One thing you can do is view this as an opportunity – to reclaim a sense of self, carve out some much needed personal time and expand your life through new hobbies and interests.

• You might have spent the last few years investing in education and tutoring for your child. How about investing that money in your own education , for example we offer one to one drawing and painting tutoring with art teachers in Didsbury, Manchester. Or if you’ve always fancied taking up a musical instrument, now could be the time, at 121 Home Tutors we have tutors offering music theory and composition across Didsbury, South Manchester and Wilmslow. They teach instruments including piano, flute, guitar, sax and oboe.
• Maybe you fancy living abroad or just spending a bit more time in another country?  Parents of children we tutor tell us they’ve suddenly found they have the time to consider a more peaceful life, choosing to spend time in countries such as France, Spain or Germany. It could even be the start of a whole new life!  http://www.121hometutors.co.uk/2011/05/want-to-speak-the-lingo-when-you-are-abroad/
• Have you held back on your career development? You might have been stuck in the same job for years. Now is your chance to start a new career and private tutoring can be a great way to take the first step. If you’ve been out of education for a long time then the support of a private tutor can help you to get the best out of any course. 121 Home Tutors can also arrange intensive tutoring in specific areas which mean you can learn quickly in a very personal and supportive environment.
• We have a number of tutors who work in professional areas, such as accountancy. If you want to take the next step in your current career then they can help with exams and general confidence in your subject and workplace.
• We know you’ll never forget about your kids but it’s worth remembering that uni students struggle with study too. We have a number of university students who come to us for private tutoring and we are able to find tutors for most degree subjects in Manchester and Cheshire (we cover central Manchester and outlying areas such as Wilmslow and Cheadle).

If you’d like to chat to 121 Home Tutors about adult tutoring in Manchester, Heaton Moor, Wilmslow, Didsbury and surrounding areas then call us on 01625 531360

This might be your last chance, at least for a while, to fill your time with some interesting and career enhancing activities. Before you know it you’ll be in the world of work or finding your way at university. Here are just a few suggestions to fill your time over the next few weeks.

1.      Work experience

If there’s one thing that employers say time and time again about choosing someone to work for them it’s that they want someone with experience. You can have all the qualifications in the world but even a few weeks experience in your chosen sector could make the difference between landing your dream job or walking away disappointed. It’s also a great chance to try out different jobs and turn your hand to a variety of jobs before you pick your ‘career’. Lots of companies would love to have someone enthusiastic and hardworking over the summer to help them out. It’s fairly straightforward to get some work experience – just think about the kind of companies you want to work for – and then drop them an email, call them or go and see them in person. It’s a good idea to get a basic CV together and be ready to answer questions about why you want to do work experience at that company. If you don’t have a career or specific company in mind then doing any kind of work will give you valuable skills in timekeeping, responsibility and self-motivation.

2.      Take a day trip to Uni

If you are going to Uni in September then you’ve probably already visited your University – but how long did you spend there? A few hours? How about jumping on a train with a few mates and really starting to get to know the place you’ll spend the next 3 or so years. It can give you a real head start before your course begins and give you vital information like where the supermarkets are!

3.      Volunteer

At 121 Home Tutors we happen to think volunteering is one of the most rewarding and enriching things you can do with your time. There are hundreds of volunteering opportunities in the UK and abroad – and there’s something to suit everyone – from building schools in Africa, to fundraising to helping out at events. You can find information here

4.      Learn a new skill

Chances are you’ve been so busy the last few months you’ve had no time to just concentrate on you and what you like. When was the last time you learnt something that you really enjoyed? The holidays are the perfect time to join a club or class and develop or polish up a skill – from Zumba to learning French – check out Plings for classes, events and things to do.  There’s always the option to work one to one with a specialised tutor.

5.      Travel

If you’ve done A Levels languages what will you do with them now? How about taking those skills and enjoying everything that another country has to offer? Check out options like Interail and turn your holiday into an adventure.

If you’d like to know more about learning a new skill over the summer then contact us at 121 Home Tutors – we offer one to one language tuition including French and Spanish across Manchester and  Cheshire.

This is the perfect time for Year 9 students who are going into their GCSE years to work on subjects they’ve struggled with. If your child is in Year 9 and will start working towards their iGCSE (often in independent schools and perceived as harder than a traditional GCSE)  then summer tutoring can help them get a headstart.

