I have just returned from The Language Show which was held in Olympia on 2, 3 and 4 November. I was lucky enough to share a stand with another small publisher, CMI Publishing, run by Val Rhenius. Check out her ingenious product (Alex and friends) on www.cmipublishing.co.uk.
It was great seeing so much interest in languages. It seemed that Spanish was flavour of the Show with poor German getting barely a look-in. More schools are offering Spanish with German becoming the less attractive option. Nod Off in German is still a glint in the Publishing Cupboard's eye and it would be interesting to get feedback on how popular it might be.
The Show was great fun. To one side of us were the Iles de Guadaloupe where you can go to learn French. Run by beautiful women with a great sense of fun and a free-flowing box of punch, they proved a big attraction. Opposite us was the University of Vallalolid who were much more circumspect. We kept hoping for them to whip out their tapas, but there was none of it.
And to the other side was a Language School based in Leamington Spa (www.heartengland.co.uk) run by Luisa. It looked like a really friendly place to learn English or any other language you might fancy.
The University of Strathclyde were also within spitting distance. They had my idea of a perfect give-away - an ice-scraper for your car windscreen. Boring but so very useful.
We met lots of people and sold quite a few books, so it was very worthwhile. In fact we have booked ourselves in for next year (pretty much the same weekend). The Language Show also has a TEFL Village and a Language Recruitment Fair.
When I got back to Glasgow, I was delighted to receive an order from Glasgow Libraries for Nod Off in French and Spanish. A copy of each for the 34 Community Libraries. The Nod Off approach had gone down well with the stock development team.
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