like to say my class is like Marmite. I don't know do you have Marmite in Denmark?

No, no, no. I I've heard of it, but I've never actually tried it.

Something you either love or you hate. Right. I mean, I get that feeling. I mean, one of the mummies as soon as I even um, sort of started out marketing my class got in touch with in days and she said, I'm in America at the moment, but I'm coming. But she she trained as a primary teacher. She spoke Spanish and she just she she just totally got where I was coming from. She was like, I want to be able to bring languages in with mine from being tiny.

Yeah.

So she she totally got that and I I did sort of I've had a core group of mums and the majority are teachers to be honest, because they get it because they can see the value of it.

Of course.

Or they have um, there was a lady recently who's a generation back they spoke German, but it got lost one way or people she hadn't learned it, but the the family language was German, or other people that are native Spanish, but want to come alongside other families that are speaking more than English. So it's a real mixed bag. But then we get some people who say, well, my children don't even speak English, what are you doing? But it's such a British attitude. It's awful. I mean, I don't know what it is like in Denmark.

Probably similar to be honest. Yeah. I mean, they'll probably say with English, just because that's so useful, but I mean, there's no, I definitely can't imagine any parents in Denmark are thinking like, oh, we need to introduce Spanish, uh, German, or French, or any language other than maybe English early stages. And I think even then they they kind of put all the responsibility at the school. And they say, okay, you start having English in second grade or something when you're, I don't know, seven, eight, uh.

Too late.

Yeah, that's that's what I mean. It's like, you know, why start that late? And, you know.

Yeah. Yeah, but there's having as I set this up, I looked into a lot of the research. And I mean, I don't know what you know, but years ago, we went to the um, the O2 arena. It was a the big they set it up in London. It was this massive millennial Millennium Dome and it was this big project about the millennium. And that the one thing I remember there's a thing about the whole human body and things and there was a a section about language development. And it said that all children babble in the same language and at the age of six months they start tuning in to the sounds that of the language that they hear most, um, commonly.

For sure, yeah.

So if you, so if you start really late, you've lost all that sort of I can't that elasticity in your mouth and I don't know the speech development stuff is a lot harder.

Yeah.

Because the younger children start, the better their accent is, the more confident they are because it's just it's just it's like they're just learning it alongside their normal speech, if that makes sense, rather than it being a separate thing. I mean, it gets me really excited this.

Yeah. Me too in a way, because you're you're kind of leading some kind some a bit of a, I don't it's not a renaissance because it was never like that. So it's more of a revolution, I guess that we are that we're giving our next generation more opportunity really. And I think there are probably some people out there thinking that, oh, if I teach my kid, let's say three languages from birth, then they will get confused and not speak any of them, but of course that's not the case.

Sorry, that drives me mad. Um, no, I mean, they they do get muddled. But they say my my daughter is seven, she still gets muddled with English grammar. She's determined that English grammar is going to follow rules. And as you know, English grammar didn't doesn't follow rules. So she'll say, 'I ate it that.' Right. so even she's struggling with grammar at seven. So that it that just happens anyway with any language.

Right.

And yes, and bilingual children do get a bit muddled to start with sometimes to separate. But I'm sure you found that when you're speaking.

Oh yeah.

And I went, I would naturally go if I'm not speaking English, I'll speak German. That's just my sort of that's my second strong strongest language and it's taken a long time for me to sort of think to shut the German down sometimes to do French or shut the French down to do Spanish. So we do that as language learners anyway. So it's it's pretty much the same.

Yeah.

Mum was like, what? She was got smacked, but this little girl, you know, she she'd even not even got all the verbal skills, but she was recognizing the the language sounds and the fact that was French.

Yeah. But that's amazing.

It's mind blowing. It absolutely is. So yeah, they just they're amazing. And I've done I've recently started doing some school classes as well. So I'll go into a school. And we'll do a block in French, a block in Spanish, a block in German and we rotate. And one week, one of the kids said, why can't we do it in Chinese this week? And the other one said, why can't we do it in Italian? And I'm like, yes, they've got it.

Exactly. Yeah. Why not?