And if your child is in Year 10 or 12 then they’ll be on their way to final GCSE and A Level exams in the next year – this is the summer that could make all the difference to how they enter one of the most important years of their life.  Summer catch ups and study aren’t just for those who’ve struggled a bit, it’s a chance for every student to get ahead or just make sure their brain doesn’t turn to mush in the space of six weeks.

It might seem daft to say that students can fall behind in such a short space of time – but in a month and a half (even longer for independent and boarding schools) the skills they’ve built up during the year can quickly disappear. It means they often start the year struggling to find their feet.  When we talk to parents and students we find the areas they most struggle with at the start of the year (after the long summer break) are modern languages (so French, Spanish etc), Maths and Science. It’s usually because these are the trickiest subjects for most students and all of these subjects combine using complex skills with learning a lot of knowledge. So for example they have to develop skills such as writing up experiments or solving equations alongside taking in knowledge of names of compounds or lists of vocabulary and noun formations. So how can we help them stay on top without destroying all the fun of the summer holidays?

The secret is to find fun ways of engaging the brain without making it feel like learning.

• If your child is learning a language, maybe French or Spanish, then visit the country for a trip or holiday. Encourage them to use the language but also know that just being around it will utlise their skills (such as reading and comprehension).
• Visit museums and exhibitions – places like MOSI (The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester) aren’t just for young children. There’s stuff for children of all ages (and even better it will entertain them for a whole day).
• Keep them reading – encourage them to read their favourite books, invest in some new reading material and if they are willing get them to cast an eye over their textbooks.
• Use the resources you have for educational purposes – yes they are probably already permanently glued to the television or internet, so encourage them to find programmes relevant to their study (Braniac for Science for example).
• Think about using a private tutor – tutors don’t have to teach in a classroom style and an hour or two a week could be just what your child needs to go into the next year brimming with confidence.

If you live in Greater Manchester Cheshire and you’d like to find out more about how summer holiday tutoring can help your child –in tricky subjects like Maths, Science and modern languages –get in touch with 121 Home Tutors.

No doubt you’ll have heard horror stories of people buying holiday homes in France or Spain only to find out they hadn’t completed some vital piece of paperwork. This usually comes down to a communication issue because we don’t get a good enough grasp of the language before we trot off on the plane.

Or you could be in the enviable position of being offered a promotion at work, a move to a European office such as Barcelona or Paris is on the cards. It’s great because most people speak English but you’d be in a much stronger position if you spoke the language and were able to handle the very simple day to day activities such as going to the supermarket or doctors without having to resort to using a dictionary or translator.

There are many different ways you can learn a language – evening classes, online courses and tapes. We often get asked at 121 Home Tutors to work with people on their French, German or Spanish language skills because they value the one on one help we can provide. And private language tutoring is one way to learn fairly intensively and with continual encouragement to keep working at it (rather than letting the language tapes languish at the back of a cupboard).  We’re also able to tailor a very specific private tutoring language course rather than teaching you things that maybe aren’t so relevant. If you need business French then we can focus on what you’ll need to work best in the office (so you’ll need to know the word for a photocopier or words specific to your job). If you’re buying a property in say Germany or Spain we can focus on the language relating to homes and any particular legal language you may need. The other great thing is that many of our tutors have spent time in the country you’ll be discussing and can give you little hints and tips.

If you’d like to know more about learning a language such as French, Spanish or German and you live in Manchester or Cheshire (we cover areas including Bramhall, Hale, Wilmslow, Didsbury and Alderley Edge) then contact 121 Home Tutors.

As well as languages no longer being compulsory there is generally held belief that languages are harder. This could be for a number of reasons.  A study a few years ago showed that marking in languages is often tougher than for, say, GCSE Drama. There was also a perception that language teaching in general was less dynamic.  And if children aren’t engaged in the classroom then they are less likely to sign up for a subject at GCSE level. Schools have been accused of pushing their students down the ‘softer’ exam route to boost their rankings.  As languages were always seen as hard but can now be avoided (unlike compulsory ‘hard’ subjects such as Maths and Science) then there is less incentive for schools to encourage children to take the subjects. The recent coalition Government is trying to crackdown on soft GCSEs introduced by Labour.

But what’s the impact of the drop in uptake of foreign languages? One thing we’re maybe not very good at making clear to children is how important an additional language can be personally but also on a wider level. If we don’t possess the skills to operate on an international level then how do we trade with other countries? Our employers should be making it clear to children, through their relationships with schools, that they need language skills to get jobs and grow companies (furthering their own careers).  We have so many international companies with a presence in the UK that it should be clear how important a further language could be.

