Language Walks® was founded by Jackie Clare MITG, LLB. Jackie is a professional guide holding the coveted Blue Badge qualification for London. She has British/Belgian dual nationality. An English native speaker, having raised her family in Flanders, she also speaks Dutch fluently and holds a Belgian teaching qualification. She taught English at the Centre for Living Languages at the University of Leuven and practised as a solicitor in London as well as working for KBC Group in communications training and for the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the field of disability discrimination. Jackie is a member of the Board of the Institute of Tourist Guiding.
Language Walks® was founded to support language learning. We cherry-pick qualified and experienced Blue Badge tourist guides, native speakers, for their ability to engage students and make learning about another culture and its language enjoyable.
The story behind Language Walks® is a quest to bridge cultural gaps and to ensure that the content offered in classrooms, lecture halls and online is as direct, accurate, fresh, diverse and authentic as is possible.
Language Walks® taps in to a diverse professional guiding community which in turn opens up a sea of inspiring and often little known stories of people and places. We describe art, we delve into history, we tease out the language of our topic with key words and discussion. We take a virtual bus ride across London, we explore the experiences of black Georgians in the British Isles, we taste food, fashion and modern nightlife and we share the aspects of our culture and language which match our clients’ needs.
