In this issue
1 Front Cover Picture: Dick Chapman Watford U3A
Sources is published by: The Third Age Trust
19 East Street, Bromley BR1 1QE
Tel: 020 8466 6139 E-mail: [email protected]
Sources is copyright and circulated only to U3A members
Nothing may be reproduced without permission
3 Help From The Specialists: Heather Westrup
4 Russian Round A Dining Table: Dorothy Newman
5 Vocabulary Games: Heather Westrup
6 Languages At Chiltern U3A
In the next issue
Alan Ede : Pam Fiddimore : Christopher Cooke
The theme of the next issue in June 2014 (No 52) will be
Indoor Activities (see below).
For Issue No 53 in Sept 2014 the focus will be on:
History (All Aspects).
Graham Lewis : Gerlinde Dunkley : Neil Young
8 Resource Centre News: Susan Radford
9 SLP Update: Jennifer Anning
Contributions are considered for inclusion by an editorial panel.
For No 52 please submit them not later than 25 April – via the
national office or direct to the editor at:
Gelt Mill House, Castle Carrock, Brampton CA8 9NQ
You can send them by e-mail to [email protected]
(preferred), on CD or cleanly typed suitable for scanning. Every
effort will be made to acknowledge them. Contributors are
advised to discuss their story with the editor before submission
or request a copy of our writers guidelines.
10 St Barbe Museum SLP: Ann Kelly/Hilvary Robinson
How to receive Sources
13 Spanish At Bromley: Alyn Roberts
ources is published in January, June and September. Back
numbers can be viewed online and printed. Visit the Third
Age Trust website at www.u3a.org.uk. You will need Adobe
Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded free.
14 Esperanto: Mike Wade
Feedback
17 Beginners Welsh: Barry Parkin
9 U3A National Summer Schools 2014
9 U3A Online Courses 2014
11 Royal Philatelic Society SLP: Pricilla Macpherson
12 The Fair Maid’s House SLP: Philip Bryers
13 Italian For Fun: John Graham
S
15 Deutsch Für De Äldelie: Mike Bench
16 Kindling The Italian Flame: Kevin Daniels
19 Life In A French Group: Richard Owen
f you have any comments on topics in this issue please write
to the editorial panel, c/o U3A National Office or e-mail the
editor at: [email protected] Tel: 01228 670403
Note that the views expressed within are those of the
contributors and not those of the Third Age Trust.
I
ast September I ran a
study day in Clitheroe
for the North West Region.
The subject was Magazine
Journalism and it was so
rewarding to speak with
people who are keen to see
their work published.
Maybe one day I will do a
national study day and if so
I would point out that one of
the best targets for their
articles is Sources.
The stories that appear in
these pages are usually
written by group leaders,
but they don’t have to be.
L
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
19 The Snake Is Under The Bed: Maggie Gravelle
19 La Bella Lingua: Martin Shirley
20 Walk ’n’ Talk German: Dick Chapman
In my view
I know there are dozens
of conveners who would
like to tell our readers
about
their
group’s
activities but maybe don’t
have the writing skills.
They could collaborate
with someone who has.
The groups would then be
featured in our magazine
and the writer would gain
valuable experience and
the satisfaction of seeing
their article in print.
Anyone interested in this
approach is welcome to
phone me to discuss it or to
e-mail me for my writers
guidelines.
You can also visit the
Sources section on the
U3A website to view back
issues to gain an insight
into content and style.
Our next issue focusses
on Indoor Activities which is
primarily about games.
There could be others that
you are not sure about so
please contact me with
your ideas.
2
Editor
Arts and Crafts is not
included. This is a separate
subject which is dealt with
on its own.
Now that we are into
2014, I would like to thank
everyone for their efforts
during 2013 – and wish a
Happy New Year to the
panel members and to my
U3A friends, especially
Heather and members of
the Carlisle U3A Uke Group.
Help From The
Language Specialists
If there are 100 ways to kill a cat there must be
almost as many ways to learn languages. I have
experienced several.
I
t Italy, the charming owners of the
shops in the village where I lived
often went through their stock
naming things for me. They laughingly
corrected my pronunciation and praised
my progress.
In Geneva as a new wife, after five
years of grammar explanation, learning
lists of vocabulary and translating
classical texts, I survived anti-natal clinic
and had two babies in French. In six
months I was pretty fluent.
In Holland they said: “Don’t bother!”
and in one shop I was severely told in
English: “Speak your own language!”
At some lessons I attended we did
exercises but were never taught how to
get them right. I had a long ‘silent
period’ (a feature of first language
learning – think how toddlers learn),
gave up formal classes and learnt instead
to do flower arranging, to spin and weave
and play tennis (in Dutch).
I am also indebted to my home help
and my neighbour who never recognised
that I barely understood them as they
chatted away. Now when I go back as a
tourist the Dutch are amazed that I
managed to learn their language.
Why did I bother? Clearly ‘immersion’
is effective. Research tells us too that
taking a lover who speaks only the target
language is the optimum method, but few
members can take up that option!
Have these helped me in my role as a
language adviser? Yes, a lot. I am deeply
interested in how the learning environment affects our progress. U3A language
learners have little in common, except
they are older and usually learn in an
informal situation.
Group members often vary in their
previous exposure to the language, their
needs and motivation, their ability to
remember new words and phrases, their
flair for grammar and their courage to
plunge into what is almost a new persona
making new sounds.