Companies need to offer incentives for people who speak foreign languages and make it clear in job adverts that this skill is highly prized. If employers don’t make it clear that these skills are valued then there’s no real reason for children to keep learning a language.  If it’s already seen as a hard subject and then there is no end value to pursuing it then it’s easy to see why children aren’t rushing to sign up. We need to stop feeding the idea that ‘every other country speaks English’ and instead look for ways to communicate in their native tongue.

One way to get children interested in languages is to start young – at 121 Home Tutors we work with children at primary level – in interesting and unusual ways to get them really excited about languages. Once they’ve caught onto the idea that languages can be as interesting as their other subjects then they are more likely to want to keep up with their study at a higher level. And because they love it they then want to know how they could use it in their life or career once they leave school. The answer doesn’t seem to be in making languages compulsory again but rather helping children love languages.

If you’d like some help with primary or GCSE French, German or Spanish language (or Business Studies) tutoring in Manchester and Cheshire (we cover the Heatons, Sale, Wilmslow and Didsbury plus other areas) contact 121 Home Tutors today.

You’ve decided you’d love to start learning a new language. Maybe you are going to Spain during the summer holidays and for once would love to be able to order something in fluent Spanish. Or maybe you are thinking about investing in a holiday home in France but would like a better grasp of the language before you part with your money.

Learning a new language can be tricky – it does require a lot of time and effort. Just think about how long it took you to become ‘fluent’ in the first language you spoke as a child – usually several years. So you can’t expect to have a few lessons and converse as naturally as a native of the country.  It’s a good idea to have something to keep you focussed to motivate you as time goes on – maybe a picture of your holiday destination?

Here are some top tips for starting to learn a new language:

1.      Get the basics right

Start with either a book or tape of the language you want to learn (or a private tutor if you prefer) and practice some of the basics. These could be commonly used words and phrases (thank you, hello, how are you). Work on pronunciation and the rhythm of the words.  Keep listening and repeating until you feel confident.

2.      Audio books and workbooks

Listening to audio books, iTunes or a native speaker will help both your listening and pronunciation skills.  Workbooks where you can practise exercises will help you ‘think’ in the language.

3.      Grammar matters

If you are going to be understood then you need to get the grammar basics right. The best way to do this is to get a workbook or work with a private tutor. You need to understand how a verb works in all its forms (called verb conjugation) and how the past, present and future tenses work.

4.      One on one tutoring

Private one on one tutoring is one of the fastest and most effective ways to learn a new language and can be tailored to give you the specific language you need. You can work with a private tutor on the basics like grammar and pronunciation but they can also help with general conversation and subject specific knowledge (language you might need for a job).

5.      Practice

Whenever you get the chance to practice then take it. If you are learning Spanish then take a trip down to your local tapas bar and try out your new skills. Don’t be afraid of trying out your language on native speakers, they can help you with pronunciation (and probably appreciate the effort you’ve made to speak in their language).

If you’d like to know more about learning a language such as French, Spanish or German and you live in Manchester or Cheshire (we cover areas including Bramhall, Hale, Wilmslow, Didsbury and Alderley Edge) then contact 121 Home Tutors today.

That said, for students in this age group doing a bit of work and catching up over the summer holiday break isn’t just for those who have failed or underperformed in exams. It is also a great opportunity to get a head start and/or keep information fresher. The summer holiday break is quite long: six weeks or so for state schools, around eight weeks for many independent day schools and even more for many boarding schools. Even bright students often lose ground during this time, getting out of good habits, forgetting key information and neglecting skills that they had developed to a high level for the previous exam season.

Three subject areas most at risk from this ‘slippage’ are Maths, Science and modern languages. There are two reasons for this. First, they are among the most difficult subjects any student will be working on, especially at A-Level. Second, each one combines relatively difficult skills with a large amount of knowledge that needs to be learned.

Maths, Science and languages require the student both to develop skills (e.g., solving complex equations; designing, conducting and writing up experiments; forming grammatical sentences) and learn a great deal of information (formulae, physical laws, names of elements and compounds, long lists of vocabulary and tables of noun and verb forms).

