Mind your language on Virgin Atlantic

In an innovative move, Virgin Atlantic is to offer language learning courses as part of its inflight entertainment system from 01 August 2004. The airline has teamed up with Linguaphone to offer courses, which teach passengers to understand and speak a new language by listening with no need for written material. The first courses to be introduced are Spanish for English speakers and English for Spanish speakers.

Rebecca Smith, Virgin Atlantic’s Manager of Acquisitions and Publishing, said:

“We are very excited to offer this first in the world of inflight entertainment. We are sure that our passengers will find using the Linguaphone service both educational and fun. Passengers can learn basic phrases or can brush up on fluent conversation, which is perfect for business or leisure travellers.

“We hope to expand the selection of languages available in the future to include Chinese and Japanese to link in with our routes to the Far East.”

Richard Avery, Managing Director of Linguaphone, commented:

“Being able to speak even just a few words of a language makes a holiday or trip abroad so much more enjoyable. And these courses have been specially designed to allow passengers to learn whilst relaxing onboard. They work by mixing a great storyline with a step-by-step introduction to the language, so you get to have some fun and discover a new language at the same time.”

The language course will be available on the airline’s award winning inflight entertainment system v:port. All Virgin Atlantic aircraft are fitted with personal seat back TV’s for every passenger, offering up to 20 channels of entertainment to choose from. V:Port has the latest in Audio and Video on demand systems allowing you to stop, start, fast forward and rewind all the action.

First registered in 1901, Linguaphone is a world leader in self-study and assisted learning products. With courses in 32 languages, Linguaphone operates in over 60 countries across the world.