Surrey Adult Learner, Wendy attends the Molesey Centre and is an accomplished linguist. She studied French language to 'A' Level and led a demanding career working for a French bank whilst supporting her daughter through her education journey, including her degree course. She regretted that she had not gained a university degree herself, as she believed that it would be a validation of her own academic ability. While still working full time, Wendy researched and considered her learning plans. She enrolled on an Open University modern foreign languages degree course in 2007, which was a demanding course with a respectable workload that challenged her and inspired her to realise her potential. She gained a well-deserved Honours Degree from the Open University in 2013.
One of the modules on the study list included Italian and as Wendy already had a good foundation in French, she thought this would be a new opportunity to add another modern foreign language to her skill set. Also, as Wendy goes to Italy every year and enjoys the immersive experience in the country, it seemed a logical decision to improve her knowledge of Italian.
Following on from the OU, Wendy discovered SAL courses by searching online and found evening classes that suited her routine and at a convenient distance from her home. After going part-time at work, she became a regular part of the Monday morning Italian group at the Molesey Centre where she was inspired and motivated to achieve by her tutor Patricia Sammut.
She said, "Surrey Adult Learning has wonderful tutors, mine helped me enormously."
After a lot of hard work and personal investment, added to the excellent teaching that she received at SAL, Wendy (now retired), recently took the challenge and applied as an external candidate to sit GCSE Italian. She was thrilled to be awarded a 9 grade at GCSE, the former equivalent of A*, which recognised not just her hard work, but her talent! This top result has given Wendy a sense of satisfaction and self-belief, but she is considering her next progression steps. Perhaps 'A' Level Italian may be the next learning challenge? Wendy told us she thought, "learning languages is good for the brain." And we couldn't agree more.
At Surrey Adult Learning we are passionate about learning and encouraging our community to enjoy enriching experiences and personal satisfaction in achieving. Congratulations Wendy!