All this makes for a fascinating
challenge. We cannot turn anyone away
on any account. Well, some groups do
insist on certain entry levels but small
U3As with only one class for each
language cannot avoid being of mixed
ability. And what of those who cannot
find a ‘teacher’ (some don’t want one).
How can we possibly hope to succeed?
And yet we do. Conversation groups
abound. Groups remain intact for years
meeting every week. We must be getting
something right!
Our questionnaire (page 14) confirms a
vibrant population of learners and
provides us with a broad base of
information to distribute to our enquirers.
It has confirmed that groups like to
think they are part of a network of
learners ready to exchange ideas.
Requests for special leaflets and
website hits for information have
escalated remarkably. You can find them
through the National Website (Advice) or
we will send them to you directly.
We’d appreciate feedback on them and
receiving any other ideas you’d like us to
investigate.
What of the future? Joyce Gibson’s
general pamphlet on language learning
and the one on running conversation
groups are still relevant. Her leaflet on
courses and exchanges abroad will soon
be checked and updated. Let us know if
you have any contacts we could include.
We possibly need leaflets on running
mixed ability and self-help groups. The
break-out group at the conference in
Nottingham this year, examining the
U3A self-help model, in particular for
language groups, provided a good basis
for this.
Our languages newsletter will continue
to act as a forum. Send us your requests,
successes and special moments. We will
include articles that might interest you.
Don’t forget, we now have three
language specialists...
3
Heather Westrup
Languages Network Adviser
Sylvia Duffy deals with French
[email protected]
Dorothy Newman with Russian
[email protected]
Trevor Davies with Latin
[email protected]
You can find them on the National
Website. I attempt to deal with all other
languages and general enquiries.
We look forward to hearing from you
and possibly meeting you at Study Days.
[email protected]
These leaflets are available from the
Language Advisers. You can
download them from the National
Website (go to Advice) or get in
touch with the advisers and they will
send them to you.
A Starting a Language Group
B Finding a Language Group
C A Guide to Books and Materials
for Language Learning
D A Guide to Books and Materials
for French
E A Guide to Books and Materials
for Italian
F Newsletter No 1 for Language
Groups - August 2013
G Russian Language Groups
Newsletter
H Advice on U3A French
(intermediate and advanced)
I Newsletter No 2 Oct 2013
J Ideas for Conversation
by Joyce Gibson
K Language Courses and
Exchange Possibilities
L Some Advice on Learning
Languages
M Language levels of the Common
European Framework
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
Dorothy Newman
Princes Risborough U3A
U3A National Adviser
for Russian Language
hen I say that we have a
Russian group in the Princes
Risborough and District U3A,
people are often surprised. They make
comments about how difficult a language
it is to learn and they assume we are just
a small group.
We have ten members but only three of
those members are from the local U3A.
We make full use of the cooperative
aspect of the U3A and welcome
participants from other local – and not so
local – U3As where there is no provision
for Russian.
The make-up of our group is similar to
several others I have visited and includes
two gentlemen who studied Russian in
the forces years ago.
The other members of the group have
various reasons for their interest and
enthusiasm. One of them is Danish and
leads another U3A group.
Another is a former computer
consultant who took Russian at school
and, as a licensed radio amateur,
practises the language on shortwaves
with Russian amateurs.
Two go on geological visits to Russia
and one of these reads as much Russian
literature as she can. One lady is from
Poland, one man has Russian in-laws,
and one is a former teacher of Russian.
I am the group leader and have points
in common with several of the others,
having started Russian at school, used
Russian at work and done some teaching.
The group has been running for four
W
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
years and the standard has risen
considerably during this period.
We meet twice a month. One is a
language session based on the popular
Ruslan series of Russian textbooks and
the other is a reading session.
We are currently struggling with a
Chekhov play!
We are at an upper intermediate level
and we make good use of the experience
within the group as well as of our
weighty dictionaries. The sessions are
relaxed and friendly even if the language
is challenging.
If you are thinking you would like to
learn Russian but do not know anyone
else who speaks the language then it is
possible to start from scratch with two or
three and learn together.
It helps if there are people in the group
who speak other languages – German
and Latin help with the case
system – and maybe have language
teaching experience.
If you already have some knowledge
of the language but think there may not
be enough other kindred spirits in your
4
group, look at the websites of other local
U3As to see if they have a group – or ask
them to advertise yours if you want to
increase numbers. Ours has benefited
greatly
from
these
reciprocal
arrangements.
As a footnote I would be pleased to
hear from any Russian groups that are
running within the U3A.
The most frequent enquiry I have as an
adviser is from people who want to know
where their nearest group is.
[email protected]
Back: Ian Wade, Yan Christensen, Ken Foote
Seated: Danni Wotton, Dorothy Newman,
Chris Peeler, Geoff Youd
By Heather Westrup : Sarratt U3A
I
f there is one thing we are good at in the Sarratt (Herts) U3A
Italian Group it is vocabulary. Seven of us have been
together for five years and it is impossible to say how many
words we know, but give us a Graded reader with vocabulary
confined to 3,000 words and we’ll whizz through it.
We can talk about ourselves, our friends, our childhood, our
forays into town, our past professions, our future hopes, our
present houses, our dream houses and that’s only the beginning.
How do we do it when we are of an age when memory is
supposed to cause you problems? Well, like ballet dancers and
footballers, we practise, practise, practise. So that we don’t get
bored we recycle our sets of words using a range of activities
that keep us focused, involved and laughing.
