International Cook and Chat u Inicijativi
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The “International Cook & Chat” workshop encourages cultural integration and inclusive learning

In December 2023, at the Initiative premises, we held the first activity as part of the "Cultural Paperclip" project - the "International Cook & Chat" workshop – in an atmosphere filled with enticing aromas of dishes with sentimental value for each participant. The event brought together members of the local population, refugees and people displaced from Ukraine for a unique cultural exchange of food that is traditionally prepared in the area where the participants are from. The workshop was organised to promote cultural integration, and a diverse array of dishes was presented, reflecting the rich palette of cultural origins, from traditional Cuban delicacies to local Croatian specialties.

However, the true potential of this workshop lies in the creation of relationships between participants of different origins, cultures and traditions - each person became a cook and storyteller of their prepared dishes.

In addition to the exchange of different traditions and cultures, the workshop also served as an informal language learning session, thanks to intensive communication among participants in a relaxed atmosphere, thus facilitating the acquisition of the Croatian language. This added value not only helps with practical integration but also increases the participants' ability to connect with their new environment on a deeper level.

The "Cultural Paperclip" project is focused on the social and cultural integration of refugees in the area of the City of Zagreb. The goal of the project is to strengthen social ties and encourage refugees' feelings of belonging to the new community, by creating opportunities for refugees and local residents to come together. Cultural Paperclip activities, including this workshop, contribute to breaking down barriers, building mutual trust and promoting acceptance among different communities. By encouraging an inclusive social environment, the project simultaneously nurtures individual belonging while respecting different cultural, social and religious identities.


The City of Zagreb financed the project for 12 months. You can find out more about the project here.

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Unlock Your English Potential and Create Unforgettable Memories in Split, Croatia 🌟🇭🇷
Blog, Erasmus, Erasmus blogs, Uncategorized

Unlock Your English Potential and Create Unforgettable Memories in Split, Croatia

Unlock Your English Potential and Create Unforgettable Memories in Split, Croatia 🌟🇭🇷


Are you looking for a quick and efficient way to improve your English language skills? An English Callan course in Split through Erasmus KA1 might be just what you need! With the Callan Method, you'll learn English quickly and easily, all while enjoying the beautiful surroundings of Split and making new friends from around the world. And the best part? It's just one week long!

The benefits of studying with the Callan Method are numerous. With the dynamic and fast-paced teaching approach, you'll speak as much as possible, building your fluency and confidence. The method is designed to mimic the speech pattern of native speakers, so you'll practice speaking and listening in a natural way. The instant correction and repetition will help you to quickly identify and correct any mistakes, ensuring that you progress quickly and effectively.

And the best part of studying an intensive Callan course in Split through Erasmus KA1 is that you'll be doing it all while enjoying a beautiful holiday in one of Europe's most stunning destinations. Split is a city full of history, culture, and natural beauty. During your week-long stay, you'll have the opportunity to explore all that Split has to offer, from sampling the local cuisine to taking part in cultural activities and experiencing the vibrant nightlife.

By the end of the week, you'll feel a new level of confidence when speaking English, and you'll be able to express yourself more clearly and accurately. You'll have developed lightning-fast reflexes, allowing you to recall words and phrases quickly and easily. And best of all, you'll have had an unforgettable holiday experience in one of Europe's most beautiful destinations.

So why wait? Sign up for an intensive Callan course in Split through Erasmus KA1 today and start your journey towards improved English language skills and an unforgettable holiday experience!

The Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Join Our Split Erasmus+ English Courses for Teachers

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Teacher Training English Course in Zagreb
Blog, Erasmus, Erasmus blogs, Uncategorized

Teacher Training English Course in Zagreb

Erasmus+  experience in Zagreb   (A wonderful Erasmus+ experience in Zagreb)

 

Our Erasmus participants flew from Spain to Zagreb to attend our English Course. Congratulations to Carmen Lagares García, Lucia i Daniel Pérez Mora from CEIP Virgen del Carmen on finishing our General English Course for Teachers with the Callan Method!

