My story
With over 46 years of experience in the AI MFL Technology, Call Centre Technology, and Interpreting Technology industries, I felt it was time to give back to the MFL community that has profoundly impacted my life. While I am not an MFL teacher only a businessman, I couldn’t ignore the sharp decline in students choosing to study languages in schools. I knew I had to take action.
Despite receiving little to no support from various language organizations, I have personally delivered over 550 MFL career talks to students across the country. The results have been truly inspiring, as highlighted on our testimonials page.
Our data collected from MFL teachers across the country reveals that over the years, I have successfully encouraged more than 14,500 students, who were previously hesitant, to choose a language as a subject. This figure is likely an underestimate, as not all Heads of MFL Departments follow up via email to share the impact of my visits, though many do.
The steady decline in students opting to study languages is undoubtedly one of the most pressing challenges in education today. After all, if students don’t choose a language at school, the chances of them pursuing it at university diminish significantly.
Hi Michelle & Catherine
I just wanted to send a a quick email to say thank you to you both for today's awesome Language Hub event. The effort you put into organising it is really appreciated, and it was wonderful to see our students so engaged an inspired.
David Bins was an excellent guest speaker, and the students came away with such positive reflections on the experience. Their feedback has been overwhelmingly positive - they were really motivated by the talk and the workshops and gained a fresh perspective on the importance of languages.
We did a 40 minute session with our 26 students after we returned and they were able to clearly articulate all of the benefits of learning language. I'll also add that these were 26 students I identified as being reluctant linguists.
Thank you both for making this opportunity possible. It was a real success, and I hope it will become an annual thing
Head of Modern Languages - North West England
Dear David
I wanted to email to express our deep gratitude to you for delivering such an inspirational and motivational presentation to our year 9 students yesterday. I sadly was not there as I was at a conference, but on my return to the office I was bombarded with positive feedback about how well the talk had landed with our students, and how brilliantly you delivered the key messages we need them to hear as they embark on their GCSE options process.
I am sure that we will see the enthusiasm they left with yesterday transpire into good take-up of languages for GCSE next year, and hopefully a few of those students will be inspired to continue their language studies beyond GCSE when the time comes. I would also like to get an early booking request in for next year if possible?
Chris Bufton - Head of Modern Languages
Katharine Lady Berkeley’s School, Gloucestershire!