What training and support have you received to establish your franchise?
All the sessions are pre-planned with resources provided, which is an amazing load off my mind. The head office mentoring calls are also great.

What do you enjoy most about running your own Lingotot business?
It's like a game, trying to find ways in to as many new markets as possible.

What advice would you give to someone considering buying a franchise?
You won't get anywhere unless you put the spadework in-but if you're ok with that, go for it!

Finally, what is your favourite Lingotot song or game?
Gotta be the Boogie-Woogie!

We love sharing the achievements of our little Lingotots with the world. We even have a special part of our sessions where we tell everyone all about what the children have been doing in the target language out in the big wide world. For example, some children say "bonjour" to greet an adult, some sing our songs to their toys and others will point to pictures in a book and say the correct word in French/Spanish/Mandarin. We're constantly fascinated and delighted by the ways in which they use the language they have learned in class.

Some of our proud LingoMums and LingoDads (and even LingoGrans!) send us videos of what their child has been up to. Most of us have a mobile phone with a video function and it's really easy to catch our children speaking a foreign language.

Here at Lingotot HQ we are always utterly delighted to receive these videos - they really do make our day. The example here is little Lucas. He's only two and has monolingual parents, so every word of French he has learned has started in a Lingotot class. We hope you enjoy it!

Do you have a short video of your little one showing off their foreign language skills? If so please share it with us! Email us your clips.

Here at Lingotot, we were very proud to be working with Tyneside Cinema on their exciting Crossing Cultures event. The cinema screened some of the finest French, German and Spanish films suitable for primary school pupils.

During the week-long event, Lingotot provided engaging language activities alongside exclusive foreign film screenings for Key Stage 1 and 2 children, and provided a FREE follow-up assembly or classroom session for each primary school taking part.

We also prepared some resources for schools to use in class to follow up the sessions. Schools were given a password at the film screening and details of where to find the resources.

We had a brilliant time - you can see that in the pictures! We'd love to do it again next year, hope to see you there!

Español (Spanish) also called Castellano (Castilian) is a  Romance language that originated in Castile, in Spain. There are approximately 407 million people speaking Spanish as a native language, making it the second-most-spoken language by number of native speakers after Mandarin (China’s varieties or dialects).

Very young children have an amazing ability to aquire language. Children learn to speak during the first two years of life. In those 24 months, the baby is able to identify and name objects. After 2 years, children begin to form short sentences and simple questions can gradually advancing in the knowledge of the language to be able to construct more complicated, longer sentences. Their speech up to five years old will be similar to adults but with a much smaller vocabulary.

But how can you help build up their knowledge? To start off with, a small game can help identify the letters in Spanish and so begin to form short words, use all the resources available to them as videos on YouTube, the library nearest to your house ask for a book that can show you the basic introduce to the Spanish for little ones or borrow a basic DVD how to learn Spanish, etc.. There are many resources, at the beginning should not be frustrating for parents, the advantage is that not only the child will begin to learn the parents too.

Note from the Editor: Don't forget that Lingotot classes support your child by helping them learn a second language in a very natural and interactive way. We give parents lots of support too so you can learn together!

Celebrate Chinese New Year 2013 by singing along to one of our fantastic Mandarin karaoke songs! "If you're Happy and You Know it". Singing is a great way of learning a language with your little ones.

This week it was reported that not enough UK schools are offering lessons in Mandarin Chinese, putting the country’s economic recovery at risk. Research conducted by the British Council and HSBC said the number of schools offering the language was ‘stagnant at best’ You can read more here

Did you know that Lingotot offers Mandarin classes in schools, nurseries and community centres from children aged 0-11? Contact us to find a class near you or to recommend your child's school to us.

Many highly qualified linguists toy with the idea of completing a PGCE and becoming a teacher of MFL, yet they worry about a number of issues: the cost of the course; more time away from employment to study; no guarantee of a job at the end of the course; fierce competition for teaching jobs; horror stories about paperwork, verbal abuse towards teachers and general poor behaviour in schools.

I trained as a teacher and taught in secondary, middle and primary schools in the UK and overseas before founding Lingotot. I LOVED teaching, especially the more challenging classes. Ask all my family, friends and ex-colleagues - I was about the most enthusiastic and dedicated teacher you could get! I never thought in a million years I would give up teaching in a "proper" classroom.

But then I had two little babies and everything changed. So I started my little Lingotot classes as a way to keep teaching and earn some extra money. I wasn't prepared for many things when I set sail down the self-employment route. I didn't expect the classes to be so successful, I certainly didn't expect to love the mechanics of running my own business. But the biggest surprise was that I fell totally and completely out of love of traditional classroom teaching. I do miss the pupils (well most of them!) but I certainly don't miss the politics, paperwork and power games. Oh yes, and the marking!

Instead I have a job I love, teaching really fun and relevant lessons to young children. I get to share that with their parents too, it's a lovely family affair. When I go into a school to teach, the children are excited and look forward to their very interactive classes.

Aside from the teaching I get to set my own timetable and work the hours I want to, meaning I never miss a nativity play. Don't want to work on Mondays? No problem!