Why not? Exactly, why not? And because a lot of people there's things like there's other franchises out there that will just do French classes for you or just do Spanish. And I think then you just you're pushing them in to such a narrow thing so early on that they then don't see there's other languages out there. And and nowadays, I mean, Mandarin is one of them really up and coming languages. They're starting to look at doing Mandarin more in primary because they're realizing from an economic point of view, we need it. So if you start pushing kids into just French, they're going to really struggle, especially something like Mandarin, which feels sort of feels so different to speak. It's a lot easier to get those sort of get the feel of that language early on rather than.

Oh, yeah. Much later.

Like if you can listen to tones when you're, let's say, a year or maybe even from the beginning, then you're just going to understand it so much better than if you try to explain it to an adult who's never heard of it before. Like, I understand the concept, but my ears are not very tuned to it at all. So they might all of them might like float together in a way. Um, so I think that's that's definitely a great idea just to get it introduced.

Yeah, I mean, there's been a really interesting study that came out recently because um, I go back a step first. I think what I'm doing is just putting really good building blocks in place because I feel like once we've got those building blocks and you you just get an ear for the different languages. Even if you don't speak them for a few years, they're there to access. Yeah.

Yeah.

Which was so weird. So that was that was just my personal experience and I don't know when I ever even heard Slovak, or well, it it may not be Slovak because all those all the Slavic languages are quite similar.

For sure, yeah.

But yeah, it just that blew my mind a bit. I was like, I've never learned that whenever I've been heard unless I think there may have been a mystery at our church. They may have mentioned it. But I don't know where.

Well, the brain is just amazing, isn't it? I mean,

It is.

And especially kids, you know, I I I wanted to tell us uh of an experience I had recently which is uh I was in in Canada for the um, Language festival, which is going to be in Montreal again this year at the end of August.

What's that one called?

Well, it is called LangFest. Yeah, I contact, yeah, they were talking to me on Twitter recently. They were trying to get in contact with them. So yeah. Good people. But I was over there and I was staying with one of the organizers Tetsu for a while and he his specialty is actually uh teaching children languages. Like with a focus on the parents, of course. So not so much these uh kind of classes or bringing together a group of children, but your own children. And.

Awesome. Yes. So that's that's what I'm trying to do really.

Well, I mean that's the first thing, right? You figure out how to teach your own kids and then, you know, you can work on saving the the rest of the community afterwards. But you got to help yourself first. Um, but anyway, I was staying with uh Tetsu and um, he and I got to see this kind of thing uh from kind of a a first uh, you know, front row seats. And he he has he has two, well, he just had a a third baby actually, but he has he has two, when I was there, he only had two. And uh Ronnie and uh Niki, Nika. And, um, so Ronnie was about four, just just below four, and he spoke in five languages. And that was Yeah, it was insanely impressive.

Awesome. Awesome.

So you end up with these kind of uh five uh five basic, but he also understood some dialects, but five languages. And it was just really amazing to see and it's really fun for the kids as well. Because they, and they don't really feel it. You know, it's just natural. You know, if if your dad has always spoken to you in a certain language, it doesn't feel weird to you that that's a different language from the others. Um, so I just wanted to bring that up that story because I feel like it's it's really amazing and and if people are more interested in in in, uh, you know, how to kind of bring up your own kids with language learning. I definitely also recommend checking out Tetsu's work, um, because he.

Is that Pamper the Polyglot one?

What's that sorry?

Is he is he the Pamper the Polyglot guy?

No.

Not that one. Okay.

Oh, yeah, no, yeah, exactly. That that's exactly the one. He that was the name of his uh, his book, I think.

That's it. Thank you. No, I was thinking it sounded like, yeah, because there's not many of us that are really pushing children's language learning. So I I tend to know who's out there.

Yeah, he's he's he's amazing. But it was just interesting to see it from like a first first row, because you can always talk about, oh, yeah, my kids speak five languages and blah blah blah and this is what I do. But until you actually see it and experience it, then, you know, that's it it it doesn't feel real until then. But so it was funny when first when he he didn't know that I didn't speak Chinese. So he he went to Chinese first and I said, Ronnie, I don't speak that. And he was like, okay. You know, it's really funny.

Recalculate which language do you speak.

Yeah. Exactly. So, but of course, it's a lot of work also, you know, you know, you get if you get your if you get your whole family to speak a certain language to to the to the child, then that's kind of the easy part. You know, you always need to stimulate with, let's say, books or songs like you use as well or TV, or, you know, there's lots of kids shows these days that are dubbed and easily accessible. So, but there's a lot of that goes into it, right?

