If you live in Newquay and have a passion for people, a spare room and enjoy making others feel welcome, you could join the Babel Fish Host team in 2020.
As our school grows, we need fantastic hosts to accommodate and feed our students who come from around the world to Newquay to learn English, surf and explore Cornwall with us.
Who are we?
We are a language school, but we do things differently. We are about people above profit and believe that learning is a gift: we also believe we are good at helping people become passionate and life-long learners and lovers…of language, surfing, or of the arts.
Our permanent team consists of directors Al and Toby, and Operations Manager, Becks.
We’re all teachers; we’re all nice folk. We play guitar (okay, Al and Toby are pretty darn good – Becks is awful) and we surf (okay, Al surfs – well – Becks and Toby’s water skills are definitely ‘in development’).
There’s a load of acronyms behind us: all three of us love learning, it seems. We hold PGCEs, BAs, MAs and TESOL qualifications.
Toby’s background is as an outstanding English teacher in secondary education; in addition to being one of the country’s most skilled EFL teachers, Al is also a qualified surfing instructor.
You can read more about the evolution of Babel Fish over the last decade here.
In summer our team grows with hand-picked, inspirational and enthusiastic teaching staff. And of course, we count our hosts as a vital part of the Babel Fish team.
What you will get out of it…
You will earn £150 per student, per week with Babel Fish.
For this we expect hosts to provide breakfast, a packed lunch and dinner, as well as offer at least one laundry use and, as you’d expect, reasonable access to WiFi. All our hosts require an Enhanced DBS check, and a Gas Safety Certificate.
For many of our hosts, the decision to join our team is not a money-making enterprise, but about the adventure of learning through others and the joy of discovering new people and new perspectives.
We find that our experienced hosts also tend to offer good conversation, sightseeing suggestions, walks along the coast path …
They know that the more they give the students, the greater the rewards.
Who studies at Babel Fish?
Our students are between 11 and 70 – and they come from all over the world. Most, however, are from Italy, Spain, Germany and Switzerland. Some come to surf and learn English on our famous Surf & Study package; others are almost fluent and come for the conversation and exploration we offer on our English with Art and Culture course.
You can also simply take English lessons at Babel Fish – as well as prepare for formal examinations in the language.
If you’d like to learn more about us, explore our site, take a peek at our brochure and follow us on Facebook, Instagram @babelfishlanguageschool and Twitter @surfandstudy
#surfandstudy
Here’s what a couple of our hosts say about their hosting experiences:
“We enjoy meeting new people, making new friends and sharing ideas and culture. It’s a pleasure to give support to young people on often their first trip away from home and also share tips and advice with more mature students on how to get the most out of the local area. For us, hosting is like travelling without moving and we have made lifelong friends as a result.”
Dan and Caroline
“We have been hosting students for around 5 years and love meeting new people from around the world.”
Nigel and Natalie
If you’d like more information, or to meet us in person, please do get in touch!
