Meet Leslie Woodford:
Offering a Child Language Learner's Perspective

Hi, I'm Leslie Woodford. I offer a little different perspective - that of the child language learner. When I was seven, my parents and I packed our house and moved from the calm security of a small Colorado town to the jungled and mountainous Solomon Islands, where my parents became U.S. Peace Corps Country Directors. After a one-month training program in Washington, DC, we boarded a PanAm 747 for my first international flight.

One eighteen-hour flight, four plane changes, and a blur of airport waiting rooms later, we stepped onto the tarmac at Henderson Field airport outside of Honiara, Guadalcanal.

Bitten by the Language Bug

It was late afternoon as we rode to town in the Gestapo green Peace Corps van. The interim country director talked of life in the Solomons, including the local language, Pijin. The sound of it intrigued me, in spite of my jet lag, and I stretched my ears to try to get them around the words he made when he gave us a sample. Even without formal instruction, I picked up the language within a few months.

Three years floated by in the Solomons. The days were laced with excursions: hiking through the jungle to see Tenaru Falls, riding outrigger canoes to visit indigenous villages, four-wheeling through streams to stay at the Tambea resort, snorkeling around sunken war ships in Iron Bottom Sound.

I could chatter as fluently in Pijin as I could in the Queen’s English. Gone was my American accent. While I was there, I promised myself that I would learn seven languages.

It has been almost thirty years since I made that promise, and I’m working to get there. I studied German, Latin, Spanish and Russian during my school years — I don’t remember a thing! My big break came after I graduated from high school. I spent a year as an exchange student in Sweden.

I followed that with more bookwork: ancient Greek and Arabic in college. Then I served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spending a year and a half in Italy.

In all, I’ve studied six languages in the classroom and have had limited success in gaining fluency. Four others, including my mother tongue, I’ve learned from native speakers, which has been far more successful.

Still Learning Languages

Now, as Leslie Woodford, full-time mom, homemaker, and language guide, I’m working with Spanish-speaking neighbors in my neighborhood to learn - and teach my toddler - Spanish. I haven’t reached my childhood goal yet, but I’m on my way.

Learning another language is hard work, often agonizing, sometimes embarrassing, and always rewarding work. My dad, Terry Marshall, created Walkabout Language Learning, and I’ve tested and fine-tuned it. It is the most flexible language learning method that I’ve found. That is why we want to share our ideas with you. Let us enhance your language learning efforts by helping build a pathway to success.

Ready for great adventures ahead? Come along with us. Better yet, let us come along with you as your language guide.

Wishing you every success,

Leslie Woodford
Web Mastress


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