In this episode I interview Robin Pardo Roques about his interest and experience of learning and teaching European Languages, in particular Spanish, Italian and, indeed, English. Robin is Head of Modern Foreign Languages in a Secondary School in Derbyshire, England. In this interview, we discuss his chance meeting in a lift (an elevator) that led to a life abroad and a career teaching languages. 

Robin talks about how international exchanges, in particular the European Union's Erasmus Programme, led to adventures in football and culture before returning to the United Kingdom (UK) to pursue a career in language teaching. Robin talks about the politics and people that have lined his path to teaching, a Master of Arts (MA) in Education, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Spanish with Italian, and a CELTA teaching qualification, which enabled him to teach English as a Foreign Language, in the UK and in Europe.

Although we discuss our mutual interest in sports, particularly football, it is in the context of language learning and the challenge of acquiring a new language for productive and active use, i.e. in real-life situations. I mention briefly my experiences of learning the Slovak language and how it helps me to put it to practical use if I ever hope to move from the earliest stages of language use to fluent and confident speech.

For more information about this podcast series, or to make any comments or to ask any questions relating to English Language learning, please contact me at [email protected]  or visit my LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-scott-lawton/ or my company page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/john-scott-lawton-consulting/?viewAsMember=true

Please use a sound comment if using the Anchor App, if possible, to ask any questions or to comment on the language used in this podcast.

Finally, please take a look at my website where I post additional content to support this podcast series: https://johnscottlawtonsenglishyouknow.wordpress.com/