Welcome to our first issue of the Language Exepress!

From his home in Walthamstow, London, Alex Somervell, one of the co-founders of One Third Stories, kindly agreed to Skype with The Language Exepress team to discuss his own journey to success.

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Although born and raised in Paraguay to British parents, in 2008, Alex moved to the UK with his family to access a better education and to be closer to his grandparents. It was during his education here that he met Jonny Pryn, with whom Alex would go on to found One Third Stories. Jonny was inspired when he read A Clockwork Orange to use the clockwork methodology for their children’s books. The idea is that the book begins in English, but the reader is gradually introduced to words, and then phrases, in Spanish or French. The child learns these words in context and the aim is that by the end of the book, they can understand the story completely in another language. The business began as a hobby, although it was always taken seriously: Alex and his friends published their first story when they were 17 through the Young Enterprise scheme.

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Alex and Jonny kept in touch when they went off to different universities. Jonny went to Nottingham whilst Alex came to the University of Exeter to study International Relations with Italian and Portuguese. When we asked him about the most important things he learnt from his studies, he told us that his extracurricular activities were the true highlights for him. He split his year abroad between Italy (working at Armani and studying at the university in Venice) and Brazil (volunteering for the World Cup). During his 10 months in Italy, he was “fully immersed in the Italian culture” as he had an Italian girlfriend, Italian friends and spoke Italian all day at work. This wasn’t quite so achievable for his Portuguese in Brazil, but he loved the experience nevertheless.

Another highlight for him was working as a Resource Assistant in the Foreign Language Centre; a role which he undertook in his first, second and fourth year. The reason he loved the job so much was the possibility of chatting with teachers in the various languages he was learning as well as the flexibility of the timetable and being able to see friends who studied there.  His final highlight was living with his 6 best friends in 4th year with whom he is still in touch, even though they now live all over the country. And, of course, “dancing to Year 3000” at Cheesy Tuesdays. Reflecting on the good memories, he asked us “Does it still smell like feet?”

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Although Alex’s original top two choices of university were in London, he was glad to get into his third choice (Exeter) as this allowed him to study languages alongside International Relations. In the end, not getting into his first choices was a blessing in disguise. Alex explains, “in Exeter I was actually able to grow a lot more as a person, become a lot more confident in myself, and I don’t know if I would have had that in London, with it being such a big pond.”

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Yet it was after university where things really progressed for One Third Stories. In the summer after his graduation, Alex was working on the business full-time but was set to go on a Grad scheme with Telefonica in “sunny, sunny Madrid”. His plans soon changed when “An offer of investment of about 17k came through to basically turn down / quit our jobs, forget Madrid, and move up to Newcastle – which is a lot colder!”.

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Since then, the business has been growing: “For the first two years of that, it was just the two of us, hustling and trying to make ends meet… since October 2017 we’ve been able to hire three people full-time. We also work with about 15 freelancers (illustrators, translators etc.)”. They have also recently managed to secure an investment of £300,000 which means they can double the size of the team by 2019. In terms of the books themselves, they have a keen interest in gaining copyright for well-known characters such as Peppa Pig Frozen etc. Alex explains:  “That’ll be where we really bridge from being a product or service for parents who are really keen on their kids learning a language to a product or service that parents buy because their kid loves frozen, so they might as well buy this book and have their kids learn French as a consequence”.

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The founders hope that this will inspire both children and their parents with regards to language learning: ““hopefully [parents] will find that contrary to how they perceived learning a language at school, which would have been quite poorly, their child is actually really enjoying it, loving it – so that can be the gateway of languages into the household”.

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Their vision for the future also includes the potential to create the stories in different languages, particularly creating books for those wanting to learn English. Alex explains “Having grown up in South America, the need for people abroad to learn English is a number one priority, and it is THE go-to language for foreign language learning”. Although the UK has given them the opportunity to create fun and engaging stories, their approach to the stories for English language learners may be adapted if necessary, but this will be something that Alex and Jonny look into with time.

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One Third Stories has come a long way from just an idea 10 years ago, and it has changed the way children and their parents view languages. The books have been very well received by parents, and Alex shared with us one piece of feedback that was particularly memorable to him:

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“Hi, I have subscribed to your French book club and we received our first pack on Friday. My son Lincoln is 3 and has Autism, his brain is like a sponge and he constantly wants to learn more (can name all of the elements of the periodic table and tell you multiple facts about them, can read as well as his 8 year old brother, can write and spell, add, subtract and knows his 2, 5 and 10 times tables, has a keen interest in astronomy and has asked for a laptop for Christmas so he can have his own computer to do coding on, he currently uses mine but apparently he’s too old to use mummy’s now.)
French has been on his list for a while so I decided it was time to give it a go, and I am so glad I did. My son has not wanted to put the book down, and has even been sleeping with the flash cards under his pillow. He now can confidently use all of the words and sentences used in the book and even answered the question at the end of the audiobook correctly. He has truly amazed me, and the way your book teaches is amazing!”

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Alex and Jonny’s inspirational journey to success demonstrates the possibilities that a language degree can offer. When we asked him if he had any advice for graduates, he mentioned a blog set up by one of his classmates, Emma Rosen, who he knew through International Relations, which gives careers advice for graduates (https://www.25before25.co.uk/). “She graduated and went on to a graduate scheme, which is incredibly competitive, you go through a ton of rounds, but after 6 months/12 months she really wasn’t enjoying it that much. She’s been featured in Elle magazine and loads of other places, so a great place to get advice.”

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His personal advice would be to try out as much as you can and “try not to commit, as much as possible” to give you the flexibility to figure out what you want to do. He understands the “nothingness” that you feel after “the security of a four year degree” but urges graduates to use this as an opportunity to “talk to as many people as you can about their jobs, learn as much as you can about the sectors you might be interested in before binding yourself.” He also warns language students that it might not always be possible to use your languages in an entry level job, but to “hang in there, because now, a couple years in, my friends are realising that actually, yes, their languages are really useful and come in handy, because they are now the go-to people in their offices whenever there’s an opportunity to go abroad”.

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Based on this advice and the inspiring success of One Third Stories, it is safe to say that there are a number of options open to graduates after their degree. Follow your passions, take one step at a time and most importantly, don’t panic!

If you would like to know more about One Third Stories, visit their website here or follow them on Facebook.