A Testimonial from Santiago - Our Education Advisor in Colombia

Meet Santiago, one of our Education Advisors. Santiago is Colombian and is part of the sales team in the Kaplan office in Colombia. Santiago gave us an account of  how important it has been for him to learn English and the role learning a new language played in his life.

We’re always glad to hear from our colleagues and what they have to say about how they got to learn English. This is what Santiago wrote to us in his letter:

Hello Everyone,

My name is Santiago and I am from Medellin, Colombia. I studied international business at the EAFIT university in Medellin. In 2003 I took part in an exchange program, which took me to Canada (Nova Scotia & Montreal). It is there where my level of English became proficient and where my globalized mind-set started to grow.

Later on in 2009, I came to London planning to spend a year entirely dedicated to leisure and traveling. Being that London is the gateway to all Europe, it was going to be the perfect destination. Later on, after the year went by, I didn’t want to leave and I decided to extend my stay by starting a BA in business management followed by an MsC in Digital Marketing. It was a great experience, and after that I moved back to Colombia.

At the moment, in Medellin, I live in el “poblado-las Palmas”. I do not have a favorite musical group but I am an enthusiast of deep house, techno & other ranges of non-commercial electronic music. This was actually one of the reasons why I decided to come to the UK, pursuing my hobby for fine music, new technologies & trends and most important to feed my urges for traveling, which I enjoy the most.

I choose London because I believe it's the place where everything happens, in terms of the latest trends and in general for all the “cool stuff”! But mostly I think that there is nothing you cannot do or find in this amazing city, not to mention the multicultural atmosphere that the city is always breathing.

My biggest recommendation for anyone that wishes to learn English and travel abroad in order to learn English is to open your mind to new experiences, and most importantly, do not be afraid to pursue your dreams. Learning English opens a wide range of opportunities in both personal and professional dimensions. Just go with it and enjoy while your young and alive!

Santiago

Has learning a second language had a great impact on you as well? Tell us about your experience in the comments below.