Bringing a community together - Learning more about English as a Second Language (ESL)

Part of the job of being Rural Chaplain is to "keep your eyes open and your ear to the ground," (or 'your eyes and ears open' as demonstrated above) which is why Phill's on a keep fit program walking the dog and Julie bikes,kayaks and does yoga so that the difficult position of "keeping your eyes open and your ear to the ground,"can be maintained.In this way no opportunities are missed if something can be done in a community to make things just that bit better for the people living there.

That is how Julie had the idea of ESL classes in Hillston. With her eyes open she saw the numbers of  Mandarin,Cantonese,Vietnamese,Korean and Hindi speakers in Hillston. These are community members who have settled here and who work usually in restaurants or on farms. Some are here with their whole nuclear families,others are the spouses of  longer term Hillston locals. They are a vital part of our community but find it difficult to mix widely, or sometimes even get work, because they do not have enough English. Most Anglos in Hillston,even in Australia generally, only speak English so some knowledge of English is required by everyone else if they are to mix outside their own ethnic group.

Hillston's picturesque main street where Sue put her feet to the ground.

Keeping her ear to the ground meant that when Julie met up with an ESL TAFE manager she pricked up her ears (as demonstrated above top) and asked lots of questions.What she found was a very co-operative person willing to offer classes to potential tutors and community members interested in knowing more about speaking to ESL speakers and in supporting ESL students as they learn English.

Sue then put her feet on the ground and ask around to see who in Hillston was interested. It was not hard to get the numbers. There was a huge interest so a workshop is planned for this year, to be held, hopefully, before the Hillston Sesquicentenary celebrations in late September.

                     Keep your ears and eyes open for more news on this in the blog.