Grammatika International

I read an article today about the lessons that Canadian lawyers and law students may take from Indigenous legal systems. One of the points made was that there is value in being exposed to indigenous language. Even if not used in an every day context, it opens up perspectives and lawyers always need to understand a position from various view points. I was struck by this lesson and the fact that despite making law and language central in my legal career, I hadn’t learned very m...uch if anything about indigenous languages. The article finished with this word miigwech. A thank you for reading. So I wanted to pass this sentiment on, continue this thought and say thank you for following. Thank you to past and future students for taking part in Grammatika courses. And thank you to the First Nations peoples on whose territory we sit and learn and live [This image is of Lake Huron on the Saugeen First Nation land. My family and I have spent lots of time in this area over the last ten years. The Ojibwa are the original historic people of the Saugeen First Nation.]

It’s Rebecca Lockwood Sandhu writing here, Founder and President of Grammatika International. I wanted to reiterate Grammatika’s policy and commitment to anti-racism. I am very proud and sincere when I say that the founding principles of this company are diversity, inclusion, and access. When I started Grammatika in 2012, my goal was to build bridges into the Canadian legal profession through learning and inclusivity. Grammatika designs and teaches legal education and profes...sional development courses primarily for internationally-trained lawyers. Over the last eight years, my Grammatika team and I have taught hundreds of lawyers and law students from all over the world, many of whom are new immigrants to Canada, many of whom speak other languages other than English, many of whom are people of colour. Some of our students are also Canadians who chose to study law abroad, often due to the prohibitive nature of Canadian law school fees and a feeling they may not ‘fit in’ to the law school environment here. For most if not all of our students, access to the legal profession has never been a clear path. Through skills-based learning, we teach the language of law. This is not just about how to craft a sentence in a factum or understand what the Charter of Rights and Freedoms says. This is also about the unidentifiable but ever present culture that permeates the legal profession and that often excludes people. That exclusion is often traceable along lines of race, religion, gender, language, and immigration status. At Grammatika, I have always tried to to help people navigate this imperfect system while also acknowledging and crediting the wealth of experience our students bring with them already. I have also tried to improve this little corner of the legal profession by creating learning environments where people feel comfortable to be who they are, not conform to a conventional ideal of what a lawyer should be or look like. Our classrooms have never been homogeneous and the legal profession shouldn’t be either. As a mixed race woman myself, I understand very personally the value of diversity and inclusion. Though my name and skin colour don’t immediately give away my origins, an ambiguity that has afforded me many privileges, I learn from the experiences of my family who have experienced racism in a way that I have been privileged enough to escape. This informs what I do, why I do it, how I teach, who I hire, and how I grow. Now more than ever, my commitment to anti-racism and diversity is central to how I conduct my business and I will endeavour to think about ways we can further that promise at Grammatika, from the content of our courses to the pedagogy we employ. In solidarity, Rebecca

I have to admit that I did not know the full definition of this #WordoftheDay ! I didn’t realize it related to courts of law. Credit to the @guardian who published this #wordoftheweek in their print edition a couple months back and caught my attention. What words have surprised you lately? . . . .... . #grammatika #lawandlanguage #law #lawyer #legalenglish #torontolawyers #englishforlawyers #perthlawyers #australialawyers #canadalawyers #lawstudentlife #lawyerlife #legalvocabulary #legaldefintions #legalenglishcourse #educationconsultant #abogadosespana #avocat #forensic

Not sure which way is up or down in the current state of affairs It always helps to take a pause, get a fresh perspective, and keep calm while staying informed and cautious, of course. We were planning some courses abroad for the May/June, but we are postponing those for now and working on some other projects in the meantime. Be safe and well, amigos . . . . . #grammatika #lawandlanguage #law #lawyer #legalenglish #torontolawyers #englishforlawyers #perthlawyers #australialawyers #canadalawyers #lawstudentlife #lawyerlife #malaysianlawyers #kualalumpurlawyer #legalenglishcourse #educationconsultant #abogadosespana #avocat #perspective #besafe https://ift.tt/2Qbukc6

Sometimes #legalwriting is awfully opaque, hard to understand, and full of superfluous words. And then sometimes it is clear as day, easy for all to grasp - like this snippet here. This is an excerpt from a case selected from @canlii_legal What’s Hot blog of the most recently viewed cases in Canadian law. (If you’ve ever been in one of Rebecca’s classes, you know what a fan she is of #CanLii ) . . . . . #grammatika #lawandlanguage #law #lawyer #legalenglish #torontolawyers #englishforlawyers #perthlawyers #australialawyers #canadalawyers #lawstudentlife #lawyerlife #malaysianlawyers #kualalumpurlawyer #legalenglishcourse #educationconsultant #abogadosespana #avocat #juriste #case #caseoftheday #legalcase #judge https://ift.tt/2T0sLhx