Summer Update!

Hey y’all

Since my last update, there’s been some weird and wonderful developments!

Inglés Completo (Complete English for Spanish Speakers) is finally going to happen, and not only that, the current Intro course will be archived and everything is going to be redone. After over a decade since recording 'Introducción a Inglés', I've upped my game a fair bit and so, turning my attention back to English has meant some massive reframing in how I think we should understand the language. A 'Complete' instalment just won't do, an entire redo is in order! I wasn't expecting to decide to redo the Intro when I accepted the collaboration to make the complete course, but I'm excited that it's the case (as much as I dread the additional audio editing!). This has important ramifications as a whole for the teaching of English with the Thinking Method, and hopefully will eventually lead to similar courses for English in other languages.

That's the wonderful news, now the weird bit... Why and how is this happening now? Well, because it's being supported by a burger joint.. Yep, you read that right! Someone at 7th Street Burger had their own experience learning Spanish with Language Transfer, and together with the founder of the restaurant chain wanted to do something for their Spanish speaking kitchen staff who are struggling to move forward with English. And so here we are... burgers and ‘Inglés para Hispanohablantes’, why not!?

This leads me on to my less positive news, which is that after over a year of proverbial door knocking (I began before I returned to the UK), I’m yet to give a workshop in any school, and have had extremely low levels of collaboration generally - not enough to justify living here full time with the high costs that entails. And so, I’ll see out my rental contract in the UK at least until the end of October, and try to get to know as much of the country as I can during these remaining months and who knows, even scout another place that LT might be more appreciated in. This means if you’re in the UK and would like to help organise a workshop locally, now is a great time! I’m especially interested in giving workshops in underprivileged areas where interest in learning is at its lowest. I know from how and where I grew up that this is where the most impact can be had with LT workshops. So if you can help, please get in touch to organise an open public workshop in the UK, especially if you can help a local school start the new academic year with a bang!

After this period in the UK, I’ll most likely return to Spain for a while to finish the new English course  - and I like the idea of spending the winter in Sevilla recording it (to maximise my winter daylight hours!). If anyone knows a coworking/cultural centre/other relevant place there that may wish to collaborate in hosting free public workshops and also offer a recording space for the course, that’d be great! Or just if you’re there… gimme a shout! :)

After that, things remain deliciously undefined! I’m always looking for new experiences and to do more with Language Transfer, so I’m open to travel for all manner of collaborations to create new material …and all manner of material, from new workshops to audio courses to written material. This random collaboration with 7th Street Burger has also highlighted for me how -as critical as I am of both the government and the third sector (charity/activism sector)- I’ve continued to knock on those same doors. It has taken a while for that penny to drop, and a little love from the corporate world has been the engine! Clearly, this needs to be my new focus even though the aesthetics of corporate cooperation have traditionally felt very uncomfortable for a project like mine but in fact, the aesthetics are great! The mere fact that companies must step in where the third sector consistently fails to, actually highlights all my criticism of said sector. In this sense, it’s a brilliant way to move forward. I hope to make much more free world-class learning material supported in this way. Whether it’s an airline or a finance company or a pizzeria that needs material in a new language, as long as I get to make it and share it for free, that’s all that counts. So this has opened my mind about how to get things done, and I’ll seek and consider all proposals to address linguistic needs on site, and see how that can combine with the creation of new material. Whenever I travel for a collaboration, I’ll aim to set up a mobile LT centre to engage the local community and record open public workshops.

As per usual, though, I’m not very good at securing any of these collaborations myself which is understandable - people are quite untrusting of my offer when it’s self-promoted (really, the distrust and/or confusion is palpable). Collaborations almost always come through a third party (LT user) who gets me in somewhere with their passion about the project and manages to convince people this is the real deal. So please, continue to spread the word!

If you’re wondering about Japanese, none of this effects the progression of that course which (as mentioned previously) would move faster with more native speaker volunteers, and so I’m still looking for Japanese native speakers interested in learning more about their language through dedicating me an hour a week! And especially men - I currently only have female volunteers and Japanese is a language whose use is quite differentiated by gender! I’ve also made a new (and much improved) British Sign Language workshop since the last one ( https://youtu.be/I4IB91_Tvds ) although this course is frozen until I find some native speaker (Deaf BSL user) volunteers. Unfortunately, there is a lot of funding and thus authoritarianism and ownership around the teaching of BSL, which very sadly makes collaborations for this new course that much harder, because the organisations and individuals who might otherwise collaborate are too primed to see this as me taking something from those who 'should' or have the 'right' to teach BSL. Again.... problems of the commercialised and over-politicised third sector which I've more than alluded to. I'll continue to seek individuals to help me though but meanwhile, I'm more than happy to start work on another sign language with the right support. So if you're one of those folks interested in American Sign Language, maybe you can try to source collaborations there - I'm imagining it's less politicised than in the UK so you may have more luck! I'd love to always be working on a sign language as well as two or three spoken languages at a time.

And last but not least, if you are due an Interlinear Ebook or a dissemination pack (please check your tier), shoot me a message to claim! None of this is automatic :)

PS Please remember that notification emails from Patreon are ‘no-reply’. If you replied directly to a message notification email with your address for a pack etc, I won’t have received it. You must open Patreon to reply :)

All the best and THANK YOU for all your support, and sorry for the lengthy post/well done for reaching the end! :)