The club is developing rapidly. Now 100-150 people on the average come to each meeting, including native speakers. We discuss a wide range of issues, exchange impressions about one’s journeys, English movies, books, arts, politics, and everyday life. The spirit of the Club has helped its members to find not only a lovely conversation but also new friends. We intend to keep up our development: we are still searching for new places, new people, new friends, new forms of activities with the use of English language. So we established contacts with the Library of Foreign Literature, with Department of the English Speaking Union.
We have initiated a number of joint activities, such as holidays, festivals, cultural events, lectures and debates in the English language. If you meet a person in your city speaking English fluently – be sure, he is a member of this club. Shall it go further? Who knows. We expect more parties, picnics, birthdays, concerts…
For refugees and asylum seekers the club offers English practice and some basic English teaching together with quite a lot of orientation and cultural input plus fun, welcome and friendship.
For volunteers it provides an opportunity to get to know people from around the world, to develop understanding and empathy with refugee issues, and to make a positive contribution.
It is perhaps due to the initiating group’s emphasis on friendship that the conversation club has developed the way it has.
Activities: The branches of our tree are spreading into the whole of the Sheffield community. The Peak Park have funded and joined us for walks into the Peak District. Local schools invite our members to talk to their students. We encourage the many skills of our members by producing newsletters, film discussions, forming links with other community groups. We broaden horizons by organising cultural outings to museums, films, other cities, archaeology sites, exhibitions, ……
The list is determined by the energy of our members – both volunteers and English learners.