It is. It's not it isn't an easy option at all. I mean, we we weren't able to do the um, one parent one language, as I said, because Mike wasn't keen to at the time. So we've actually ours has been a bit chaotic and a bit mishmash, but it has come together somewhat somehow. If that makes it but like, um, it's quite silly. I mean, I said to my Emily, my youngest, I said, in some in some families, they only speak English. And she was gobsmacked. She was like, I don't she just couldn't understand that.

Right.

And we, um, we learned a little bit of Mandarin a year or two back. So instead of saying, I'd like a cup of coffee, we'd say, 'Wo xiang yao, yi bei kafei, xiexie.' So that's what the kids say now. If they want a cup of coffee, they'll say, 'Wo xiang yao, yi bei kafei, xiexie.' It's like, but that's just normal for our house, or like, we've been doing Polish recently because we've got a Polish shop so I can go in and order a little bit of stuff. So I say, can you pass pass the 'mleko' or the 'lecze' or the um, 'lej' or 'miesz,' and so to them that one thing has all those names and that's just perfectly fine for them.

Yeah.

Which is I just think it's fun. We just we just play with language. I've never I mean, I haven't All the songs I've done I've done in the classes. So I do songs in French, German, Spanish, and Mandarin, mostly. So they've they've the kids, my kids know the songs and they've only been to my classes once or twice. But they've heard me singing them, practicing them. So they they could sing sing you that um, Chinese New Year song in in Mandarin. And I thought. But they think that's normal.

Yeah.

They can't see why But they do bemuse their French teacher a bit because um, she Emily came along with a lovely tongue twister that she'd learnt and because as I said, my husband is currently doing a teacher training. So they're sort of watching his lesson planning. And they'll they'll so there's tongue twister and wanted to teach it. So Emily at seven went in and told her her teacher this French um, tongue twister or was it? 'La verveine la verveine, la verveine.' Which is the the the green caterpillar goes towards the green glass. Right. So she she went and presented it to her teacher and the teacher didn't know what to do. She bit bemused really because she don't know what to do.

Well, at seven, you're not really expected to speak any French, I guess.

No, they just They're just starting. Yeah. But um, yeah, but even when my girls have seen what my husband has prepared for like year seven. So what's that, um, probably about 12-year-old German. And obviously, they're at that level. So they're looking and they're they understand it perfectly well. And we're like, well, you do realize that that daddy's teaching this to much older children than you. And they're like, oh, yeah.

Because they they forget they speak German, which is hilarious. Because they said, well, we've done German, we've done French at school. So they think they speak French. And you ask them to speak German and say, no, we don't speak German. You're like, but then you can ask them for something in German and they'll just try. Because we we I mean, from being tiny we've done things like in the morning we'll say, 'Schuh an,' um, put your shoes on, 'Jacke an.' Um, just really simple instructions because it's part of our getting ready in the morning and actually it just it's just it's just bringing it into everyday really. Just little little bits like that. And then they don't even they don't even realize. My my middle daughter has decided it's not so bad nowadays. Because one time they the girls do phases of thinking, mom, you're embarrassing doing this. So because usually when we dinner's ready, ready, we'll shout upstairs, dinner's ready. We'll say, 'Essen ist fertig.' So this this morning, last night, Jasmine said, how do I say it in German? So I told them she shouted, 'Essen ist fertig!' And I don't know, we've been watching Moana. I don't know if you've seen Disney's Moana, it's awesome.

No.

But she's Oh, you've you've so got to. It's such a good Disney Disney one is really good. But there was um, there was a phrase from it. Jasmine had heard in in um, in German. So she suddenly just started singing it in German and I'm like, but she just they just they just do it. They just play the language.

Yeah.

Well, they get they get a bit a bit overwhelmed if they ever whole book in that language. It sort of scares them a bit. But I don't I don't Have you come across Johnny and um, Johnny, 1/3 stories?

No.

He is awesome. Absolutely awesome. Two young lads started a kick starter that I came across and it starts off in English and then you gradually introduce words of another language. So in the German book, the little girl has lost her 'Wasser.' So we have to go and find the water. Um, and then a bit later on she comes across a 'Teekanne,' or teapot. And then so it as as the story goes on, they keep sort of keywords that you understand from context are in the target language. So towards the end, you're reading nearly whole sentences in the target language.

