This year has been……………………………………….intense, but rewarding!
My course – Fashion Design – has been great. There has been so much to learn, so normally I would wake up around 7am and go to sleep anytime between 12am and 2am, including the weekends, but in a way its great because you get the chance to go deep into your work and the progress is phenomenally quick.
Benjamin Elliott
I’m not going to lie, at first the idea of speaking French as my daily language was daunting – I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t understand anything in my lessons as a lot of the language is specific / technical. Even going to the shops when I first arrived, I had to plan in my head what I was going to say before I said it (and even then I would forget and make a mistake)! But throwing myself in at the deep end was the best way for it, frankly. At school it turned out that no one else knew half the vocabulary either (as it was technical for them, too) so the teacher would always describe or explain what it was whenever he / she spoke about it, and being around my friends all day I picked up quickly the ‘young-words’ and slang etc, which made it so much easier to understand what everyone was talking about – at school unfortunately you only learn the formal french, which unless I’m speaking to someone’s Grandma, I haven’t found too useful this year!
Thanks to John Speak, paying my rent this year has been a little less stressful than what it would have otherwise been which has meant that I haven’t needed a job during the year so I have really been able to get stuck into my studies and make the most of term time.
However, when the summer holidays arrived I got myself a job in a bar which is brilliant. Not only is it great to have my own income of money, but also my french has improved to yet another level… even regarding my accent, sometimes people struggle to notice it, and when they do they rarely guess that I’m english!
Benjamin Elliott
Also regarding my language, I no longer have to think and reflect before I speak – some sentences are easier to say in french that in english… even to the point where I occasionally dream in french too…!?
Overall this year has been 100% successful. I came to France to improve my french, so that box is certainly ticked, and I’ve decided that I’m definitely staying here for the next two years of my education to really make the most of the city and the experience whilst its available to me !
The year was 1986; I was 21 years old and had just finished a Business Studies Course at Bradford College.
I had taken a linguistics option with advanced French and beginners Spanish so when I learned about the John Speak Language Scholarships I was eager to go to Spain to bring both languages to a similar level. At the time, I think the scholarship was mainly given to people working in companies with European ties. I was told I could have the scholarship if I could find a company who would employ me on for the six months.
My father was a printer and one of the printing ink suppliers told him they had connections to a Spanish ink company. I wrote to the Spanish company and they agreed for me to work there for a six month period.
Michelle Dalgety, Spain 1986
The Spanish company was based in Bilbao, northern Spain. I travelled by train, through France and onto Bilbao. I stayed in a hostel for the duration of my six month scholarship.
It was quite difficult at first as this was my first full time job and I was doing it in a foreign language. It was also the first time I had left home, so I was growing up in a sense too. My Spanish was very basic and I thought I would never become fluent. I was lucky to have landed in Bilbao as historically it had many connections with England due to the iron ore mines and people tended to like the British. They are fiercely proud of their football team which was set up by the English so right from the start everyone was extremely helpful, welcoming and eager for me to learn.
Bilbao was in a period of industrial unrest when I went over, the ship builders were due to close and there were lots of street protests and barricaded roads. It was also politically tense and there were fights between police and masked demonstrators most weekends. The Basque government were negotiating the devolution of more powers which later resulted in the astounding transformation of Bilbao from a dirty industrial city into a vibrant modern city.
Just as my scholarship was ending, the Spanish company I was working for was bought by a US multinational and my English became vital to the company, so they asked me to stay on a further 6 months. This turned into a permanent contract and in the end my six months became twenty three years! I worked in the same company until 2009 when recession hit and I was made redundant.
I am obviously bi-lingual and still use Spanish when Skyping my friends in Spain and I often read Spanish newspapers too! Unfortunately I have not used my Spanish professionally since I moved back to Bradford.
The John Speak Trust was a complete life changer for me, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to live and work in another country. I am astounded that the United Kingdom gives such low importance to foreign languages. People should leap at the chance to take up this opportunity, not only to learn the language but for understanding other cultures too!
Michelle Dalgety – November 2014
Bilbao is situated in the north-central part of Spain, some 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) south of the Bay of Biscay, where the estuary of Bilbao is formed. Its main urban core is surrounded by two small mountain ranges with an average elevation of 400 metres (1,300 ft).
“Thanks to the language skills I gained following my scholarship and my time in France, I was involved in the export trade for many years throughout my career”.