Each member has a small vocabulary book. We are mixed
ability and we come with a different collection of words from
our past and a different rate of absorption and recall of new
items. Each person records only words which are new to them
so no list is identical.
They are not collected into topics or alphabetical order, just
the order in which they have been acquired. Sometimes we
begin a session by checking our new words in pairs in the good
old fashioned ‘rote’ way, later discussing the more interesting
and useful words or phrases with the rest of the group.
We work on topics (lexical sets) but also include grammatical
categories such as verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
As beginners, it was colours, rooms, food, items in the house.
Now we have progressed to complex descriptions of appearance
or character, verbs in recipes or adverbs of time or space.
We are low tech. We meet round a table in houses without
whiteboard or computer. Our aids are little cards or cut up
pieces of paper. Then teams can play a game and see who
finishes first. Here are some of our favourite games.
Matching: Make pairs of cards with opposing adjectives,
narrow/broad, light/dark, dishevelled/smart, (depending on
level). Write a translation on the back. Lay them randomly
(target language up) on the table. In turn players match pairs.
Now repeat with English uppermost. Players have to recall the
target language and make pairs. We also play this with
infinitives and irregular past participles, present tenses and
conditional equivalents.
Pelmanism: Make paired or opposite cards with target
vocabulary from any topic on one side only. Lay these face
down. Player one picks up a card, then a second (cards should
always be placed back in their original position). If they match
then that player keeps them. Next player repeats the process. At
the end, players have to make sentences with their winning
cards. A more demanding version is to pick up one, try to name
the opposite before trying to locate it.
Bingo: This is not just for numbers. We play it with adverbs
of place, imperatives, and lexical sets. To save anyone having to
make cards we put about 15 words from the set on pieces of
paper in the middle of the table. Each player draws a grid with
12 boxes in their own notebook and chooses 12 words to write
in their boxes.
Just some of the Sarratt group l-r: Ken Walker
Pam Easom, Jill Swainson and Anne Chalder
A caller calls out words from the collection (or definitions of
those words if you want to be clever) and players mark their
cards with crosses till one gets Bingo.
It is better practice to write the English word and call in the
target language and later do the reverse. Doing both in the target
language is good listening practice but does not engage the
brain or aid the memory.
Word Searches: We begin a session by doing word
collections. In groups or all together we dredge up as many
words on a topic (professions, types of buildings, things with
wheels, words to do with health) as we can before using a
dictionary to make the number up to 12 or 15.
Now it is one person’s duty to make a word search to be
distributed for homework for the following session. Target
words go in the word search and translations in the clues. Once
again, definitions or opposites as clues can make our brains
work harder.
Pass the Bomb: This is our favourite game. It’s taken from a
commercial game of the same name. We make a pile of cards,
each naming a lexical set we have worked on. The first one is
turned up and called out, eg. Things That Fly.
The first player has to hold the bomb and name one item from
the set. The bomb, which ticks and has an intermittent buzzer, is
passed to the next player who names another item and so on
until the bomb ‘explodes’ and the person holding it looses a life.
(Players have three lives.)
We are trying to think of ways of making this game less warlike using a bell or timer.
Any suggestions?
We also play 20 Questions with items taken from recent
vocabulary collections. Again these are put on cards and the
person answering takes one and can answer only Yes or No.
This is a useful activity for practising phrases like:
“Is it made of (wood, metal, plastic, wool)?”
“Is it used for (cooking, painting, cutting, writing)?”
“Would you find it in a (house, factory, farm, bathroom)?”
This is a useful way of practising describing things when you
can’t remember the word.
This can happen even with all the practising in the world.
5
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
Spanish
Alan Ede
hen we started Spanish for Beginners nearly
three years ago we were floundering. We had
no tutor, no Spanish-speaking member, a reluctant
convenor (me) and on top of that, we met only once
a month.
At that time we had no alternative but to ‘self-learn’ using books and
a set of CDs. There was little structure to the sessions, but despite all
that we had fun.
Two years later we gained two tutors (Carolyn and Basil) and things
started to take off. We now meet twice a month and there is a structure
to the sessions. It’s harder work, but above all, we still have fun.
We have not ventured far afield as yet, except for Christmas Lunches
in a Spanish restaurant. Apart from hoping to develop into fluent
Spanish speakers, our future plans include visiting a local Tapas Bar
and holding a quiz in Spanish. Our group is pictured below.
W
Greek
Pam Fiddimore
ake a closer look at an interesting and rich language. You already
know many of their words without realising it. One in four words
which make up the English Language is Greek or of Greek origin. But
Greek is considered difficult to comprehend, hence the expression:
‘It’s all Greek to me!’
Here are a few examples of words in our language of Greek origin:
amnesia, atmosphere, bible, catharsis, democrat, antithesis, thesaurus,
idiom, hormone, lyric, anthropology, paradox, pathology, phobia,
sympathy, phenomenon, trauma, utopia. And there are many more in
use everyday.
So without knowing it you are already using Greek. However, there
is of course grammar, verbs with various tenses, pronunciation and
conjugation, never mind the vocabulary.
Greek is thankfully a more logical and phonetic language than
English and we have coped with that.
Those of us who love Greece and its delightful islands for holidays
know of the generous and welcoming nature of the people – how they
embrace visitors to their beautiful and historic country and love sharing
their ancient and modern cultures.
