A free conversational cafe to help speakers of other languages to learn English has been relaunched at a busy Lanarkshire venue.
Run by college lecturer Khadija Hadji, the fortnightly Saturday-morning sessions take place at Summerlee museum in Coatbridge and have so far had 20 people attending, including a number of refugees from Ukraine who have moved to North Lanarkshire.
They began their initial sessions by chatting about topics including Hogmanay traditions and Christmas crafts, and are lining up a host of plans including future guests, ceilidhs and even group trips.
Khadija had previously run a similar conversation cafe at the Coatbridge venue prior to the Covid lockdown and has now relaunched it to help language learners improve their English and communication skills.
She told Lanarkshire Live: “It’s been very popular already; there are people in the group from Ukraine, Poland and Pakistan, and it’s all about practising language skills, mingling together and doing something in the community.
“We asked on the first day what people wanted to learn and be able to converse about and they were all really keen to learn everything about Scottish culture; so we spoke about all the Hogmanay traditions and found there are similar things to first footing to bring good luck to the house in other countries.
“This month we’re going to be looking at Robert Burns and even ceilidh dancing, and group members would like to be able to do things like to go the cinema together.”
Starting its fortnightly meetings in December, the language cafe sessions so far have included a special one on Christmas Eve featuring festive crafts for youngsters led by student volunteers from New College Lanarkshire as well as the new year discussions.
Khadija, who teachers English for Speakers of Other Languages at the Coatbridge campus of New College Lanarkshire, wanted to provide an extra and informal conversation space for learners – and hopes that volunteers from across the local community will get involved by sharing their skills.
She said: “There are people from Ukraine who have travelled from other parts of North Lanarkshire to come to the sessions, which is amazing; it’s a hub where we can focus on speaking about culture and what people want to say.
“The new arrivals from Ukraine want to meet and to speak with locals as they’re interested in the culture and the sounds of the Scottish accent and dialect, so everybody is welcome and we’re reaching out to the wider community to join in.
“I’d love for volunteers to come forward who are interested in becoming conversation tutors; there are so many different nationalities in my class and they wanted something like this where they can go to talk to other people.”
The next two conversation cafes take place on January 21 and February 4, from 10am to noon at Summerlee, and continue every alternate Saturday – allowing participants to “start communicating and have fun playing and practising English through listening, talking and some communication tasks”.
The venue is an “amazing space” beside the tram shed at the Coatbridge heritage attraction, where Khadija is a committee member with the Summerlee transport group and arranged use of the venue with museum manager Lu McNair.
Each session includes free tea, coffee, cake and biscuits thanks to donations from Tesco in Coatbridge, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons at Glasgow Fort and Lanarkshire firm Tunnock’s.
*Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
And did you know Lanarkshire Live had its own app? Download yours for free here.
