Non-English speaking players learning english

[Ronnie Whelan]

There was an interesting piece on the Irish radio station Newstalk at 3 O'Clock. Apparently a guy from Bray in Ireland is teaching the 34 Foreign players currently at the club how to speak English. One thing that stood out was that he was worked closely with Torres to help both himself and his wife adopt to life in England. He mentioned that Fernando was really unhappy when he initially arrived and found it difficult to adapt but things have really improved for him since. He is also working closely with Lucas at the minute to assist him in his language development.

 

Had anyone heard that about Torres before?

 

 

 

(By the way, I appreciate that tonight we have the biggest game of the season so far, so this may get overlooked!)

[Guest GrandpaSimpson]

Dont know why I'm surprised, but still 34 foreign players at the club shocked me.

[Tommok]

Well in his latest interview Torres can't stop saying how happy he is.

Edited February 19, 2008 by TommoK

[jimmylibel]

There was an interesting piece on the Irish radio station Newstalk at 3 O'Clock. Apparently a guy from Bray in Ireland is teaching the 34 Foreign players currently at the club how to speak English. One thing that stood out was that he was worked closely with Torres to help both himself and his wife adopt to life in England. He mentioned that Fernando was really unhappy when he initially arrived and found it difficult to adapt but things have really improved for him since. He is also working closely with Lucas at the minute to assist him in his language development.

 

Had anyone heard that about Torres before?

(By the way, I appreciate that tonight we have the biggest game of the season so far, so this may get overlooked!)

 

I would imagine that was specifically in relation to the language issues. Everything Torres has said since he's joined would suggest everything else has been fine for him.

[jimmylibel]

Well in his latest interview Torres can't stop saying how happy he is.

 

Offal?

[Ronnie Whelan]

I would imagine that was specifically in relation to the language issues. Everything Torres has said since he's joined would suggest everything else has been fine for him.

 

 

I would think so. It seems from all concerned that he is happy at the moment. This is the first time I had heard anything to the contrary.

[Spike]

Well in his latest interview Torres can't stop saying how happy he is.

 

Perhaps his english isn't that good

[Kahnee]

Offal?

 

The Times - page 5 of the rotation thread

[jimmylibel]

The Times - page 5 of the rotation thread

 

Ta

[_00_deathscar]

The Times - page 5 of the rotation thread

 

The Times has dedicated 5 pages to rotation? Slipping standards or what eh...?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Scot]

They hired someone from Bray for this?

[dorgie]

Heard something on this. Apparantly when Nunez joined, his first words to this guy from Bray was "Ballybrack....Tesco car park". He was also a student in Dublin, and that's where they hung out...god help them!

Edited February 19, 2008 by dorgie

[Maldini]

Speaking in tongues: the Irishman teaching Liverpool FC how to talk

 

They say the Irish speak the best English - and Liverpool FC seems to agree. Mary Hannigan talks to Rob Healy, whose Bray-based firm is charged with teaching the club's large number of 'foreign' imports how to speak English.

 

A group of British MPs recently issued yet another plea to English football clubs to reduce the number of foreign players they recruit. They pointed to the figures that show 60 per cent of the playing staff of the 20 Premier League clubs is now foreign - broken down, that's 331 players from 66 different countries, compared to the 11 foreigners who were playing in the Premier League when it began 16 years ago.

 

While these figures are a source of alarm for those worried about the long-term prospects of the English national team, they are music to the ears of Rob Healy. Indeed, when Liverpool, one of his company's clients, go shopping for new players his most fervent wish is that they don't buy British, instead opting to add to the 20 or so foreign players they already have in their first team squad.

 

It's not that Healy doesn't rate British footballing talent, it's just that the more non-English speakers Liverpool have on their books the more work for his company, Bray-based Crofton Training.

 

Three years ago Healy approached the club about giving one-to-one English lessons to its foreign players. "They brought us over for an interview and agreed to a trial week with Fernando Morientes, the Spanish player, and after a couple of days working with him he was happy - in fact he asked me to teach his wife English as well.

 

"So that's how it came about, now four of us work with 42 people at the club, ranging from first team and reserve players - and their wives and girlfriends - to members of the staff. It's very important to Liverpool that their players speak English, the last thing they want is for cliques to develop in the squad based on the languages the players speak. Even when Rafa Benitez [Liverpool's Spanish manager] shouts instructions from the sideline to Fernando Torres [ the team's Spanish striker] he'll do so in English - it might be easier for both of them to do it in Spanish, but their view is it's an English club, so they must use its language."

 

When Healy, now 35, graduated from UCD in 1994 with a degree in English and philosophy, he didn't, he admits, envisage a career that would include teaching Spanish, Brazilian and Slovakian footballers, to name but three of the nationalities he works with, how to conduct post-match interviews with Sky Sports.