It’s not necessary for students to spend their entire summer holiday revising all this stuff to stay on top of it – everyone needs a break, after all. The trick is to ensure that knowledge, skills and relevant thinking habits don’t just drop to the bottom of their minds for six, eight or ten weeks. As a parent, there are several ways you can help:

• Travel can make an enormous difference. If your child is learning French and German, consider a visit to one country or the other for a holiday or short break.
• Think about a visit to the Science Museum or the Natural History Museum in London. These aren’t just resources for younger kids – they contain a great deal of thought-provoking, inspirational material for older students, too.
• Encourage reading – something we’ve blogged about recently.
• More engaged students can be encouraged to actually pick up their school books during the holiday and have a quick refresher read. You could give them some sort of incentive to do this.
• Switch on the telly! Keep an eye on the TV listings for programmes relevant to particular areas of study, and encourage them to watch. There’s also tons of good stuff on YouTube, iTunes U and the web in general.
• Consider hiring a tutor, especially if your child underperformed in the end of year exams. Summer holiday tutoring doesn’t have to be intensive: a ‘slow burn’ approach to help students reinforce key ideas can work very well. It is a worthwhile summer holiday activity that keeps them occupied

If you live in the Greater Manchester or East Cheshire area and you’d like to find out more about how summer holiday tutoring can help your child – especially in tricky subjects like Maths, Science and modern languages – don’t hesitate to get in touch with 121 Home Tutors. We’ll be very happy to advise you, and, if you wish, put you in touch with tutors relevant to your child’s needs.

Whether you’re visiting a foreign country on holiday or you’d just like a new challenge, learning a language can be a very rewarding experience. Below is an overview of the most popular options:

• French is still the most popular modern language for Brits, probably because most of us acquired at least a smattering of it at school. As languages go, it is relatively easy, with quite a small vocabulary and a fairly regular grammar. The big challenge is mastering the accent and the pronunciation of words – for some reason, native English speakers find both difficult. One of the secrets of success is to physically move your mouth more than you do when you’re speaking English.
• German is a bit trickier than French, because the grammar is more strict and the word order is often very different from what we’re used to in English. That said, modern German is similar to English in many ways (both are “Germanic” languages), and most English-speakers find German pronunciation relatively easy.
• Spanish and Italian, like French, are Romance languages – basically, modern versions of Latin. The two are quite similar to each other, and are sometimes mutually intelligible if spoken slowly. Most people find them easier to learn than French, with Spanish probably the easiest European language if you want to develop conversational ability quickly. One word of warning: the Italians seem to have a real problem understanding foreigners who try to speak their language – it really pays to work on the accent! If you’re seeking to learn for business or employment reasons, Spanish can be a surprisingly good choice – along with English, Mandarin and Arabic it’s one of the world’s most widespread languages, used by half a billion native speakers globally.
• Russian – now we’re getting more adventurous! Russian is a Slavic language, and very different from Romance (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian) and Germanic (English, German, Dutch) tongues. It has a complex grammar and a different alphabet from western European languages (Cyrillic rather than Roman). On the upside, it is very similar to other Slavic languages, so if you get on well with Russian you’ll find Roman-alphabet eastern European languages (e.g., Polish) pretty straightforward. Russian is also a good language to learn if you’re interested in beefing up your CV – many UK businesses work with Russia, and there is a shortage of speakers over here.
• If you want a real challenge, Mandarin Chinese could be an interesting option – though don’t expect to grasp it right away! Mandarin is the most important Chinese dialect. It is written using a pictogram system that is completely unlike western alphabets, though when you’re learning you can use a system that converts Chinese sounds into western characters. Another interesting feature of Mandarin is the way tone is so important – a word’s meaning can change completely depending on how you say it. Again, Mandarin will look very impressive on your CV!
• Welsh is a fun option if you want something a little closer to home, if you are making a move to Wales, or you holiday there regularly. The extent to which Welsh is spoken and used often surprises English visitors. This is especially true in North Wales, where there are plenty of people for whom English is very much a second language. The pronunciation is nowhere near as difficult as you might think, and it’s actually quite a straightforward language to learn. However, it’s worth knowing that Welsh dialects are quite different from one another: although it’s possible to learn a single, formal language (“International Welsh” is the tongue-in-cheek expression), you need to be aware of the differences between North Walian and South Walian versions of the language.
• If you have an academic streak, it’s worth looking at Latin. You won’t get much chance to speak it (unless you go on holiday to the Vatican…), but learning to read Latin offers huge benefits. For a start, it opens up all of Latin literature – 2000 years’ worth of some of the greatest histories, biographies and poetry ever written. In more practical terms, learning Latin is the single best way of learning about language; it’ll help with learning French, Italian and Spanish (which are really just modern dialects of Latin), and if you have a good grasp of Latin, you’ll rarely write an ungrammatical English sentence. Moreover, it’s a ruthlessly logical language that teaches you to think in a clear, structured way. If you have an ambitious and intelligent child, a bit of Latin can make a big difference to his or her prospects – the subject is shamefully neglected in state schools, but recognised by universities, and even by many employers, as the mark of an academic high-flyer.