Filoxenia is a Greek word meaning ‘hospitality to visitors’. Even a
little knowledge of their language and culture will please and amaze.
As a group, we are eager to learn more of their history, literature,
music, mythology and even their politics. We exchange news,
discussions and lessons with our native Greek Tutor to better converse
and communicate when we go to Greece.
Monthly lessons are lively, rewarding and fun!
We have yet to try Greek Dancing. It is not on our current programme
but never dismiss the resourcefulness of U3A members.
T
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
6
Russian
Christopher Cooke
e have six students under the
tutelage of Jean Milnes. Our
meetings on the second Monday of
each month have been augmented by
an extra session the following
Monday. This has greatly improved
the continuity which learning a language requires.
The Cyrillic alphabet is quite a challenge. We have
pretty well mastered the printed characters and have
moved on to joined-up writing. And we can now smile
when told by a returning traveller that the best place to
eat in Moscow is an establishment called Pectopah.
While most of us are beginners, we have recently been
joined by Magdalena, originally from Hungary, who, as
a child learnt Russian. Now that the language is not
compulsory she has chosen to give it another go.
Our main topics include numbers and Russian names.
We can count up to 199 and know how to address
President Putin properly (Владимир Владимирович).
We have started to decline our nouns and are much
exercised by the Genitive case which tends to be used
widely in Russian.
We have also directed ourselves and others between
the centre of Москва and Шереметьево airport. This,
with the counting, will help Jackie who is shortly off to
Russia. Who knows, she might even meet Mr Putin.
We looked at the history and culture of Russia. We
have had two sessions on the origins of the Russian
people and, having come across the Vakhtangova
Theatre in our classroom peregrinations about Moscow,
we have learnt something about Yevgeny Vakhtangov,
the famous actor and theatre director.
We have also encountered the Soviet-era poet Samuel
Marshak (1887-1964). We are presently studying his
poem Mister Twister which recounts the travels of an
American businessman and general all-round plutocrat.
Perhaps it was works like this, masterpieces of Soviet
Socialist Realism, which endeared him to Stalin or at
least allowed him to survive ‘Uncle Joe’ and die in bed.
We are enjoying this strange but widely-spoken
language. Whether we will tackle formal qualifications
with the attendant pressure remains to be seen.
W
German
Gerlinde Dunkley
ur group consists of enthusiastic,
interested and motivated people with
varied backgrounds, experiences and
knowledge. They have a good grasp of the
German language – a few have lived and worked in Germany,
others used German at their workplaces, and some have studied
German at university.
Each member presents a topic. Themes vary from politics,
history and current affairs to holidays, visits to the theatre,
cinema and so on. For example, one member talked about the
energy problems, global warming and recycling issues. Lively
discussions follow each topic.
Another member likes quoting classical poetry and reciting
from books. An opera enthusiast presented The Ring and
Lohengrin, appropriate to the 200th anniversary of Richard
Wagner’s birth.
Five members of Chiltern U3A joined the Anglo-German
walking group set up by Dick Chapman from Watford U3A. It
combines speaking German with walking through the Chilterns
each month. For the first seven miles, only German is spoken.
At the pub and for the rest of the walk English takes over.
We have links with the Inside German Group from South
Bucks U3A. This is an English speaking group that discusses all
things German.
We were invited to their Christmas Dinner of traditional food
(goose, dumplings and red cabbage) and also to their
midsummer celebration where German sausages, potato salad
and wheat beer were on the menu. Recently we joined with
them to celebrate their one-year anniversary.
As you can see, we have a holistic approach to German.
O
French
Graham Lewis
hen Chiltern U3A was founded, French
was one of the first activity groups. The
number of those interested has risen in line
with the increase in membership and there are now four
flourishing French groups.
The objective of members is to improve their ability to
converse. Most enjoy holidaying in France, some have family
living there and all have an interest in its life and culture.
If members are to interact during a meeting, each group must
have limited numbers. Meetings are informal and relaxed,
combining elements of socialising, entertainment, intellectual
stimulus and learning.
Most members studied French up to the old O level. At
meetings they try to speak only in French, accepting corrections
from the convenor for vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
Convenors must of course, limit their interventions, balancing
the desire to improve language with the encouragement of freeflowing talk.
Some groups use a grammar book and personally I consider it
important to devote attention to grammar. You need solid hard
work at learning and memorising, coupled with listening,
speaking and writing. I reject the idea that to learn a language
all you need to do is to listen to people speaking it and absorb it
with little work or study.
Having English as our first language, we are fortunate that we
don’t have to cope with difficulties common in other languages.
For example, there are few forms of our verbs.
The English verb ‘to be’ in the present tense has only three
different words: ‘am’, ‘is’ and ‘are’; and the verb ‘to have’ has
only two: ‘has’ and ‘have’. In the present tenses of their
equivalents, French, Italian, Spanish and Latin have six words
or endings and German has five. In all other tenses, there are
similar differences.
To speak correctly you have to learn them – but is it important
to be correct? Even in our simple English language such errors
as ‘we was’ are often heard, so maybe we ought not to worry
about similar errors in our use of foreign languages. However,
language learners should want to speak and write their new
language correctly.
According to French sources, the basic or 'active' vocabulary
of the average school student of around 16 years of age numbers
800-1,600 words and that of the average adult is 3,000 words.
