{"id":4666,"date":"2015-12-03T17:44:47","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T17:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eurotalk.com\/blog\/?p=4666"},"modified":"2026-08-25T13:15:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:15:40","slug":"why-i-think-languages-are-lingotastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/en\/news\/why-i-think-languages-are-lingotastic","title":{"rendered":"Why I think languages are Lingotastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Barrett\u00a0from Lingotastic<\/a> runs language classes for children and families, using music, crafts, puppets and bubbles – it sounds so much fun we might have to go and check it out ourselves! Here’s Sarah’s language story…<\/em><\/p>\n

On my first visit to Germany to visit my husband Maik\u2019s parents, I had a few language misunderstandings.<\/p>\n

One day we were in\u00a0Gro\u00dfe Stra\u00dfe in Osnabr\u00fcck and I had\u00a0to ask Maik\u00a0what a travelling Bratwurst (\u201cRiesenbratwurst\u201d) was\u2026 it actually said \u201cReisenbratwurst\u201d, which means giant Bratwurst. So I still don’t know what a travelling Bratwurst is.<\/p>\n

A few years later I was at church in Germany listening to the preacher. I could not understand why he was talking so much about toast\u2026 he was actually talking about trost (an old German word for “comfort”)!<\/p>\n

Maik and I got married in Germany, but they didn\u2019t believe I understood what was going on, so we had to have a translator!<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/a><\/p>\n

When my youngest daughter started school (two years ago), I set up some language classes for families as Lingotastic. As a busy mum, language learning hadn\u2019t been a priority for a long time, but we had passed on German and French to our children, and I wanted to encourage other families to do this too.\u00a0At Lingotastic we have six weeks of French, German or Spanish. We use simple songs, crafts, a story, puppets and bubbles to help little ones to tune into that language. It was tricky for me at first to separate the languages, but it came with practice.<\/p>\n

I then wanted a challenge, so as a family we learned a bit of Mandarin and some Mandarin songs. We then delivered a class in the local library and also in my daughter\u2019s school reception class.<\/p>\n

We heard about the EuroTalk Junior Language Challenge<\/a> at Easter and my daughters thought they might like to join in. They learned a lot of Portuguese through playing the simple games.\u00a0Then in the summer we heard EuroTalk were doing an Esperanto challenge, using the uTalk<\/a> app. We really enjoyed it and had a few simple conversations in Esperanto around the dinner table.\u00a0A few months ago my daughter asked why gato and g\u00e2teau are not the same thing, and said maybe we should have a gato gateau!<\/p>\n

I love to greet people in their native language and people are often really happy to teach you how. I can often say good morning in up to five languages whilst walking my children to school!<\/p>\n

Language learning only works for me if I can see a purpose. I love to get to know others and language learning is a great way to do this.\u00a0I love to learn languages by playing apps like uTalk<\/a>, playing with FlashSticks<\/a> and singing along to songs in other languages.<\/p>\n

If you want to follow our language learning journey check out\u00a0www.Lingotastic.co.uk\/blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Sarah<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Barrett\u00a0from Lingotastic runs language classes for children and families, using music, crafts, puppets and bubbles – it sounds 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