If live in the Manchester area and you want some help developing language skills, get in touch with 121 Home Tutors today. We can offer personal tuition in a range of languages, and we’ll be more than happy to help you out. ]]> http://www.121hometutors.co.uk/2010/06/learning-a-language-over-the-summer/feed/ 0 http://www.121hometutors.co.uk/2009/12/top-exam-tips-part-2-gcse-languages/ http://www.121hometutors.co.uk/2009/12/top-exam-tips-part-2-gcse-languages/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:42:26 +0000 Alison http://www.121hometutors.co.uk/?p=264 In our last post on boosting your child’s exam chances we looked at some GCSE Maths tips. Today it’s the turn of a subject area that many mums and dads find no less scary – modern foreign languages.

How can you help your child revise for a modern foreign language GCSE – say, French or German – if you don’t speak that language, or your skills are so rusty as to be non-existent?

One way you can make a difference is by helping your child learn and revise vocabulary. A strong vocab is one of the big determiners of success in a language GCSE. Some ideas:

• If you’re testing your child from a word list that he or she has learned, ask for the meaning of the words out of list order.

• Remember to test both ways: “what’s le pont in English?”, “what’s the German word for apple?”

• Mix and match lists, or encourage your child to keep a long-term vocab book (which school might insist on, anyway). Often, kids will only remember the words in the most recent list, so being tested on vocab that’s been learned throughout the GCSE course is really good revision.

One pitfall you need to be aware of is gender. Just about every European language divides nouns (the names of things: apple, table, bridge, Jim, Annie, love, hate and so on) into genders: masculine and feminine in French, Italian and Spanish; and masculine, feminine and neuter in German and Latin.

(English is unusual, because gender usually only crops up in third person pronouns – he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its. In other languages the effects of gender are further-reaching.)

The important point to remember when you’re testing kids’ vocab is that it’s completely pointless them knowing a noun unless they also know that noun’s gender – because the gender will affect the way that sentences are constructed around that noun.

So, for example, it’s no good your child knowing that the French word for house is maison, unless he or she also knows that it’s a feminine noun – la maison.

Luckily, in most languages your child might learn, the gender of a noun is indicated by the definite article that goes with it – that is, the word for ‘the’. If you’re testing vocab, don’t accept an answer that doesn’t have a definite article! For example, don’t accept Glas as the German word for glass – it should be Das Glas. Common definite articles are le and la in French, der, die and das in German, el and la in Spanish and lo, il and la in Italian.

(If your child is studying GCSE Latin, things are a bit trickier, because Latin doesn’t have a word for ‘the’ or ‘a’. Instead, learners have to memorise the gender of each noun separately.)

In French and Italian words that begin with vowels usually have elided articles, where the word for ‘the’ is run into the main word – l’ananas (French), l’ostrica (Italian). When you come across a word like that, make sure your child also knows its gender separately: “l’ostrica – feminine”.

Of course, vocabulary isn’t everything, and there are some aspects of a foreign language that only a native speaker or an expert can teach your child. If you’re in the Manchester or East Cheshire area and you feel a bit of extra help is needed, feel free to get in touch for a no-obligation chat about how one of our modern foreign language tutors might be able to help you.

They include:

• Using a trusted website like 121hometutors, where you can get a specialised, matched tutor recommendation and read what other parents say about the tutors.
• Focusing on one or two subjects at any one time. Hiring too many tutors at once can be counter productive as it doesn’t give the student time to absorb the new information.
• Ensuring the tutor has been fully checked – at 121 we carry out a comprehensive checking process including taking up references and double checking qualifications. We focus on a tutor’s track record and their suitability for your needs.
• Check costs – at 121 we agree any fees before tutoring starts. Remember that the cheapest is rarely the best and education is always worth paying for. Tutoring isn’t about price; it’s about getting a quality tutor who cares about a student’s education.
• Looking at results – you need to know your child is making progress. At 121 we continually get feedback from both tutors and parents to make sure the tutor/student relationship is working. We often find the whole relationship is more honest as tutors can be open rather than being pressured to praise.