 

With the Callan Method for English language learning, our trained teachers make participants speak from the moment they enter the classroom. Our dynamic and fast-paced method is taught by native speakers who ask participants questions designed for their language proficiency. The teachers then assist learners in their answers and correct any inconsistencies in pronunciation, grammar usage and sentence structure. 

https://inicijativa.biz/en/erasmus-plus/general-english/

Educator Adam about his experience with this lovely group:

“I had the privilege of working with Lucia and Daniel.

We concentrated on revision, new work, question construction, and auxiliary verbs (both primary and modals).

Their engagement in the Callan Method's revision and new work was noteworthy. They were eager not just to comprehend, but also to get it right and apply it in their own way.

It was enjoyable to work through the process of forming questions. Their originality shone through. It was a wonderful way for me to see and grasp their thought process, and it allowed us the opportunity to get to know one other better.

They were excellent at auxiliary verbs and understood how they aided the main verb. Tense, mood, voice, and modality were all incorporated. The auxiliary verbs have, has, and had were used in a variety of contexts.

It was a pleasure to meet them, and I wish them the best of luck and hope to work with them again in the near future.”

 

Daniel has also written blog about his Erasmus+ experience, which you can read here:

Día 7: Thank you Croatia (ceipvirgendelcarmenerasmusplus.blogspot.com)

 

Dowload our new eBook: 10 Tips for a successful KA1 Erasmus+ experience





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Blog, Erasmus, Erasmus blogs, Uncategorized

Build A Marketing Plan For Your School – part 1

Let’s talk a little bit about why your school need a marketing plan.

I know most of you are already doing some kind of marketing, but do you have a plan? 

Marketing can be confusing! There are many different aspects to it, Facebook & Google – paid ads and social posting, Email marketing, SEO, Google ads etc. 

Do you know how to put the pieces together in a way that will generate your school more enrollment predictably and consistently?

You need a plan!

Most of you have some kind of social media presence, maybe a bit of email marketing or even some SEO too, but is it working for you? 

Posting for the sake of posting is not enough to get you, students. All it will do is spread some awareness about your school

Likewise, SEO will help your website to be found online, It won't guarantee that these students who come to your website will become your students. 

The Goal Of Your Marketing

The goal of a marketing plan is to help students find your school online; get them to know, like and trust your school as a brand and make it obvious to them that your school is the best option.

Once you have a plan, the different marketing elements have more meaning and different functionality, Social media is for getting your name out there like a personal billboard, Blogs become your newspapers, Youtube becomes your tv channel etc. 

A Marketing Plan That Works

We want to share the same marketing plan that we use. With this plan, you will be able to connect all the pieces in a way that will save you a lot of money. You will also be able to measure exactly, the results that you get. 

So if you spend 15 euros on paid Ads (Facebook or Adwords), you should be getting at least two students enquiries, 

You will get some valuable information going forward to get the most from your marketing. 

  • You will learn how much of a budget you need to have for your marketing plan, 
  • how much do you spend to acquire a student
  • How to recognize when things go wrong and how to fix them
  • What order to put the pieces together

Sequence Matters!

If you don't do things in the right order, then they are not going to work. So that's why you need a marketing plan.

We will show you how all the pieces together in a way that will get you the best results.

Otherwise, it will be like throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something will stick.

The problem with this is that it won't really work and even if it does somehow, you won’t be able to recreate it. 

This system is called the customer value journey, and it's going to make marketing for your school so much easier. 

Watch the video below for part one 

A Marketing Plan For Your School (Part one)

Say goodbye to half-empty classes

Download our Essential Digital marketing checklist for schools

  • Improve your Website
  • Ideas for creating interesting content
  • Get more reviews for your school
  • Engage your students more
  •  Get more organic traffic to your website

Today the most strategic, helpful and empathic school wins!