The grammar book we use has a vocabulary of 1,500 most
frequently used words. Mastery of these would give
considerable competence in French and we are making progress
in this direction.
According to the European Survey on Language
Competences 2012: ‘Only 30% of English native speakers in
the UK can converse in a foreign language, compared to an EU
average of 54%’.
In our modest way at Chiltern U3A, we are contributing to an
improvement in this statistic.
W
Latin
Neil Young
espite my lack of knowledge in any sort
of depth the only way I was going to
join a Latin group was to convene it. Two
Chiltern Newsletters had come and gone in
2010 and nobody had come forward to start the Latin group.
My wife said: “Why don’t you do it? You like Latin.”
And so, with my 56-year-old Latin O level pass to my name,
I volunteered, and still have some of our original members. The
group continues to evolve because new members invariably
have something different to offer.
To start, we used a 70-year-old set of Practical Knowledge for
All, with a 12-lesson Latin course, a history of the Western
Empire and a brief for Roman archaeology.
We now use a book called Get Started in Latin. We have read
a small part of Caesar’s Gallic Wars; considered the Bayeux
Tapestry; studied the Pope’s resignation speech; solved
crosswords; and read poetry by Virgil ‘inter alia’.
During the three years, we have visited one Roman palace,
three Roman villas and also the Pompeii and Herculaneum
exhibition at the British Museum. Also, we have had
presentations on Roman Life and Times by Elaine Ring,
Deborah Conway Read, Sydney Howlett and David Turner.
Whether or not Latin was part of our search for knowledge in
the past, we hope to find something of interest for everyone.
D
7
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
The latest acquisitions
from manager
M
y last Sources article began by mentioning our new
online catalogue and it appears that there has been
some confusion regarding access. While I stated that
U3A members can browse without having to register with us,
which is the case, the link to the catalogue is located in the
Members Area of the U3A website. Users do need to login to
the Members Area before they can link to our catalogue. It is
easy to create your account for this by choosing a username
(often your email address) and password.
Our catalogue is the customer page of our library
management system, accessed by a user number, and this
system is separate from the U3A website. The National Office
is responsible for the website, and the Resource Centre is
responsible for the catalogue, and because they are two different
systems, there are two access requirements. If you need any
help with access we have a factsheet available.
The Resource Centre has material to assist language groups,
although it is not designed for running whole courses. We are
primarily a short-term loan service and the idea with most of our
language material is to provide items that groups can try out
before deciding to purchase their own copy.
Most material is aimed at beginners although we have some
for intermediate groups. We also provide foreign language films
with English subtitles for the more advanced.
The majority of our resources cover the most popular
languages: French, Spanish, Italian and German, but this year
we added Complete Welsh and Talk Portuguese. Latin is
becoming more popular and we have a few resources for this, as
well as for Russian, Greek, Old English and Mandarin Chinese.
Recent acquisitions include: Extra – En Espanol on DVD to
replace the video version; Read & Think Italian; Take Off in
Italian; Talk German 2; and a French magazine/CD called
Rendez-Vous.
There are recent film additions. In French: Amour; The
Grocer’s Son; Petit Nicolas; Untouchable; and The WellDigger’s Daughter. In Spanish: El Alma de Las Moscas; and
Elsa y Fred. And in Italian: Life is Beautiful; and Don Camillo
e L’onorevole Peppone.
Because we had a request for more Spanish films I have
ordered another ten films: Las Acacias; The Sea Inside;
Alamar; Biutiful; Bombon El Perro; Maria Full of Grace;
Caramel; Open Your Eyes; The Secret In Their Eyes; and
Captain Alatriste – The Spanish Musketeer.
As ever, please contact us for our Languages List or search
the catalogue. You can search by subject: click the down arrow
at the side of the box saying Basic Search and choose Subject.
Opera and Ballet continue to be popular. We have new items
in both areas. Some are new and some were requests for
different versions of existing titles. For Opera: Boulevard
Solitude (a version of Manon Lescaut); Cavalleria Rusticana &
Pagliacci; Falstaff; I Vespri Siciliani; The Barber of Seville;
Macbeth; and Rienzi & Simon Boccanegra.
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
In Ballet: Don Quixote; Return of the Firebird (Firebird,
Petrushka & Scheherazade); The Nutcracker; The Rite Of
Spring; and Ballets Russes.
In Gardening we have Alan at Highgrove where Alan
Titchmarsh meets The Prince of Wales, and three more in the
How To series: Create Ponds and Water Features; Create the
Perfect Lawn & Meadow; and Grow Fruit.
In Art we have added: Art Deco; Streamline Design; and
Georges Braque & Hockney. We also have: Klimt; Schiele;
Moser; Kokoschka; Vienna 1900; Cave of Forgotten Dreams
about cave paintings in Chauvet Cave; and Saved! A Century of
Art for Everyone about art works saved for the nation.
In other subjects we have: Chasing Ice, a stunning depiction
of changing glaciers; Human Body, The Musculoskeletal
System; London, A Tale of Two Cities by Dan Cruickshank;
Peter Ackroyd’s Venice; Rare and Unusual British Wildflowers;
and Music & Monarchy, a new series by David Starkey.
Also there are: The Last Shepherds; The Year of the Working
Sheepdog; The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive by Stephen
Fry; Shakespeare’s Sonnets; Six Centuries of Verse; and
Speeches That Changed The World. Full details of all titles are
online or you can contact us for more information.
