Lingua Franca Language Services

This is a piece of a piece I wrote for the Unilocal Elite event. But I feel like I REALLY should share this with everybody!
We were all invited to Lingua Franca for a French 101. It was amazing!
Katrina is an amazing and very motivating teacher, Lani prepared beautiful snacks and tasty wines, Unilocalers were delightful to chat with.
What else do you need?
Lingua Franca is a very new little school that — if you haven’t guessed already — specialises in teaching French.
The main school is located in Newstead, right next to Tippler’s Tap (isn’t that a great location? Once you’re done with your classes, you just have to walk downstairs to get a beer (or two!)).
There isn’t any sign for it — as we were told — yet. It’s not difficult to find though. It’s a lovely place, very cosy and friendly. There is plenty of French books (surprise! ;)), there is a little square table in the middle for students and it just feels like a place to come and relax, not study!
When we came over, Katrina told us her story how she started learning and loving French, and how she’s got to the point of opening her own school.
What is most amazing for me is the length of each term — the basic classes last for 6 weeks. Why so short you ask? Well, think about it. Think how busy we all are, how many activities we try to fit in our busy schedules? How many times we fail to accomplish something because we overestimated our capabilities and signed up for something that was simply too long? I think this is brilliant — 6 weeks is long enough to get into it, and short enough to be able to commit for actually participating in classes.
But guess what. That’s not everything! What they also have, is 2 weeks long workshops! I bet you’re now thinking this is so not enough to learn anything! What can I tell you? HA! These workshops are specifically focused on one particular topic. Like travel. Or fashion. It’s two weeks, two hours long each of the meetings. Does it make sense? YES! Why? Well, let’s say you’re planning to go to France for holidays. You don’t really want to learn THE WHOLE LANGUAGE THING. That would take a long time, right? But it would be pretty neat to know few words, be able to ask for directions, or order coffee in a restaurant, right? You can definitely learn that in two weeks! Plus, just think of it. You’re not sure if you want to do all ‘I wanna learn a new language’ thing. You want to first see if you actually feel like it. What to do… Oh well, why not try a little workshop to see if you get into it?
I honestly think the idea of short workshops and 6 weeks long terms is amazing. With my busy schedule that’s exactly what I would be looking for.
And now I’m really looking forward to go back there in less than three weeks and start the travel workshop — expect an update on this review soon! :)

French had long been on the ol’ «Must learn this one day» list and back in the Summer of a few years ago, with an injury forcing me to reassess life (deep, I know), I launched into classes with Katrina and Lingua Franca.
During this time their classes were conducted in cafes and bookstores, however now they’ve opened a studio where they host classes. And sure, the classes have developed further but the ethos remains the same: affordable language lessons in an environment comfortable enough to learn.
Katrina’s warmth, encouragement and generous nature make her the perfect teacher. I only ever felt encouraged and supported during lessons. Her ability to continue helping you perfect pronunciation or revisit a concept that you wanted to clarify made it a safe environment to learn in.
Since I last studied with Katrina, their classes have grown and you can now take up to 6-​levels of French studies dependent on your current French skills. If it’s something you’ve been thinking about, I’d highly recommend taking the plunge and learning the beauty of the French language under the guidance of Katrina. Merci!