So I refer back to my opening point. If you're a graduate (or maybe you're not but you speak another language fluently), why would you spend £9,000 for a year of hard graft doing a PGCE, plus all of your living costs for that year, with no guaranteed job at the end of it (and even if you get one the NQT year is even worse!)? You could come and join Lingotot as a franchisee instead. You get to teach immediately with no daft targets, marking or demanding headteacher. The fee is half the cost of a PGCE, you get to start earning straight away, you choose when and where you want to work AND your business becomes a valuable asset you can keep running or eventually sell on.

Would you like to find out more or do you know someone who might be interested? Take a look at www.lingototfranchise.co.uk and start exploring the possibility of running your own childrens language business now.

Angela, MD of Lingotot Ltd and happy mum to two little girls.

1. Effective and Fun. Language learning at school usually revolves around sitting in chairs and teachers providing grammar and structures for children to use. Our programme has been developed to focus on what kids like to do and then to do these activities in another language, with plenty of repetition and structure.

2. Learning through Play. Play is at the heart of Lingotot sessions. Babies and young children learn, grow and have fun through play. Lingotot play sessions help them understand the world and other cultures. Singing songs, reading together and having fun with friends gives them a head start to develop socially and emotionally.

3. English is Not Enough. Our global community means it is vital to be able to communicate with other communities around the world.

4. Early is Better. If it’s introduced early and well, children pick up a second language naturally, just like they learn their mother tongue, instead of learning it in “second language” mode like we do as adults - constantly translating from one language to another in our heads!

5. All Round Educational Boost. Research suggests that children who know two languages can gain an academic and social advantage over those who speak only one. Children have an amazing ability to learn language and this happens best when it is interactive, engaging, child-centered.

6. Excellent Communication Skills.  Speaking and Listening are the cornerstone to literacy development. A broad and rich language curriculum ensures such skills are developed, leading to a good start in phonic work. In fact, Lingotot can introduce young learners to foreign- language letter sounds!

7. Increased Self-Esteem.  Children love being able to communicate in another language. Our classes encourage talking, imitating, play-acting and sharing their language skills right from the first lesson. Children and adults alike make lots of new like-minded friends too!

8. Prepare Them for the Future. Competence in foreign languages is increasingly valued by universities. Languages become compulsory in English primary schools in 2014 and will form part of the new EBaac at secondary school level.

9. Acquire a Lifelong Advantage. Learning another language offers a lifetime of possibilities and adventure. In later life, knowing another language not only helps you make friends, finding jobs etc, it can also help stave off illnesses such as Alzheimer’s

10. Learn a Language Together! Lingotot sessions benefit the whole family. Parents and children learn, play and bond together. The sessions are designed for you to attend with your child so that you can be fully engaged with their learning and carry on using new language together at home.

2012 was an eventful year for all of us! We’ve witnessed a man jumping from the edge of space, athletes from across the world descend on London for the Olympics, The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, more shootings in America, the death of Whitney Houston, yet more mental weather and we all survived the predicted end of the world!

It’s also been a fantastic year here at Lingotot, so good in fact I had to have a cup of coffee  and a little sit down when I wrote a list of everything we’ve done, it’s absolutely loads. I've written a little bit about our achievements under the photos below.

We know that our success is thanks to wonderful and enthusiastic parents, delightful little Lingotots, nurseries and schools. We couldn’t do the job we love so much without you! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you soooo much for your continued support and wish you all the best for a fantastic 2013.

Angela
Lingotot Founder

September Growth

September was a super busy time for us with the schools starting a new academic year, especially after we were endorsed by some local LEAs and recommended to their primary schools. This was the month we expanded further and welcomed Katherine and Abigail on board as franchisees. They’re both doing a fantastic job, especially as neither of came from a teaching background, but they do share an absolute passion for languages for young children. In September we also took on a mini army of tutors to help deliver our classes.

Babies and young children are like sponges for language learning. They are programmed to pick up any language they hear. This makes a great deal of sense. Babies all over the world are ‘citizens of the world.’ They can discriminate all the sounds of all languages, no matter what country they're born into. They already start to "tune in" to the language they hear more frequently from about 9 months of age. However, their learning power remains high until about the age of seven - take a look at the graph on the left. Michael Gove really needs to consider his plans to make MFL compulsory AFTER age seven!

Please watch this video to find out just how fantastic children and babies are at language learning! Patricia Kuhl is co-director of the Institute for Brain and Learning Sciences at the University of Washington. She's internationally recognized for her research on early language and brain development, and studies that show how young children learn. Kuhl’s work has played a major role in demonstrating how early exposure to language alters the brain. It has implications for critical periods in development, for bilingual education and reading readiness, for developmental disabilities involving language, and for research on computer understanding of speech.

We are very proud to announce the launch of our newest language - Mandarin! Many believe that Mandarin is the language of the future, including Michael Gove who recently announced that modern languages are to be made compulsory in English primary schools in 2014. He is partic

Since Chinese is the communicative language of approximately 15 per cent of the world's population, proficient speakers of Mandarin should be able to find jobs in such competitive fields as business management, sales marketing, government, information technology, international relations, tourism, education, translation, hospitality and public relations. Of all foreign languages offered in colleges and universities, demand for Chinese shows the highest proportional increase in enrolment.

Here is a little video of our welcome song to get you in the mood for our newest addition. We've added subtitles in English, Simple Chinese and PinYin to help.

If you'd like to book onto a Mandarin course (or indeed French or Spanish!), please get in touch. Enjoy the video!