Please note that our material is provided for educational use
in U3A groups and not for personal use or entertainment and is
only for loan, not for sale.
Susan Radford
Resource Centre Manager
The Third Age Trust
19 East Street, Bromley, Kent BR 1QE
Tel: 020 8315 0199
[email protected]
Open Mon-Thurs 9.30am-4pm
8
Jennifer Anning.
National SLP Coordinator
S
hared Learning Projects are
flourishing and at Conference we
had a presence in the exhibition
area and also presented a Break-out group.
It was a pleasure to meet so many members who had either
been involved in a project or were thinking of setting one up.
Some of you filled in a questionnaire for us and I have followed
up the queries. A number of people requested a presentation for
their U3A by their Regional SLP Contact.
If you are interested in starting a SLP, either with a museum
or other organisation or with another U3A, but would like to
receive some advice and ideas on how to go about doing so,
why don’t you contact your Regional SLP Contact? Their
details are on the SLP pages on the national website. Talks on
SLPs are sometimes included in Regional or Network meetings
so you could also look out for details of these events.
New ideas for projects are always emerging, so if you think a
project may be an SLP, why not ask me or your Regional
Contact? The model is flexible and can be applied to a wide
range of projects.
SLPs bring together people who might not otherwise know
each other to ‘share’ in projects which are worthwhile,
intellectually stimulating and enjoyable.
Why not approach a school to see if you can set up a project
with the pupils looking at for example, children’s literature; or
with a Care Home to carry out a reminiscence project?
U3As have worked with an historic aerodrome in Suffolk to
produce a leaflet of walks. They have restored a garden at a
Museum in Launceston and researched Georgian costumes to
create dressed figures of that period with a museum in London.
A U3A in Northern Ireland is embarking on a project with
teenage students at a school in Milan under a scheme launched
by the Italian government to encourage contact between the
younger and older generations and between Italian nationals
and nationals of other countries.
Funding for projects can be a
problem, particularly during a recession when many museums
have had their budgets cut. However Jennifer Simpson, SLP
Contact for the East Region, has recently been to a drop-in
session about Lottery Funding.
Lottery people are keen on WWI projects and there is still
time to apply for funding which will continue for four years.
U3As might set up a WWI project either involving local U3As
or with another body such as a local school, a museum or a
community centre.
Ideas for topics are as follows: the production of a schools
information pack or leaflet on WWI; a list of brief histories of
servicemen and women for a local community website; or a
display of local photos and histories that could be portable and
taken round and presented to schools, community groups and
organisations such as Women’s Institutes, Probus and
Soroptimists.
Have you looked at the redesigned National Website? The
SLP pages are looking good and give you the information you
will need to set up a project.
You can also access for yourselves the outcomes of some
projects with links to websites and PDF files of leaflets
produced at the end of a project.
However one page: ‘News from the Regions’ is blank. If you
would like others to know about your project whilst it is still
running, you can send me a couple of paragraphs plus a photo
to insert on this page. I would love to hear from you, and others
would benefit from seeing how you set up and how you are
managing your project.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome two
new SLP Regional Contacts: Mandy Topp for the East Midlands
and Bridget Farrer for the West Midlands. You will find their
details on the SLP web pages on the National Website.
Ri annual meeting Monday 24 March 2-5pm
U3A Online Courses 2014
The Royal Institution has lined up another
exciting programme for U3A members:
The conversational racetrack : Elizabeth Stokoe
Biological clocks : David Whitmore
Bubbles : Helen Czerski
Tickets £20 including refreshments
January: Short Stories (limited numbers)
April:
Anglo Saxon Poetry (min 16 subscribers)
England at the time of Chaucer
Six Impossible Things (Maths)
All In The Mind
Classical Gardens of Renaissance Italy
Fairy Tales
First World War: the Home Front
Dependent on demand: Just Before Victoria
U3A National Summer Schools 2014
Harper Adams University College Newport Shropshire 14-17 July
Ancient Civilisations of the Americas; Canal History; Cinema History;
Creative Writing; Current Affairs; Drama through the ages; France;
Latin; Philosophy; Recorder ensemble playing.
Cirencester Agricultural University 18-21 August
Arts & Crafts movement; Digital photography; Drama; Gardening;
Literature; Music; Poetry; Science; Singing.
All courses in April are available for up to 30 participants
Details for all events from National Office 0208 4666139 or
downloaded from u3a.org.uk/members area
These courses will be live, ie moderated, but others
will be offered for downloading as untutored.
Details are available from the U3A website
9
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
St Barbe Museum
A Shared Learning Project
Hilvary Robinson and Anne Kelly
S
t Barbe Museum in Lymington is
one of the finest museums and art
galleries in the region since
opening in its finished form in 1999.
It was an obvious choice for a Shared
Learning Project. St Barbe’s provided us
with a list of local topics to choose from.
We chose Wellworthy Ltd.
Why Wellworthy? Until it closed in
1989 it was the main employer of the
town, in its day employing more than
5,000 people. John Howlett founded his
company in 1919, and turned what had
been a failing garage into a worldrenowned piston ring manufacturer.
He was a man of great drive with a
strong work ethic and prided himself on
producing a sound product: innovating,
adapting and developing piston rings to
suit any engine.