At my school it had been compulsory for ‘A stream’ students to study French and Latin. Ideally, I would have preferred to study French and German but this was only available at ‘B stream’ level. I do, however, now speak basic German and Italian after studying both languages later in life at night school and on my travels.
After leaving school, I began working for a local Wool Merchants.
To enhance my employment opportunities, in 1949 at the ripe old age of eighteen, I applied for and was lucky enough to receive a John Speak Scholarship (I had to wait until I was eighteen before I could apply as stipulated in the Terms and Conditions). My family were very supportive of my decision to travel and study French abroad in order to further my career opportunities. My journey began with a train journey to London, train to Dover, ferry to Calais, train to Paris, train to Toulouse and finally a Michelin rail bus to Mazamet in Tarn, France.
I spent six wonderful months in Tarn, France living in ‘digs’ with full board. I was lucky to have my own room with a wash basis but no hot running water. The room was very basic with no television, radio or telephone. The toilet was located at the very end of the garden! Although the amenities were very basic to say the least, I loved it, I really did!
As well as studying the language I worked full time (unpaid) to help improve my French.
In 1949 there had been restrictions in place which only allowed those leaving the United Kingdom with a maximum amount of £25 in their pocket. The Scholarship (approximately £30 per month) provided enough income to pay for my ‘digs’ and food but during my stay the Government devalued the Pound Sterling to the French Franc meaning my monthly allowance was reduced to £25 per month!
Thanks to the language skills I gained following my scholarship and my time in France, I was involved in the export trade for many years throughout my career. French proved to be an essential language for negotiating with Countries such as Algeria in my work. My French also came into its’ own many years later when spending time holidaying in France with my wife and family. Very useful when booking caravan sites and negotiating a fair price!
I will always be grateful to the John Speak Trust for the Scholarship I received all those years ago. My career would have definitely taken a different path had it not been for the opportunities it provided.
I am very pleased that the Trust continues to live on after all this time. The Scholarships have assisted many language students such as myself pursue a career in helping the export trade of the United Kingdom and may it continue to do so for many more years to come!
Frank Clayton
Tarn, France
Tarn is a department in the Midi-Pyrenees region in the southwest of France, named after the Tarn River. It was formed in 1790 of the three dioceses of Albi, Castres and Lavaur, belonging to the province of Languedoc
“It was wonderful to see that the Trust is still going and providing the same opportunities to young people after all this time. May it long continue to do so”, Derek Platts.
Sixty years ago in 1954, I was 23, had recently completed my national Service in the RAF and was working in my first job in the export department of a large tool manufacturer in Sheffield when I saw an advert in the local paper inviting applications for a language scholarship with the John Speak Language Trust (it was called the John Speak foundation in those days). As I met the criteria of working in export and having a basic understanding of a foreign language – French – I decided to apply. After a rather scary interview at the Bradford Chamber of Commerce with a group of gentlemen who I understood were all involved in the wool trade, I was fortunate to be selected.
My employers agreed to give me 6 months leave of absence and arranged for me to work with one of their agents abroad. I was hoping to go to France, but in those days there was very little export business done with France due to restrictions imposed by the French government, so they arranged for me to go to Brussels.
The first thing I had to sort out was how to get there. That will seem an odd thing to say now, but back in 1954 there were no budget airlines, and normal airlines were far too expensive. One way would have been to get the train to London, then to Dover for the ferry to Ostend, but again this was quite expensive, so my firm came up with an alternative. We shipped a lot of tools from UK ports to Antwerp, so they fixed it for me to go as a passenger on cargo boat . I was the only passenger and we sailed late one night from Goole bound for Antwerp. I awoke the next morning somewhere in the middle of a very rough North Sea and did not feel good at all. Around mid-day I was invited to join the captain for lunch. I managed to sit down at the table with him but that was as far as I got before I was finally overcome with sea sickness, much to his amusement.
Brussels, 1954
Eventually we got to Antwerp and I made my way to Brussels and found the office where I was going to work. I stayed the first few days in a youth hostel until I found a room with a lady who also provided full board. She had a shop with rooms above it in the Chaussee de Waterloo which was 10 minutes walk from the office and the centre of Brussels. Couldn’t have been better.
