Lingua Franca Club
Having fun while learning languages!
A little presentation of the collaborators of the Lingua Franca Club. We have 8 collaborators from 5 different continents!
Tommy
Founder, Social Media Coordinator and French & English Collaborator
Hi, my name is Tommy, and I am a French-Canadian living in Canada and Paraguay. I speak French, English and I am B1 in Spanish. While continuing my Spanish learning, I will soon start to learn Portuguese. After that, I would like to learn Italian and Guaraní. I have a lot of interest in Arabic, Turkish, Persian/Farsi, and Hindi also. Name me a language and I might have interest in it! My goal, as you see, is to be polyglot as I want to work as a correspondent for a media corporation.
I do not have any difficulties in reading Spanish. However, I have little vocabulary, which limits my conversation with people. I hope to improve that in the near future with the help of my friends at the club! As for helping English and French learners, I really like to help them with visual examples, but I am also helping them practice words pronunciations a lot. See you on Zoom some days!
Sumit
Co-Founder and Hindi Collaborator
Hi, namaste! My name is Sumit from Uttar Pradesh, India. One day I was using one of the famous language learning applications called Speaky and there I met Tommy, who speaks French and English. I was very happy to meet him since I needed help in English. He invited me to a WhatsApp group, and I was so excited that I could not wait. It was a no-brainer for me because I knew already that it would help me a lot.
I speak Hindi because it is my native language, and I am learning English because it is the lingua franca. I will teach everyone who wants to learn Hindi. I also expect that if I do mistake in English, you will correct me, agree? Easy and simple, we are exchanging free help. My goal is to learn English entirely from writing to speaking, especially, fluently like a native speaker. Since I am already at a high level, I hope to achieve my English goals in the next couple of months. I also hope to give more Hindi lessons to you my friends I made on Zoom and WhatsApp!
These meetings can offer you different perspectives, help you to understand different cultures and learn languages like English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi. Be part of it and feel the difference it makes! Salute from India and I hope to see you soon in my country, in the WhatsApp group, or in the Zoom meetings. Cheers take care!
Boudour
Arabic & French Collaborator
Hi, my name is Boudour Mkadem and I am from Tunisia. I live in the south-east of the nation, precisely in Gabès. Heirs of Carthage, my country is an old ground of civilization that enriched itself from successive contributions. I was born in a society that accepts others. My language is dialectal Arab; a mix of Arabic, French, Kabyle, Berber, and Jewish-Tunisian Arab. As a student in Master Français Langue Étrangère, I looked at a lot of applications on Google. Things that could help me improve my French level and also help me practise what I saw in class with some native speakers. I would like to learn, Turkish, German, and Italian. I really like Italy for his delicious cuisine, his landscape and his culture.
Now, we live in a globalized world where everyone is connected and knowing more than one language is an essential thing. It guarantees us easier communication with many more people. Then, we can consider it an inestimable gift. Learning a foreign language gives you the keys to immerse and enrich yourself in a different culture. It also gives you more opportunities to travel. Other than these evidences, knowing to speak and understand more than one language has a lot of advantage that you probably did not know about.
Kate
English Collaborator
Hi, my name is Kate, and I am from the United States. I was born and raised in Southern California. English is my mother tongue. I became interested in learning other languages since I was around 9 years old. My surrounding community was mostly Latino. As you may know, Southern California is not too far from the border with Mexico! As a result, many of our communities are rich in Mexican and Hispanic Culture. I obviously became interested in learning Spanish because of the wide exposure I had to Hispanic communities. I studied Spanish in High School and College. English is My Native Language and I feel happy and proud to be able to teach it to people from around the world.
I Discovered the Lingua Franca Club through an intelligent and generous gentleman named Sumit Agarwal, collaborator and co-founder. I had been on different language learning websites before, but never did I receive enough attention and practice through those platforms. The Lingua Franca Club gives a person a fantastic personal touch with great interactive practice. I look forward to a lucrative learning journey. I also look forward to teach my new friends consistent, and improved English as help them develop speaking and writing skills. Welcome to an exciting learning experience!
Itzel
Spanish Collaborator & Video Maker
¡Hola! My name is Itzel, and I am a city girl from Mexico, now living in France. I am a cinema student at university—not an actress, but someone behind the camera. I am a Spanish native speaker and I have been learning English since I was in elementary school!
I like the language because it makes it easier to communicate with other people as there are a lot of things written and produce in English first. Since I was in high school, I started to learn French and I did a school exchange for around one month in France. I visited Paris as well other little villages. My favourite one was Marseille. I am currently studying C1 level. It has been a journey, but I love the language and the French culture! Studying languages is hard but I hope to live long enough to learn them and become very fluent in other ones such as German and why not an Asian language! I love practicing by talking with other people around the world so, do not hesitate to have conversations to learn about each other culture and talk about our daily life!
Kevin G.
Spanish Collaborator
Hi! My name is Kevin. I am from Madrid, Spain. I was born in Bolivia but I was raised most of my life in Europe. My mother tongue is Spanish. I speak more or less English, but not like a native yet. I am learning English indeed, but also French, and Hindi. I start learning other languages to understand my friends in video games.
I discovered Lingua Franca Club while I was trying to improve my speaking skills on Tandem where I met Tommy who now I consider my friend. I love basketball and sports in general but my true passion is food and computers. To improve my English, I use apps like Duolingo, read a lot, and try to understand every word with the help of WordReference, which is an online dictionary. Having a South American family while living in Europe gives me the chance to be in two universes at the same time and get the best of both worlds. The Spanish spoken in Bolivia and the one spoken here in Madrid are very different. If you need help with Spanish or want to know more about Bolivia and Spain, I am there for you, I am your man!
