Learning a Language! Necessity? Dream? Hobby? Passion?

Why do we Google on our search engines “Will learning Spanish/ French improve my resume”? Or “Looking for Spanish Classes around Indiranagar/Koramangala?

There has definitely been a steep rise over the past few years where in people from all walks of life have come forward and expressed a desire to learn a new language. Be it a 12 year old girl whose parents want her to start young or a 35 year executive who is getting a chance to travel abroad and needs to get in touch with his language side or a 65 year old man who wants to try something new and get back into action, everyone wants to learn and explore. And I was one of them, just out of college with a degree in computers and a job in the one of the top MNC’s, busy finding my groove. I did not want to get stuck in the 9 to 5 job so I basically never took up that offer and wandered around. As life throws various opportunities at you, it did, at me too. I joined one of the News channels in Bangalore but somehow that too did not last that long. And one fine day, going through the paper I saw an advertisement seeking young and dynamic people to apply as an Administrator at a Language School called IFLaC. And that’s how I bumped into this Language Institute and the relationship with them has lasted over the years. Run by two dynamic women, Mrs. Umita Melwani and Mrs. Sandy Mirpuri, IFLaC, Institute of Foreign Language and Culture, aims at providing an out of the world experience when it comes to learning European Languages. IFLaC had opened my doors to German, French, Italian and the one that I eventually picked up Spanish, and it was the first time I got to understand the true meaning of learning a language. The school boasts at providing the best, be it in terms of teachers and their study material or the ambience and their out of the box activities which makes learning all the more interesting and exciting. IFLaC, was also the first Institute in South India to introduce the DELE Examination (These exams are conducted by the Spanish Government and their certification is the top most for people learning Spanish). IFLaC was like a breath of fresh air for me, what started with administration later, under the guidance of Mrs. Umita Melwani changed into learning Spanish. As the years passed, I reached my B1 level and voila IFLaC arranged my first solo trip to Spain to pursue my Spanish studies further. Learning Spanish in Barcelona, well that was a different experience all together. IFLaC has tie ups with tops schools across Spain and offers custom made courses for each and every student which basically makes the whole idea of studying abroad like a walk in the park. Once back after soaking in as much Spanish as I could, IFLaC gave me the best opportunity, to teach Spanish at the A1 Level and to the little kids. Learning a language and then teaching the same, it’s no easy task. But thanks to the vast teaching material and support from my fellow colleagues Archana Gurumurthy and Dina Melwani, a nervous me stepped in to teach my first ever Spanish Class. And there was no looking back from then on. Mrs. Umita Melwani and Mrs. Sandy Mirpuri were always there at every step to guide me whenever I fumbled and encouraged me to do better in every possible way. There were ample number of new tasks that I got to witness at the Institute, from teaching, translating and bringing up IFLaC to well also partying. You cannot be surprised, having such spirited and zestful women heading us; we were always introduced to one or the other fancy places in Bangalore and treated with utmost care and love.

IFLaC really changed the way I was and has brought me to where I’m. After working for almost over a span of 5 years, it was time to bid Bangalore goodbye. But somehow I could not yet say adios to Spanish, therefore, yet again Mrs. Melwani assisted me and pushed me to get to New Delhi and pursue Spanish at Instituto Cervantes. It has been a privilege in being a part of IFLaC and yes to anyone who at this point, is trying to find a place where they can learn a new foreign language, I would personally advise to stop looking around and just get to IFLaC. The rest will be taken care of. I Promise.

Preeti Talwar, ex coordinator and trainer at IFLaC.