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Janet · 11-08-2013, 03:12 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In article , am
says...

On 11/08/2013 14:19, Victoria Conlan wrote:
David in Normandy wrote:
Yesterday we had a booklet about beginners Welsh classes in the area,
but here everything has to be Bi lingual so half of it was in Welsh,
well if you could read that half you wouldn't need the classes.

The French government introduced some courses a few years so the
resident Brits could learn French. They published a phone number for us
to contact to book a place on the course. However, the person on the
other end of the phone didn't speak a word of English, only French.

What you don't realise is that that phone call /was/ your lesson.

I'd only just moved to France and spoke very little French at the time.
The "lesson" was a total failure. I've since learned French on my own;
without the help of the ill thought out French initiative.

Poor initiative? Couldn't you find a single bilingual person to help
you apply?

There are adult total-beginner English-language classes provided for
immigrants in the UK; I taught them for many years. Classes were
invariably mixed-nationality. The ONLY teaching medium was and still is
English. It was impossible to provide a telephone switchboard that
spoke all the languages used by students. Very often some could not read
or write our alphabet; some were unable to read even their own. Yet they
all had managed to find out about the classes, get enrolled, and turn up
at the right time and place.

Janet.