Season’s Greetings Newsletter 2007/2008

English Language Learn the Individual Way

Dear Friends

2007 has been a truly exceptional year for us in St Albans. Kate had to decide early in the year whether to stand again as a candidate for the District Council. She did, and won, and was then elected Mayor for the City and District for the municipal year 2007/8. This honour has meant a very busy year, with less time for teaching, but a wealth of interesting experiences and events.

One of the exciting events was celebrating 50 years of partnership between the cities of St Albans and Worms in Germany. Kate led a delegation to Worms at the end of June where the terms of the partnership were reaffirmed and close friendships acknowledged. There was also a further visit in late August at the time of the Backfischfest on the river Rhine when more than 70 visitors from St Albans took part in the carnival parade and enjoyed the funfairs, wine and beer festivals. A highlight was the acknowledgement of the Pasio puppets from St Albans Cathedral as the best carnival entry (see over).

Kate also helped to entertain a group of visitors from St Albans’ Italian twin town Fano. A group of policemen visited the Police Headquarters here in Hertfordshire and were shown, amongst other things, the police helicopter – a Eurocopter. This was a special privilege and gave an insight into the pilots’ work.

In October we had a return visit from the Thalmann family when Vincent spent one month with Eileen and Brian and was taught by both Kate and Natalie. It is good to have news of old friends. It was good also to have new clients from Germany. Esther and Carsten and their family from Bonn were very welcome new friends and the children had a very special experience at the local junior school. Conrad worked hard during his holiday break with lessons with both Eileen and Kate. His previous trips to the USA had helped him to communicate very well and he benefited greatly from grammar revision to give him confidence in his already very well spoken English.

Finally, we welcome Christine Lawrence, Kate’s daughter to the team this year. Christine is a professional actress, but also gives speech training and elocution lessons. This complements the range of skills which we can offer from HOMESTAY HERTFORDSHIRE and has been a very welcome asset for those whose English is already very good, but lacks received pronunciation. Clients who have already found this useful have come from Poland, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone.

With all good wishes for 2008 from St Albans. Do keep in touch. Kate

Highlights of the Year

Alban is led to his execution

Some of the events which Kate has been able to attend during her Mayoral year in St Albans illustrate the great British love of tradition. The Feast Day for St Alban is 22nd June. The day is celebrated famously in the city which grew around his shrine. This year the pilgrimage was led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and included a parade of larger than life puppets which tell the story of the martyrdom of St Alban. Kate also saw the puppets when they represented St Albans in the Worms Backfischfest parade in August.

Christine Lawrence

Christine is now firmly part of the business team and both foreign and English speakers benefit from the confidence they gain learning to produce those diphthong sounds which characterise the English language. Her expertise with poetry reading and duologues helps greatly with inflection which can affect the subtleties of expression and meaning. Christine also holds workshops for drama and improvisation, leading to the examinations of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Natalie, meantime, has helped clients through their business English qualifications, with Cambridge BEC as the target examination. An IELTS class also runs regularly at the St Albans School of Languages. Kate has given regular talks about the Mayoralty and the robes and mace which form the regalia associated with it, particularly to groups of foreign visitors, or residents new to St Albans both at schools and in the Council Chamber. She is specially well placed to understand what is of interest and the needs of newcomers to the city.

As part of her Mayoral duties, Kate held the annual Civic Service in the Cathedral on Sunday 7th October. To reflect the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of the St Albans community, she invited representatives of foreign speaking groups to present their national flag. Sixteen separate communities did this. Sachiko Wada carried the Japanese flag and Iris the Chinese one.

This year it was Canterbury’s turn to parade the original Magna Carta. As Mayor of St Albans, Kate was invited to take part in the procession and the service at Canterbury Cathedral. It was a wonderful occasion with much pomp and ceremony. The next time it will be paraded in St Albans will be in 2013, the 850th anniversary of the original draft which was made here at the Abbey.

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