Some students arrive with a suitcase, a timetable, and a very clear goal.
And then, every so often, someone arrives with something else entirely – a kind of warmth that doesn’t just fill a classroom, but quietly fills the whole building. The sort of person who makes a school feel a little more like a home.
That person, for us, was Ginevra.
She came to Languages United from Italy as an adult student, focused and determined. She was studying for IELTS and taking intensive individual lessons because she needed strong results for her university. But the funny thing is… IELTS was only part of her story. The bigger story was the way she moved through the world, with curiosity, kindness and a gift for making people feel noticed.
Every day, Ginevra would walk into school as if she’d already lived a whole chapter before 9am.
She’d come in with sparkling updates: who she’d met, what little conversations had happened on the street, what she’d overheard at a café, what colours she’d noticed in shop windows, what tiny detail had made her smile. She collected moments like souvenirs, not the obvious ones, but the everyday ones. The sort most people rush past.
And she didn’t just drift into class and disappear again.
She acknowledged everyone. Truly. Our marketing team, accommodation team, teachers, management, other students. She had a way of arriving that made you feel like you mattered. Like you were part of her day.
She also had a phrase that became instantly famous in the school.
When she felt good, properly good, she’d grin and announce, “Today I feel like a raspberry.” Some other days it would be another fruit, like green apple or kiwi, but raspberry was a rather special feeling of happiness.
It made us laugh the first time. Then it made us smile every time.
Because she loved raspberries. Because she often wore raspberry-coloured shoes and clothes. And because that’s exactly what she was like: bright, bold, joyful, and impossible not to notice.
One day, we asked her if she’d help us with something slightly outside her “adult IELTS student” remit – a teenage group disco. You know the kind: a room full of teenagers, a playlist that needs to keep everyone happy, and that delicate balance of fun and feeling safe.
Ginevra didn’t flinch. She took it in her stride.
She helped put together the Spotify list (with the kind of variety that shows she really understands people), and she arrived to assist with the activity, with her “dancing shoes”, ready to jump in and support the evening.
And then something quietly wonderful happened.
There was one student there, a very shy one, a student from Italy, here for the second time – who hovered at the edge of the room. The classic “I want to join in, but I don’t know how” moment. Ginevra spotted him straight away. Not in a big, spotlight way. In that gentle, human way she had.
She encouraged him. Kept it light. Kept it kind. Made it feel easy.
And he stepped onto the dance floor.
Then he stayed there.
He danced all evening.
Later, when his course ended, he told us he’d arrived shy and was leaving transformed – big smile, more confident, more open, more himself. Of course, confidence doesn’t come from one single moment or one single person… but there are always key moments that unlock something. And Ginevra, with her natural people skills, had helped unlock one of those moments.
Ginevra loved dancing so much that Bath became her playground for it. She went to a local salsa club, and there she met an English young man her age.
The next morning she came into school glowing. Laughing. Floating.
“I’m in love,” she said, as casually as if she was talking about the weather.
And honestly? The whole building smiled with her. Because that’s what she did – she brought her life into the room, and the room became brighter.
Her homestay loved her too. It was the kind of homestay experience we always hope for: endless conversations, stories exchanged across cultures, recipes swapped back and forth. With Ginevra, there wasn’t a dull moment – and there was always something cooking, literally or figuratively.
Meanwhile, she was doing the work. Properly. Studying, refining, practising, pushing herself in her one-to-one lessons, keeping her university goal in sight.
She got the IELTS grades she wanted. And when it came to her final project at our school, she didn’t choose the safe option.
She said she wanted to go to an open mic night… and perform stand-up comedy.
In English.
Based on her observations of English customs, compared with Italian ones.
Just imagine the courage. Not just speaking in another language — but doing comedy, live, with timing and confidence and vulnerability all wrapped into one.
She invited us all.
And when we say “all”, we really mean all.
Her host family came, and not just one or two of them, but the whole family, the full support team. The salsa boyfriend came. The girl she’d met on the train came. Our Languages United team came. Nobody was going to miss it.
She was a little worried at the beginning. Which is exactly what brave looks like, nervous, but doing it anyway.
And then she stepped up.
And she made us laugh.
It was brilliant. The kind of moment that makes you think, This is what language learning is for. Not just grammar and scores and targets – but voice. Confidence. Expression. Belonging.
And here’s the part that feels so “Ginevra”, it almost doesn’t surprise us.
Even after all of that – after the lessons, the disco, the open mic night, the new friendships – she kept connecting people.
Just this week, she arranged a Zoom webinar because she’d recommended Languages United to another English language teacher in Italy… a teacher she’d met on her travels, of course. And now we’re looking at collaborating with that teacher.
Because that’s what she does.
She builds bridges without trying. She brings people together naturally. She makes things happen simply by being positively curious, open, and warm.
So yes – Ginevra, what a star!
Thank you for the raspberry energy. Thank you for the laughter. Thank you for the courage, the kindness, and the way you made our school feel even more like a community.
And thank you for being such a wonderful ambassador for Languages United — not by forcing it, but by living it.
Extracts from Ginevra’s testimonial:
“Sometimes words are never enough to express intense feelings… I couldn’t thank the universe enough to have found such an amazing school… for me now is a family… My course was personalised according to my goal… which I achieved thanks to the professionality of my teacher, lovely Megan… Languages United… means: to unite… they do their best to make people feel at ease, at home. And they truly succeed. I can’t wait to come back!”
