Work Related Learning Events - News
Culture & Customs
Date issued: 24/03/10
Learning sign language at the Culture & Customs event
The Education Business Partnership West Berkshire in association with The Downs School, Compton, held its first ever Culture and Customs event at the Hilton Hotel in Newbury on 10th March. The day brought together native speakers of 8 different languages (Pashto, Slovakian, Silesian, Russian, Mandarin, Thai, Farsi and Dutch) in an event designed to give students from local schools an insight into the different ways people live and work. Students attended 4 half hour language and culture workshops. The event was a huge success with students learning how to speak a few phrases in a new language and to interact directly with people from other countries.
Students on the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course at Newbury College helped during the day, not only to improve their spoken English skills but to interact with local schools, share information about their culture and heritage and to inspire students to explore other cultures.
Margaret Neville, ESOL tutor at Newbury College commented “The ESOL students thoroughly enjoyed participating in this very well organised event. It was a great opportunity for them to practise their English, mix with other young people and to be able to talk about their own countries. Some of them are here without their families and they all miss home.”
The 35 students attending the event also heard from a variety of speakers from local businesses (Vodafone, Deirdre d’Arcy Consulting and Terptree Ltd) about aspects of life in Spain, cultural differences in the workplace and communicating internationally and with sign language.
The students really enjoyed the variety of activities during the day and threw themselves into the workshops with enthusiasm.