I work in the leisure centre:
we're providing physical activities
for people of all ages.
So we're trying to reach them;
trying to improve their mood,
to get out of
the house more,
to be more social.
People are saying
the class really helps them –
that's really really good reward.
I came from Poland
about ten years ago:
now I live in Scottish town.
I'm a father,
I'm a partner,
I'm a student,
full-time worker.
I usually start at five a.m.,
up and then studying
up to seven a.m.
That's the only time
when I can find quiet.
At the moment I'm studying
for my degree
in business management.
When you see
audio-visual material,
you can see for yourself,
you can listen for yourself.
Usually there's like
a short video clip,
with some interviews.
It's closer to the
real-life experience.
Sometimes
I've got a problem with
understanding of spoken language.
Fortunately there's always transcripts
of that material.
Sometimes, yeah, the voice
can be distorted by
the internet connection
or some people
they have strange, different accents,
so yes, so that could
be challenging
for non-native speaker.
I've got my phone
always at hand, so
any, any word I don't understand,
I can always check it.
I like to know
exact the meaning of the word –
even if I know
more or less the meaning
of the word from the context.
I don't have to talk to people
as a part of my studies.
But there is such an option, there
is possibility.
As a part of my university programme,
we've got chat rooms available
where we can meet
face to face live,
so you can just meet
at a certain day and certain hour
and with a tutor and
then all the students in the group
and we're just having a conversation
via skype or other similar app.
Usually there are like
five, six people – it's not like
a big group but
the software is very good –
you can see the names,
who's attending
the chat rooms, who's not.
It's moderated by the tutor,
so it works very, very well.
And it's always very good
to share the opinions with others
and communicate face to face directly,
not just through the emails
or written words.
At the moment I feel like I -
yeah, I'm getting somewhere.
I've always said that learning
is the key to, to
achieve something in life.
The main motivator is future.
My ultimate goal
is to go to South America.
When you learn a language,
you're getting closer to the culture,
different way of thinking.
Mostly I'm learning Spanish
on the go.
If I'm walking, I just
put my headphones on
and instead of listening to music,
I'm listening to Spanish.
My partner,
who is from Ghana originally,
there was a time at
the beginning especially
when we started dating,
I was preparing some Polish food,
and she was preparing Ghanaian
food, very exotic dish.
I've got two kids:
the kids are very, very rewarding.
It's great, it's great being a father.
The message I would like
to send to my kids is
"Learn as much as you can
and try to enjoy that."
Go the distance.