Alison & Barrie Ross (centre), with students who studied at Languages International

Several students who studied at Languages International as long as 10 years ago joined a special reunion earlier this year in Switzerland. They had a barbeque to welcome Alison and Barrie Ross, who have been hosting Languages International students for over 20 years.

Alison says, “It was so nice to see everyone again. Barrie and I consider ourselves very fortunate to have such wonderful friends, young and old in Switzerland, all due to our connection with Languages International.”

Alison and Barrie would especially like to thank Markus and Liz Widmer who arranged and hosted the reunion. They were very pleased to be able to return the favour by welcoming Liz’s parents during their recent visit to New Zealand.

Liz’s sister, Anne-Marie, also studied at Languages International, so they have a long association with the school!

Among the other ex-students at the reunion were Monika and Thomas Wildhaber, Claudia Favale, Vroni Mazenaur, Marlis Scherer and Friedrich Wittwer. Many of them are from near Schaffhausen, and continue to meet each year with other students from their class. Monika and Thomas met at the school in 1994 and got married a few years later.

A large number of our students choose to stay in one of our carefully selected homestay families, as it provides an excellent environment to improve conversational English. When there is a good match between homestay family and student, it can also be the beginning of a long friendship.

Languages International has worked with families in Auckland for over 25 years, and has three staff dedicated to meeting both the students’ and the families’ needs.

If you would like to see an interview with one of our homestay families, please contact us with your name and address, so that we can send you the Languages International CD Rom. Send your email to info@languages.ac.nz