That is very clever. So for like goodnight stories or just anytime.

They just stories. Yeah, I mean, they're they've got they've got stories in French, German, Spanish, Italian at the moment to start with as books and now they've just started a story box club. So they're sending them out monthly. But it's just such an amazing idea because it's especially for families that don't speak fluently in the target language, it's enough.

That's very clever.

It is. I'll have to get it. So it's it's 1/3 stories. Look it up. And I'm not been sponsored for this at all.

That's good to know. Yeah. That's the thing. Yeah, recommend.

Well, that's the thing. I've got I have a whole page on my website of resources because I I know how flipping hard it can be to get hold of stuff that's worth worth them using. You you can you can spend a lot of time looking. So if I find something that's good, I will put it on our resources page so people can can do that. And we've I've come across there's a lovely lady called Henny Jacobs who does books in French and maybe French and English, but they the these animals are having conversation, but they don't actually she don't translate it. They just happen to be having conversations together in different languages.

Right.

It is just such an awesome idea what she called. Betty and Cat, that's called. And that is awesome as well because I'm just like, she just gets the idea that you don't need to translate directly and you could so you could have a a French granddad reading with an English mum and it wouldn't matter. And it's just it just it's just lovely. She's just got a real passion for like me, she's got a real passion for for just using languages every day and finding a way for for bringing it into your family whether you're you're expert or not really.

Yeah. And then that's on lingotastic.co.uk?

Um, yes. If you look on my my links page, they'll have some of this stuff. Because I mean a lot of my fam a lot of the my my mummies, sorry, they were my friends as well. My mummy friends come to classes. They are the lovely. Um, because they get it. You see that's what that is. But a lot of them don't have massive language skills, but I say if you've got enough to pass on, you can work at that level. So if you know your colours in French, why can't you just teach your colours? And you can always learn a bit more because whatever you know is going to be more than your child knows.

Of course.

And so I think so often we get into this teacher, you need to be an absolute expert and know how to conjugate verbs and do all the grammar, which you don't do that with a baby. You just chatter and say, oh, look, spoon is red. So why can't you do that in French or in German? You just nothing.

Yeah. I think the important thing is that at least uh in my opinion, is that it it it has to be fun. You know, you you try you're not trying to sit down the kid and and and, you know, speak to them in 12 hours in German to like put it in there, you know, you're not trying to, uh, you know, that's that's that's not what it's about. It's about just adding an extra layer or fun or playtime or that happens to be in a different language, which will then well, it will help you tune the ears to foreign languages. It will help set a base for future language choices. It will help make like foreign language education more manageable and more enjoyable because they already know what it is and they already had good experiences.

Oh, right.

And so everyone, of course, expected her to just be bombarded with languages and and just grow up to be, you know, a hyperpolyglot right away. But but when I talked to Richard about it, actually it's interesting that he took the approach of she decides everything. So.

Oh, right.

And he did, he said, okay, we'll have an hour of French, like playtime in French, uh, or Spanish or whatever language, and then there would there would be clear distinctions. So while they were on the swings, a bit like you said, uh, while she was on the swing, you know, they would speak only in Spanish for that hour. And then, you know, they have of course Macedonian because they live there in in and they have French, they speak French at home. And of course, English. So, but what what he said and stressed and underlined was it has to be fun and she has to be in control. So if she wants, if she doesn't want to, well, she's it's not going to be pushed upon her. But because I think some parents might try to do that. sort of live through their child in a way. Um, I don't know if you've come across any examples of that, but I think it's important to to mention.

I was chatting to a it was a it was a French-speaking mum who actually, I interviewed quite early on and she was saying how she often feels that in some families they get so obsessed with bringing up bilingual children that they forget to actually have fun. Because it's just like, we must do this and it's so important for and it it becomes a big and they take them to the Saturday French school and make sure that they have play dates in French. And it is it it just becomes a chore. Yeah. And it's it's sort of an obsession for them and I'm like, then that was the her saying that saying that was the first time I come across it. So I was just like, I can't understand how but I think it's for for some people it is it's it's it's sort of so important that they actually forget to have fun with it, which I think is is sad because you've lost you've lost it. That's not what it's there for. That's not what language learning is about.

