BilinguaSing Franchisee Spotlight Blog - Meet Lucy!

‘Hi, I’m Lucy and I’ve been running BilinguaSing Spanish and French classes in Birmingham since September 2019.  

I’ve got two little ones of my own, Daisy and Poppy, who are five and two. Before joining BilinguaSing I was a languages teacher mainly in secondary school.  

 

Why did I choose BilinguaSing over any other language franchise? To be honest, I hadn’t yet reached the point where I knew what else I wanted to do instead of what I was doing at the time, I just knew that after going back from maternity leave, I wasn’t enjoying my job as I should have been and the pressures that came with it, such as the behaviour of young people who were in an area that wasn’t very pro-languages and had its own challenges. As well as all the admin, bureaucracy and planning, which now I have my own little girls, I didn’t want to be spending all of the hours that I would normally be spending doing those things - I wanted to focus on my girls when I wasn’t teaching. So I knew that I wasn’t happy doing that anymore.  

 

So why BilinguaSing? Like I said, I wasn’t looking for something specifically at that time, but Ellie connected with me on LinkedIn and even just the name of the company ‘BilinguaSing’ - I thought ‘that sounds like me!’, because languages and singing are my main two loves. So I thought it was worth looking into and I’m really glad I did and I haven’t looked back! 

 

What is the best thing about teaching languages to little ones? So many things and it’s hard to explain or describe really; it’s the excitement of planting the seed of something so important and so amazing and watching that grow. The development of little ones anyway is amazing and exciting as we see little lightbulb moments happen and little steps being taken. Just hearing little ones join in and even just trying to join in in Spanish or in French is just lovely. It’s also lovely, the interaction you get from the little ones, but so too from the parents who you can tell are also enjoying the classes, and knowing that you are doing something that’s so important for their futures, just in the sense of helping their brain development as we know teaching languages early on does, but also opening up the world to them in terms of possibilities that they might have later on. It’s amazing, and even on the few days where maybe I am feeling - certainly early on - where I maybe a bit sleep deprived, and feeling like I needed a little bit of a boost to be able to do my class properly, I just remember so vividly realising, actually no I don’t need a boost because the class itself gives me that boost and I’m trying to give that to other people - the class energises me so I don’t need anything else. 

 

How effective is BilinguaSing methodology? I like the BilinguaSing way; the songs are a lovely mix of really well known nursery rhymes and songs, that parents and most little ones would already know so they feel happy joining in, as well as throwing in a few original songs and a few traditional songs so that we’re feeding that cultural aspect as well. But the fact that we’re doing it in English as well as Spanish does open it up and make it more accessible and more appealing to our parents because languages can be quite a scary thing to some people and when you have conversations with people quite often they might say, “I was terrible at languages at school but I would really love to learn ‘X’ language” and I think the fact that we do the English as well as the Spanish (or French, Italian or German) means that people aren't afraid and they know that they’re going to know what’s going on and the fact that we use so many actions as well as props and sign language to connect both languages means that it is more accessible and that parents have a good chance of following and learning as well as the little ones. We do it gently too, swapping one song in, one song out each week as a general rule, and that means there’s a nice amount of repetition going on but also gently introducing new languages as you would in a classroom. I think it’s really good, it’s a great start to languages because it’s lovely and fun, the songs are really catchy and it’s a really positive start to language learning for everyone! 

 

My favourite BilinguaSing song? Pretty difficult one to answer, I do love and have a big soft spot for (and I know my parents do as well, which is why we do it every class) ‘subir el sol’ which is ‘the sun goes up, the sun goes down,’ just because of the message in it, it’s such a lovely message, and a good excuse for having a really nice cuddly snuggle with the little ones. But I do also like more active ones like ‘Upside Down Ducks’ for example, where we get everyone up and moving and the little ones love it because they’re being dipped upside down or if they’re a little bit older they’re reaching down and touching their toes and everyone’s getting involved! So, if you are a teacher and you love music and languages, then you should definitely consider joining BilinguaSing, I don’t think you’ll regret it, I haven't looked back!' 

 

 

 

 

 

We value our franchisees enormously, as they are the lifeblood of what we do and we would love for more dedicated language lovers to join our growing team. If you want to find out more about what franchising entails, or maybe you fancy having a chat about joining us, simply click on the button below to be taken to our franchising page. There you will find all the information you need, plus FAQs and how to get in touch with us!