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Blog, Blog eng, Erasmus, Uncategorized

Seven reasons why the Callan Method is the best method for learning English online

Seven reasons why the Callan Method is the best method for learning English online

In these post-Covid times, online language learning has brought adult students many benefits - the obvious ones being the ease of studying from home, flexibility around their schedules, and no parking or traffic issues.

However, with these conveniences comes a downside - studies show that online learning in virtual classrooms has some intrinsic issues.

Many language schools now realise that having classes online makes their students easily distracted, less focused and lowers their engagement. You see, by nature, online learning in virtual classrooms allows for way too many distractions. The teacher has an uphill battle; learning can be challenging, and the main reason for this is lack of focus. Keeping students focused in a traditional classroom setting has always been a big problem for teachers.

In a typical classroom setting, teachers can clearly observe who is engaged in their classes; they can move around the classroom and see what their students are doing. Students know they need to pay attention or the teacher will pull them up.

With online learning, the teacher competes with literally a million other online distractions, from students scrolling on their Facebook newsfeed or checking their emails. One of the main reasons is that most material hasn't been created with these challenges in mind. Many schools are not adapting to these new challenges, and the results are more unsatisfactory education results.

Seven reasons why the Callan Method is the best method for learning English online

One of the few exceptions to this is the Callan Method for learning English. This method is perfect for online language learning, and here are seven reasons why:

1. Increased Focus

The Callan Method lesson is based on a question-and-answer format. The teacher asks students at random to answer these questions. The student never knows when they will be asked a question. The teacher actively looks for the students that look least engaged and asks them questions. With traditional methods, it's the students' job to stay focused; with the Callan Method, it's the teacher's job to make sure they are focused.

2. Speaking all the time

In traditional classes, there is limited time for the students to speak, which means there are plenty of opportunities to get distracted. The Callan Method's approach to learning a language is to make the students speak as much as possible. They are focused on listening to the questions when they are not speaking, ready to answer when asked.

3. Dynamic teaching approach

The Callan Method is a fast and dynamic way to learn English. It's more like a game than traditional learning, which is why it has such a high success rate. This is why children learn faster - because it's fun. The teachers speak at 200-230 words a minute; this speed mimics the speech pattern of native speakers. This approach of asking questions all the time and randomly nominating students to answer ensures that the students have no time during a lesson to do anything else but pay attention and learn.

Do you want to speak English fearlessly?


Sign up for our Online Course

 and start speaking without mental blocks!



Start speaking with native speakers immediately!

Learn to think in English!

4. Speeds up your reflexes

We have all experienced a time when we were stuck for words, especially in another language. With the fast dynamic approach of the Callan Method, the students’ recall becomes a lot faster. The methodology is based on automatically constructing sentences without overthinking, and relying on your long term memory to get it right, which it does.

5. Overcoming your fear of speaking

For many students, shyness and fear of speaking is a big problem. With the Callan Method, these fears are the first thing that go. Students have to get used to speaking in front of their classmates all the time in a slightly exaggerated setting. Because of this, speaking English outside of the classroom becomes stress-free and a lot easier.

6. Instant correction and repetition

In a Callan Method lesson, there is a lot of repetition of the material to understand it and remember it better. Also, the students are constantly corrected every time they make a mistake. This repetition and instant correction allow the teacher to listen and correct each student as much as possible.

7. Equal student speaking time

One of the biggest challenges in any classroom is to make sure the quiet students partake in speaking as much as the more outgoing students. With the Callan Method, each student gets equal talking time to ensure the class moves forward together.

If you are not satisfied with your current way of learning English, then definitely give the Callan Method a try! You will be surprised not only with how much your focus and engagement will increase but how well you will begin to start speaking English

Do you want to speak English fearlessly?


Sign up for our Online Course

 and start speaking without mental blocks!

Start speaking with native speakers immediately!

Learn to think in English!

Contact us!

Ask us whatever you are interested in.

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