Right.

Because actually if you if you if you turn them off, if kids don't do anything they don't want to. I'm not I know you haven't got your own children. But ask ask anybody who's got kids. If they don't want to do it, they won't do it. That's it. So you just have to you engage them when they want to engage and provide resources to use and as and when they will really.

Yeah, but that's also why you you don't you don't sit them down and make them read like a textbook. You actually just replace the English with like, you could have said, dinner's ready, you know, you but you say you say it in German because then it's just part of your life. You're not pushing anything on them. And I I think if they don't notice that learning, then sometimes it's easier.

Oh, yes. Oh, yeah, well that's like like with my Emily's been surprised that people don't speak English. She was just speak English. It was a bit weird. She was she was so happy one day we were walking up to school. We were walking behind two a mum and her daughter and her the mum was speaking fluent French. Her daughter was replying fluently in English. That way we could understand both sides of the conversation and she was like Emily was just like, that mommy's speaking French and her daughter's speaking English. And I said and and she hadn't really seen that so often. And that's often what we do. We sort of have a conversation in two languages, but which some people go, that's awful. But to me, you're having conversation. The point of language is conversation. And if you're both understanding, it doesn't matter.

Exactly.

And it was just but it was beautiful to see this mum and her daughter. Because I just thought to them, that's how they communicate. And her daughter will speak French. I know. But she just was choosing not to at the time. But they were conversing. Yeah. Both different languages. Maybe that's a way to keep the heritage language alive. If they're immigrated from France or whatever, then as as soon as as long as you speak that language to the to the kids, they'll definitely learn it. You know, they're Yeah. It's it's it won't be a problem. But if you just completely ignore it and go straight to English, then you do run the risk of losing the generations of of that language. And you have grandparents who speak German, for instance. But the kids don't speak it, the current generation.

I mean, you do. I mean, it's not so much I don't know you do get it now and again nowadays. I mean, I think people are becoming aware that that is just so people are becoming more aware that that's not really that helpful because um currently where we live, there are an awful lot of Polish, Romanian, Russian speaking children. Well families, and actually they do use their home language and I've got a lovely Ukrainian lovely friend who is they they're from the Ukraine. Her husband is Russian. No, her husband's Ukrainian. She's Macedonian. But their home language is Russian. Oh, wow. So they have but that's that's standard in that area because it was a Soviet bloc. That is quite standard for them.

For sure.

So their home language is Russian, but still doing the other languages. So when their sons came to school, school were were really worried that that their son returned didn't speak English. But they had three languages to keep going with. And actually within very short, very short period of time, he spoke fluent in English. Yeah. So it came, but because this school had such target for their language development, they were they were stressing my poor friend Anna out about her her son's lack of English. And I was like, just just ignore them.

Yeah. But it's interesting, isn't it how is it more globalized world? We're we're getting more people who are taking on non-globalizing, uh, sort of projects. For instance, if you're if you're living in England, let's say 50 years ago, and you didn't have any contact with the outside world at all. Like you didn't even know where Russia was on a maybe Russia, you did know because of the the news and everything. But, uh, you didn't know where any foreign foreigners. Like.

But there migration has always happened. There's always been migration and that's I mean, we there was something the um, oh in London we went to a big exhibition about migration. And actually as people have traveled, they've taken their languages and their cultures with them. That's always happened. And people seem to forget that. And actually if you're if you're if children are able to recognize people speaking different languages and know that people are different or even just to and for that to be acceptable and normal, you're totally changing a mindset. You're showing people that and because what I I love languages. So if I see any hear any sort of accent, I will say to somebody what language do you speak and try and learn a little bit because that's me.

Sure. But it's just it seems like it's a bit of a. It's just weird.

Question. But I'm actually excited. Um, yeah, I think it might.

It's just weird. I don't know if it's growing or if or if it's more more visible now.

I don't know. Well, but that's what that's what my my heart is just to get families using languages and using.

It will be nice. I'm sure. Yeah.