 

But after a spell teaching English as a foreign language, a route in to employment taken by many a graduate, Healy had discovered his calling. Having moved in to the area of teaching "business English" the Dubliner was recruited as group language consultant by German company Steinbeis. Then four years ago he went out on his own, setting up Crofton Training.

 

"I've worked for 10 years now with people from every background and nationality, so I've learnt exactly what they need," he says.

 

Crofton Training run several different courses at their Bray base but their main areas of work, both here and abroad, are "business and general English" and "intercultural and business communication skills".

 

How is your English? "It is very bad, I am not very intelligent," says a laughing Alvaro Arbeloa, the Spanish defender signed by Liverpool for £2.5 million a year ago. "But I have a very good teacher, the classes are very funny. I am a lucky man, he is very clear," he says of his tutor, Healy.

 

Any problems? "Yes, the Scouser accent. Jamie Carragher and Steve Gerrard. They speak very fast. It's very hard to understand. Sometimes I have to say: 'repeat please'. But it's impossible. But I try to speak English to them, it is important that I learn. But Rob is great. And now he must give me £20 for saying that."

 

"And if I had a pound for every time I was asked 'are you teaching English to Jamie and Stevie?' I'd be a very, very rich man," says Healy, who has yet to add the Liverpudlians to his roster. For now he and his staff concentrate their time on teaching English to the club's imports, even if some of them had more than a few lessons before.

 

"Well, Xabi Alonso famously had his first brush with English when he was a Spanish student in Kells, Co Meath. Then there was Antonio Nunez (who has since left Liverpool for Celta Vigo). The first time I met him he said 'Ballybrack! Tesco car park!' I said 'what?' He had been a Spanish student in Dublin, and the Tesco car park was where he used to meet up with all his friends. And here he was, a few years later, a professional footballer with Liverpool."

 

Do the current crop of Liverpool "foreigners" now speak English with a Dublin accent? "Not really," says Healy, "although one of them said 'bus' the other day in the strongest of Dublin accents, so . . . maybe."

 

While Healy might spend some of his time teaching his students the essentials - such as "offside", "obviously", "gutted" and "gaffer" - it's as important to him that the players are armed with enough English to make everyday life less of a chore.

 

"Fernando (Morientes) has left Liverpool now, but I met up with him and his wife last year. The football side of things didn't work out too well for him at the club, but I taught both of them English. They told me they took a holiday in New York a few months ago and were able to more than get by with their English. That was a big thing for them, and for me too. It kind of opened up their world.

 

"Yes, you want to help these guys do their post-match interviews on Sky Sports, but more importantly you just want to help them communicate, in every aspect of their lives. Fernando (Torres), for example, is a very smart guy, he wants to be able to do English interviews and to be able to speak to the supporters, it really matters to him. My job is to make that possible, and he's getting there, fast. When I see these players finally do their interviews, comfortably, like the goalkeeper Pepe Reina, it's incredibly satisfying. They want to communicate, my job is simply to help them do that."

[Bootser]

Heard Healy on Radio Ulster this am. LMFAO when he mentioned that he heard one of the Spanish Anny physio staff asking for a 'spuuunge' a la Ballymun.

[Tetti]

Every interview I have seen in any paper has had him saying how easily he had settled, how the club and fans made it easy for him. And he doesn't have a wife.

[Lanus]

Well i think Torres might have been unhappy at first as he had no way of communicating with anyone but the spanish speaking players (not many).. but once he started scoring then he started coming out with beaming interviews and post match talk etc.

 

as others on here have seen, he now talks only of loving it here. he even said that if Rafa left that he would stay here.

[CaptainXabi]

Every interview I have seen in any paper has had him saying how easily he had settled, how the club and fans made it easy for him. And he doesn't have a wife.

He said Morientes, not the Tog.

[John am Rhein]

A group of British MPs recently issued yet another plea to English football clubs to reduce the number of foreign players they recruit.

 

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk offfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff!!!!!!

[Ramón Benítez Hernández]

Dont know why I'm surprised, but still 34 foreign players at the club shocked me.

 

 

The starting eleven in the 1986 FA Cup Final did not include one Englishman.

[RP]

Wouldn't it have made sense to recruit an English firm to teach English?

[Guest Snorky]

Carra gave Torres a Little Britain dvd to learn English from.

 

Apparently Nino does a great Only Gay in the Village.

[Hassony]

Carra gave Torres a Little Britain dvd to learn English from.

 

Apparently Nino does a great Only Gay in the Village.

 

He should have given him something funny to watch instead

[bazz]

Wouldn't it have made sense to recruit an English firm to teach English?

Maybe they weren't good enough, or smart enough to approach the club first...

Edited February 21, 2008 by bazz

[Duncan Disorderly]

Herbie did a TEFL course, get him in and they'll all be speaking in a broad Belfast accent.

 

Including Carra!

[Rory Fitzgerald]

Wouldn't it have made sense to recruit an English firm to teach English?

 

Why? Is there a need for English people to learn English ?

Edited February 21, 2008 by Rory Fitzgerald