During WWII, Wellworthy rings were
used in every operational aircraft engine
including: the Bristol, the Pegasus, the
Merlin and the Griffin. Leyland, Bedford
and Austin army trucks, and Brother
Torpedo engines also benefited from
Wellworthy piston rings. It was an
important company for Lymington and
during the War, for the country.
There are other publications about the
company but these are mainly about
technical developments and innovations.
We wanted to take a different tack, and
because we realised there were exemployees still living in Lymington, we
thought that oral histories would make an
interesting project.
There was a great family atmosphere
within the company, and when we spoke
to one member of the Wellworthy staff, it
opened the doors to others.
We spoke to eight and obtained oral
histories from seven. We began by
meeting with them, individually or in
pairs, to have an informal chat about
their memories and experiences.
Then having read through the notes
we’d taken, we sent them a resumé of the
aspects of our conversation that we felt
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
l-r: Eric Whitlock, Michael Mapes, Wilf Adams, Hilvary Robinson, Joe Grimshaw
Ian Mackay, Harold Hendey, Bob Monroe, Valerie Stride, Anne Kelly, Mark Tomlinson
would be interesting and appropriate. We
thought this would help us to get a
rounded and varied insight into the
company. They then returned to the
Museum where we recorded their
finalised version. They’d worked in
varied roles: Tool Room, Production,
Sales, Purchasing, Human Resources,
and Management.
Having assembled our collection of
oral histories (copies can be found in the
St Barbe Sound Archives and in the
Wessex Archives in Winchester), we
needed something more tangible,
something that could be easily available
to the public visiting the Museum.
St Barbe’s has a series of leaflets for
sale on local topics and we decided that
producing one of these, based on the
words used in the recordings, would be
perfect. It is now for sale at 50p a copy.
You can view the leaflet on the SLP
pages on the U3A website.
Lifelong friendships were made at
Wellworthy which endure to this day. It
was not uncommon for several members
of the same family to spend most of their
working lives with the company.
10
One had his wife, father, brother,
cousin, father-in-law, mother-in-law, two
aunts, and two uncles working at
Wellworthy.
We learned about the social activities
in the company: football, fishing, cricket,
a brass band, children’s Christmas parties
and works outings, and also how
working practices had altered during the
70 years of its existence in Lymington.
Many employees went to work by
bike, and we were amused to hear that at
noon, traffic made way for the swathe of
Wellworthy cyclists tearing down the
High Street on their way home to lunch.
This enjoyable project culminated in
our presentation at the Museum for the
contributors. They were each presented
with a copy of their own oral history, a
copy of the leaflet and a letter of thanks
from the Museum Director, who gave a
personal vote of thanks for their efforts.
Wellworthy touched local lives and
was such an important employer in the
town. We are pleased to have shared
some of the memories and to have been
involved with providing some new
records for future generations.
Royal Philatelic Society London
Project Leader
Priscilla Macpherson
A Shared Learning Project
I
n January 2013 the U3A commenced a
project with the Royal Philatelic
Society London (RPSL), following a
request from the Collections Manager Mark Copley. Mark had
previously worked at the Horniman Museum where the U3A
ran a successful project in 2011.
Mark had recently joined RPSL and his immediate need was
to do something with the large (300+) but neglected collection
of exhibition medals – some dating back more than 100
years – that were stored in biscuit tins. This would tidy up one
of the Society’s important collections and contribute towards
the museum’s goal of receiving full museum accreditation.
RPSL is a small museum with 3,500 artefacts located in an
elegant listed building in the West End. There was limited space
so we had to restrict the number of people on the project. We
recruited five volunteers, and four had specific philatelic
connections.
The subject matter – exhibition medals – was narrow, yet the
project enabled volunteers to: see how they linked into the remit
of the archive (which covers not just stamps, but general postal
history); see metal analysis being conducted on the medals (by
a PhD student from UCL); visit Stampex (a stamp exhibition in
Islington); and learn the basics of designing and setting up
museum displays.
The plan was to research the development of medal design.
Initial cataloguing included completing standard forms,
photographing the medals and packing them into museumstandard boxes.
This was necessary to get to grips with the collection. It was
decided to split into two groups: one to focus on the collection
of 70 medals (newly-donated to take advantage of the project)
which had belonged to the eminent philatelist and former RPSL
president Francis Kiddle; and the other to focus on the general
collection.
For the Kiddle collection, the medals were catalogued and
photographed, and the volunteers interviewed Francis Kiddle
about his career. They supplied an edited CD of the audio
interview to the museum as oral history.
The museum plans to extend this project further, possibly
with U3A assistance. For the general collection, volunteers
chose a favourite medal and composed some short text for the
display cases.
Some volunteers working from home assisted Mark with
building up databases on the medals, useful for identifying gaps
to assist the future collecting of medals and related
memorabilia, for example: exhibition brochures known as
Palmares (which list medal winners).
At the penultimate meeting, the groups prepared displays for
the cases which are used for temporary exhibits around the
museum. On the final meeting day, we set up the cases, which
included one about the project and the U3A, as well as
focussing on aspects of our research.
11
The group conducting an initial review of the medals
One of the final displays
We gave a tour to guests from the U3A as well as
representatives from the museum and the President and VicePresident of the Society. The displays ran for a month and were
well-received.
From the U3A project leader’s perspective it was rewarding
to see how the work contributed to RPSL, whilst tapping into
the interests of the participants. One of the volunteers was
inspired to dig out his old art stamp collection, bringing a few
to show us. Another with no philatelic background ended up
taking friends to Stampex and even purchasing some stamps.