Also staying there was a German chap a Belgian student and also the landlady’s son, all like me in their early twenties. The only problem was that we didn’t have a language in common. The landlady and her son only spoke French, the student only Flemish & French, the German English & German but no French. So we had some very interesting conversations when we all sat down for a meal together!
In the office I found that although Belgium is bi-lingual, the business language used was French although the staff was a mixture of native French and Flemish speakers. It was interesting to note that the native Flemish speakers all could speak French, but very few of the native French speakers could speak Flemish, and even in those days it was not unusual to find that some native Flemish speakers would not speak French even though they could. I even had one occasion where a Flemish speaker would not speak to me in French but was quite happy to do so in English. Sadly I understand that the division is even more marked nowadays than it was then.
Everyone in the office was instructed to speak to me in French which was hard for some of them who could speak English as they wanted to practice it. However, it all worked out very well and at the end of my six months I was able to carry out a reasonable conversation and also found it fairly easy to read anything written in French. I must admit however, that I was not very good at actually writing in French which was only to be expected considering that I had been learning by listening to people speaking without any actual tuition. Not long after my return to the UK I had to accompany a senior executive of my company to Paris to act as interpreter as they had appointed an agent there in the hope of starting some business. I thought I was doing quite well but the French people I was talking to seemed to find it amusing which was a bit disconcerting, until one of them told me the reason. He said he had never heard an Englishman talking French before – with a Belgian accent! I was quite pleased actually as it was a lot better than being obviously an Englishman trying to speak French and proof indeed that the best way to learn a language is by living and working with people who speak it.
I continued in the export trade for a number of years after that where my French continued to be of use until I had a change of career and went into the advertising business. At first there was no opportunity to make use of it until I got the job of organising a photographic shoot for a major car manufacturer. A basic requirement was to find a location where the weather was better than the UK, not too far away, with a variety of interesting scenery and locations and where it was possible to find places with not to many people about. Where better than France? So that is what I did, and it was so successful that over the years I repeated the exercise several times. Needless to say my knowledge of the language was invaluable.
I eventually retired and found that without regular use my French became more than a little rusty, but now I have found it returning again as my eldest daughter has been living in France for the last 7 or 8 years and I spend quite a bit of time there so I get plenty of practice.
I will be forever grateful to the John Speak trust for that scholarship so many years ago as my life has been so enriched by the opportunities it gave me.
It was wonderful to see that the Trust is still going and providing the same opportunities to young people after all this time. May it long continue to do so.
My advice to anybody considering a bursary to travel abroad would be to grab the opportunity while you can!
After having finished my degree in French and Spanish with Interpreting at the University of Sheffield, I knew where I wanted my career to go. Since the age of 16 I have wanted to be a conference interpreter. I took the entrance exams for the University of Geneva, and I was accepted. The only problem was that Geneva is not the cheapest city in the world, to use a good old British understatement.
The money I received from the John Speak Trust enabled me not only to survive through my Master’s but also to grab as many experiences as I could firmly by the horns.
Conference Interpreting is a career path which requires deep cultural understanding of the countries whose languages you study. Geneva being a French speaking city, the francophone side was already covered, but the money from the John Speak Trust also allowed me to travel to the south of Spain for two weeks during my Christmas holidays and to travel around Switzerland, both French and German speaking during Easter.
As it currently stands, I have just passed my second semester and am gearing up to face my third and final semester here in Geneva. This bursary has enabled me to discover a city that I love, and one which I hope will be my home for a few years to come.
My experience in Geneva has confirmed me as a citizen of the world, as Geneva serves as a cross roads for many languages, cultures and ideas thanks to its International Organisations, including the UN, which I have been lucky enough to work in as a volunteer over the past few weeks. I had already experienced life in a French speaking country through my Erasmus in Bordeaux, but Geneva offers a different, unique perspective, being a town that is French speaking only in name; I regularly hear French, English, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese and goodness knows how many other languages that I do not even recognise, and that is just on the tram!
My advice to anybody considering a bursary to travel abroad would be to grab the opportunity while you can! It is a unique experience, and one which is not always easy, but it provides you with excellent skills for the jobs market, and more importantly broadens your personal horizons and opens doors that you never knew existed.
The most important thing to do is to go native so to speak.
Eat where the locals eat, drink what the locals drink, chill out where the locals chill out, and above all, make every effort to speak what the locals speak!
