CAE Stories: Ahoj. Hello from Jana in Bratislava

03/06/2024

At first Barbora was homesick. I expected this as she was very close to us. She was 10 years old, and we were thinking of an English Language summer school for her and a friend.  I was a little afraid of the girls travelling to London alone, so I travelled with them on business and was met by Yvonne in person at the airport.

I was really surprised by how excellent Yvonne and the CAE team were in gathering round my daughter and helping her overcome her homesickness.  After her first CAE summer school, Barbora was really confident in herself, and in her English.  Back home, when we were having a BBQ on the terrace, and we asked her to speak in English – she switched very quickly and confidently to English and used fluent phrases to offer us food and drinks!

And she met so many children from around the world – from Turkey, Spain, and Russia, and her English was getting better every time she went to summer school. She continued communicating with her new international friends after the summer school had ended and it changed her whole perspective on the world and the people around her.

For us as a family, language schools are a big investment in our children. They are also expensive, but I knew it was something on top of just education. Everything new that Barbora did at the language school made her realise how powerful and live this language tool was for communicating – as important as her home or primary language. That international connection and understanding was getting stronger each time she visited England.

And now it is a family business! I started partnering with CAE in 2015 and our younger daughter Kiara has been involved from the start – joining us as we took students to language summer schools – so she was eagerly awaiting the time when she could join a summer school herself.  She was excited for it! And it was everything she expected and hoped for, and she also became closer with her friends from Slovakia during her time in CAE. 

For us, the whole package aspect that CAE offers is important. The location of Cambridge is a real pull factor, as is its proximity to London.  And of course, the professional, qualified teachers and the accreditation by the British Council. Other schools can be more summer camps rather than language schools, so the focus on language learning is a key selling point for our clients. And my first hand experience with my own children, who have both loved CAE summer language schools, makes a big impression.  CAE language summer schools are a big part of our lives, our family and for both our daughters, Barbora and Kiara, and Yvonne has become like a second mother.

If you asked me what to change about CAE language camps, I wouldn’t change anything!

Ďakujem. Thank you from Slovakia. Jana xxx