Yes, and the mums have got skills. And often when you've been as as a mum myself, I know when you're at home with your little is you you do start to feel as if you've not got a brain anymore, because you're just changing and watching Teletubbies, or it's just like that sometimes your skills go to so to be able to meet with other mums who have got also got language skills and you're building your own confidence in using the skills you have. Yeah. And so the lovely mums that come to my classes. One of them is now um, she does graphic design for me because we've sort of so she started back into work with that. Another friend has got some has started another like another kids' a kids' group franchise, not directly to me, but from seeing what I've done and working with me. She's sort of seeing, oh, actually I could do that. So actually, I don't know. I I like I like to be able to I don't know. I have a bit of a bit of an obsession in in what in sort of seeing people's skills and helping them to to use them. So it's not none of it solely down to me, but I know I've had a big part to play in that and I love it. So.

Yeah, that's fantastic.

You're like your chief encouragement officer. I saw that on your LinkedIn. I think that's that's what I like to be. It's just like I think so so many people have got amazing skills that they can't see. And actually, there's some things that only they could do. What I do, I don't think I'm uniquely skilled to do what I do to be honest. And I feel a lot of us are like that and it's just finding your your niche in there somewhere. Yeah. Hopefully making some money out of it.

Yeah, if possible. But I really like the idea of of languages as a gateway to mutual understanding or empathy in a way because I think if you're living a one-language life and you're kind of you know, you only know one culture, then it's very easy to put up a situation that's like us and them. But if you start to understand learn a little bit of the language and you start to even use it and and start to to speak it with the with the native speakers, then it just offers this interesting gateway that changes your mind a little bit because I remember when I was before I I learned Russian, I I had this very, I guess stereotypical view of Russians and especially in video games. They were always shouting and angry and, you know, calling people offensive stuff and and back then it seemed to me like that was so typically Russian.

That's the main thing. Yeah, we've got we we have a lovely Polish delicatessen shop. And being a German food is all bread and sausages. And it's really and it's quite similar to Polish food. So for starters we started to go to that shop because they have proper bread and German English bread is crap. Yeah, it really is. It's like white bread all the time. Yeah. But they they have proper bread and they have Aushnit, which is it's like sausage. And so we started just to go in for that. And then I thought, actually I can learn a little bit of Polish. So I so I can now say, 'Poproszę pięć plastrów mortadeli,' which means, please can I have five slices of mortadella? Because my daughter loves that. So we started with that and then I and then I learned another one. I can say, 'Jesteś maszt?' Or which is how are you? And so each time I go, I learn a little. And I've got a Polish friend or Polish-speaking friend who who I WhatsApp back and forth and he tells me how you actually spell it. So I've been picking up bits of that. And the the kids are the same now. So they can they can say, 'Cześć,' which is hello. And they can say, 'Dobry wieczór,' goodbye. And so they're just picking it up because and that's what we do. So that's that's a physical place where we speak Polish. Which is lovely. And they've got nice food that we like to buy and it's a nice little shop. But in that, they we're being one of the ladies was chatting to us the other day and saying that she was a grandma and telling me about her grandkids, which she wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for that. And it's just like, as you as you try to speak a little of somebody's language. It's just it you're moving so much further towards them that they want to talk to you. Yes. And the mums have got skills. And often when you've been as as a mum myself, I know when you're at home with your little is you you do start to feel as if you've not got a brain anymore, because you're just changing and watching Teletubbies, or it's just like that sometimes your skills go to so to be able to meet with other mums who have got also got language skills and you're building your own confidence in using the skills you have. Yeah. And so the lovely mums that come to my classes. One of them is now um, she does graphic design for me because we've sort of so she started back into work with that. Another friend has got some has started another like another kids' a kids' group franchise, not directly to me, but from seeing what I've done and working with me. She's sort of seeing, oh, actually I could do that. So actually, I don't know. I I like I like to be able to I don't know. I have a bit of a bit of an obsession in in what in sort of seeing people's skills and helping them to to use them. So it's not none of it solely down to me, but I know I've had a big part to play in that and I love it. So.

Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, like you're in your chief encouragement officer. I saw that on your LinkedIn. I think that's that's what I like to be. It's just like I think so so many people have got amazing skills that they can't see. And actually, there's some things that only they could do. What I do, I don't think I'm uniquely skilled to do what I do. To be honest, I feel a lot of us are like that and it's just finding your your niche in there somewhere. Yeah. Hopefully making some money at it.