Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Chat on the menu at new international cafe
JUDITH TONNER
There will be an international flavour at Summerlee this Saturday with the launch of a new “conversational cafe” for learners of English.
Languages lecturer Khadija Hadji will be running the new weekly session, aiming to help her students from Coatbridge’s college campus to improve their skills.
She teaches English for Speakers of Other Languages ( ESOL) at New College Lanarkshire’s base on Kildonan Street, and has set up the sessions of talk and tasty treats following requests from her classes.
Anyone interested in joining in the conversation sessions is welcome to attend, and Khadija hopes that new volunteers will also come forward who are interested in helping as oneto-one English conversation tutors.
Khadija told the Advertiser: “My students had been saying that they didn’t have anything on a Saturday or anywhere they can go to practice their skills; I did some research and most said they’d love to come along to something like this.
“They wanted something like this where they can go to talk to other people – there are so many different nationalities in my class, with people from Poland, Syria, Moldova, Pakistan and Spain.
“We’ll be using the picnic hut at Summerlee and there will be free tea, coffee and cake; the first date this Saturday is an open day and then the aim is to run activities every week after that.”
Khadija was able to arrange use of the Summerlee space after speaking to manager Lu McNair while at the Coatbridge museum – where she volunteers as a trainee tram driver with its dedicated transport group.
She said: “My brother, Peter Gellatly, and I love trams and wanted to see if we could get involved as volunteers at Summerlee, and now I’ve been part of the transport group for over a year.
“There’s been six months of planning into the language cafe, waiting to see what I could do and what places I could use, and Lu offered a great space here when I approached her.
“It’s for all the community and is open to anybody who wants to come and have a chat; and I’m also looking for volunteers who’d like to help by having one-to-one conversations.
“This is something I wanted to establish for my students and the wider community, and then hope they it can be handed over to them.”
S a t u r d a y ’s languages conversation cafe at Summerlee runs from 11am until 1pm.