Kevin V.
English Collaborator & Podcast Maker
¡Hola a todos! Hi everyone! My name is Kevin. I live in Ontario, Canada. I am a teacher and a father of a 5-year-old daughter. I was raised as a native English Speaker, and ahora, trabajo en el Español. When I was in school, I took many years of French classes, but unfortunately, I was not able to learn French. This is a common story for many English speakers in Canada, and I believe that this is because of the way the language is taught. I believe there is a better way to learn any language. I believe that discovering what motivates you to learn a language, along with daily practice and having meaningful conversations and enjoyable activities in that language is the key to language learning.
Learning any language is a marathon and not a sprint. These enjoyable and meaningful activities, along with deep personal motivation, is what will give you the positive feelings and associations needed to learn a new language. Mistakes are OK! Not understanding everything, in the beginning, is OK! Not having all the words to say everything is OK! You are welcome to practise in a safe and fun environment with us. Gracias por leerlo ¡espero verle pronto!
Priscila
Portuguese Collaborator
Hello, my name is Priscila. I am from Goiania, Brazil, and Portuguese is my first language. I also communicate in English. In one of my efforts to further improve my language practices. I contribute by teaching other foreigners Portuguese and also by sharing a bit of Brazilian culture.
Brazil is a huge country, filled with particular cultural features from several different states which represent the extension of the entire national territory with a demographic density composed of many different nationalities and tribes. Therefore, analyzing curiously other countries, and contributing to these people have always been a fascinating experience. It is the cultural diversity that integrates our national pride and allows identifies me with my own Brazilian identity. If you are looking to learn Portuguese, I am there for you! See you later!
Right now, I am developing my proficiency in English by participating in online meetings with other foreigners. I have chosen to dedicate myself to English because it is an international language and it could increase my chances of getting better job offers, exploring other fields of study, and naturally communicating with other people. I am also learning Swedish by myself using some practical grammar online tools. I do so because I enjoy many aspects of Scandinavian culture. I truly want to get involved in the community and earn the respect of the locals by mastering this language.
Alma
Spanish Collaborator and Chronicler
Hello, my name is Alma. I am a pure Spaniard. What does that mean? I would never dare to give you a solvent answer since the Iberian Peninsula was populated, among others, by Vandals, Tartessians, Iberians, Celts and Phoenicians. From 711 to 1492, the Arabs occupied it, and it was with the reconquest of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492 that we can speak of Spain as a nation. The truth is that I was born in Madrid, and as far as I know, all my ancestors are Spaniards. It was I who broke the rule by marrying a Chilean. I have two wonderful children, an 8-year-old grandson and a 6-year-old granddaughter. My grandchildren are Basque and speak the language.
In case you don't know, despite the small size of my country, the diversity is enormous, and in May 1944, the parliament declared four co-official languages: Spanish, Basque, Catalan, and Galician. Yes, they are different languages. We could also talk about dialects (Bable de Asturias, Mallorquin, Balearic Islands, etc.) or accents (Andalusian, Murcian, etc.). Even before studying and reading a lot about the subject, I always knew that language brought you closer to people and being passionate about people, I was always passionate about languages.
Before I was 20, I took a suitcase and went to England, where I lived for more than five years. I arrived without knowing my name and returned to Spain with tourism studies and certificates of English Proficiency (A+) and TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and with an adorable 8-month-old baby. Upon returning to Spain, I taught English to companies, educational centers and private students, combining it with interpreting work. A position in one of the largest hotels in Madrid at the time made me leave teaching, and my entrepreneurial journey began. I was widowed at the age of 30, and the 24 hours a day were barely enough to raise my children, take care of the house and earn the chickpeas for the pot (a very colloquial way of talking about the family's livelihood).
As soon as I had the opportunity, I studied Portuguese at the Casa do Brasil in Madrid. I fell in love with the language and the country. During the 2008 crisis, I lost my job, and at almost 50 years old, I had no other solution but to reinvent myself and become an entrepreneur. My working life has allowed me to practice the languages I knew practically on a daily basis, and that is the most beautiful thing I carry in my backpack. When I started using Tandem, with the intention of practicing Portuguese, which of the three languages I speak is the one with the most cobwebs, I started to make contact with many Brazilian users who asked me for help with English, and I got the bug again. In addition to helping people at Tandem, I also volunteer and teach English to women to improve their resumes so that they have better job opportunities.
Just a few months ago, it was time to commit to a new language, and, of course, it was Hindi. I met Sumit, and here I am, enjoying our Zoom meetings with the Lingua Franca Club and reinforcing with private lessons that Sumit gives me every week. The process is indescribable. Learning a language is much more than just speaking another language; it is communicating and everything that goes with it, learning and getting to know other cultures and ways of seeing life. I enjoyed and enjoy very much every day with English and Portuguese, but entering into another different concept of transmitting has led me to my first learnings, and that is what learning is all about: enjoying everything new with a child's mentality and absorbing it like a sponge.
It will be a pleasure and an honour to share with you the little or much I know, clarify doubts, and talk about tricks, idioms, colloquial phrases, similarities, and differences of the Spanish spoken by the entire Spanish-speaking community (more than 600 million). Play with words, and if you can, watch a quiz show broadcast internationally called Pasapalabra.
Are you our next collaborator? If you speak English and another language, you have two or three hours to give, and are interested in the language learning environment, let us know!