56 New Year New You Personal development, careers & franchise opportunities


Spanish woman, Atenea, it was only natural for them to want to meet her. But after travelling to Alcaudete, Spain, they realised that it would be impossible to get to know her family. “We stayed with them for a week, but the problem was that they couldn’t speak a word of English — and we not a word of Spanish!” says Dave. “It was very diffi cult, as Atenea had to translate the whole time between us. As they appeared to be very nice people and made us very welcome, Carol and I decided to start learning Spanish.” Returning to Wales, Dave and


Carol promptly started weekly evening classes at a local leisure centre, but although useful, they quickly found they weren’t making much progress. “We found that going once a


week didn’t get us very far, so we carried on with the evening classes and started a day class as well. But together this only amounted to less than four hours per week and really wasn’t enough.”


Talk the talk W


hen Dave and his wife, Carol, heard that their son, Stewart, had fallen in love with a


Saturday 5th January 2019 Babbel:


What do you do if your son is marrying a person who speaks another language? For 66-year-old retiree Dave Bottomley, the answer was simple — learn it fast. Sam Lewis fi nds out more


Dave looked into other options


and read about Babbel, an app that helps people fi t learning a language into everyday life via bite-sized lessons split into useful real-world topics, from introducing oneself, to ordering food and making travel arrangements. Deciding to give it a go, Dave


and Carol soon fell into a routine of short lessons on the app in the morning and testing each other later over a cup of tea. But just as Dave felt he was beginning to grasp the basics of Spanish, Stewart and Atenea announced they were getting married — in Spain. This meant Dave would have to give his father-of-the- groom speech in front of numerous foreign wedding guests and while the thought of it was nerve racking, Dave was determined to say it entirely in Spanish. After just over a year after


beginning lessons, Dave stood up and after a brief panic, proudly delivered his speech that prompted many guests to comment on his fl uency. Dave says: “I didn’t think an app would help much, however, it was


Subscription-based language- learning online service starting at £4.75/month available via an app for web, iOS and Android. Off ers bite-sized lessons created by a team of education experts, linguists and language teachers with short exercises used to focus on getting you conversational quickly. Your pronunciation of words and/or phrases is analysed and rated using a microphone. Available in 14 languages, 73% of surveyed customers feel that they’d be able to hold a conversation within fi ve hours of using the app. Babbel.com


especially handy because I could refer to it whenever it suited me and I used it much more than the four hours a week we had spent in classes. I think I would have given up if it wasn’t for the help from Babbel.” After the wedding, eager to


Dave Bottomley gave his speech in Spanish


use their Spanish skills to meet new people and explore the country’s culture, the couple set out on a road trip around Spain. “I found the Spanish people very friendly once I tried to make conversation. Although I could not construct complex sentences I could make myself understood, and I understood what was said back to me,” says Dave who said it kept him thinking. “I would recommend anybody learn a diff erent language especially as one gets older. It is a great way to keep the brain working.”


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