RPSL and the U3A hope that the project will lead to future
donations and possibly funding, as well further projects in the
coming years.
We thank Mark and the RPSL for the opportunity to work in
their elegant surroundings and learn about the work of the
museum and archive.
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
The Fair Maid’s House
I
t began with a chance remark by a speaker at our
Community Affairs group. He was outlining the historical
and archaeological investigations associated with the
restoration of Perth’s oldest surviving secular building for
occupation by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS)
and he said: “There’s a lot we don’t know about the building.”
We took the hint and some months later nine U3A members
started a journey of discovery. We have worked in partnership
with the RSGS whose hospitality for meetings has given us a
good feel for the premises. The Fair Maid’s house is now a
vibrant and informative place visited during the summer months
by tourists and local people, and used heavily by school groups.
Blackfriars Monastery originally owned the land, and there is
a remnant of medieval wall visible within the combined
adjacent premises of The Fair Maid’s House and Lord John
Murray’s House. At one time Perth was a prominent centre for
making and exporting gloves. The Glover Incorporation of
Perth used the loft in the house for their meetings for a long
time. They purchased the property in 1629 and met there until
they acquired a new Glovers Hall many years later.
It was Sir Walter Scott who immortalised the house through
his fictional maid Catharine Glover in his novel The Fair Maid
of Perth published in 1828.
The more recent history of the house has been mixed, serving
as an art gallery at one time and steadily falling into disrepair
until its recent resurgence.
Our aim at the start of the Shared Learning Project was to
provide a brief guide to The Fair Maid’s House for the benefit
of visitors. Some years earlier such a guide had been prepared
but a local historian advised us of flaws in it and we hoped to
produce something a little more comprehensive.
Most of us had no prior experience of archival research so we
went to the archivist who gave us an introduction and helped us
find our way round the relevant documentation. This activity
has proved fascinating – even for some of us, addictive!
An Archaeological Watching Brief on the property had been
produced in February 2011 and, in association with the
archaeologist who prepared it, we have pieced together
historical narratives from surviving evidence.
We soon discovered the existence of artefacts connected with
the Glovers and the trail led us to the present-day members of
the Glover Incorporation, whose ‘new’ hall is still used for their
half-yearly meetings and is home to several interesting items.
Using our new-found archiving skills we have explored the
Glovers archives with their support, and we hope to make their
history known more widely.
Our trail led us inevitably to Sir Walter Scott. His novels may
be little read today and there is much dubiety about where fact
and fiction begin and end in them. But without his Fair Maid of
Perth it is possible that the house would not exist today.
Hot on the heels of the novel, a play arrived in the theatre, and
since its first run to enthusiastic audiences in Perth in 1828,
there have been at least two revivals of it: in 1932 as part of
Walter Scott Centenary celebrations; and most recently in 1967.
As an aside, we came across records of a memorial plaque in
the hills above Perth at a spot known as Scott’s View. All we
found was some broken fencing which once enclosed the stone.
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
Philip Bryers
Perth U3A
A Shared Learning Project
Restored in 2010-11
Dating in part from 1475
We have spoken to the Heritage Routes project of Scotways
about the possibility of restoration.
We strayed from our initial intentions as the project led us in
unexpected directions. We still hope to produce a visitors guide,
but we have accumulated so much additional material that there
is potential for a more substantial publication too. Over and
above this, we have acquired new skills and enhanced our
knowledge of fascinating aspects of Perth’s history.
Although we adhered to the basic formal guidance on Shared
Learning Projects, we also took our own decisions as we went
along. By being open to going where the evidence led we have
enriched the experience of working as a group – as well as
getting within striking distance of tangible outcomes, albeit not
quite those we initially anticipated.
We commend to others with a sense of adventure the concept
of: A Shared Learning Project as a magical mystery tour!
12
Italian For Fun
Singing and Going Native
John Graham : Lewes U3A
Turandot, Donna e Mobile, Nozze di Figaro have
featured in Lewes U3A’s Italian for Fun classes.
e are lucky enough to have an enthusiastic opera buff in
the form of our inspirational Italian teacher Anna
Carasso, who hails from Cuneo in the Piemonte region. The
transcript of the songs features napolitano – the original
language some of the time – alongside the words in Italian and
finally, the translation into English.
The final ten minutes of the weekly, two-hour classes are
devoted to singing a pre-selected song, aided by a CD featuring
its professional performance. Whilst the quality of the singing
falls a long way short of qualifying for an audition at nearby
Glyndebourne – there are no Pavarottis or Bryn Terfels in the
class – the benefit of analysing the transcript is a considerably
increased vocabulary.
The other excellent spin-off from Anna Carasso’s roots in
Cuneo is the exchange visits that have taken place during the
last two years. In 2012, ten of the Italian class from Lewes were
billeted with Anna’s friends scattered around Cuneo. Italian was
the lingua franca at all times.
During the week’s visit, which featured walking tours,
sampling the local wines, several memorable meals and trips to
W
Spanish at Bromley
Alyn Roberts : Bromley U3A
have the pleasure of being the leader
of our Intermediate Spanish Group in
U3A Bromley. It started some 20
years ago as a beginners group when I
began my retirement from fulltime
teaching of Spanish.
Every week I look forward to meeting
its members who have so much to contribute from their
experiences of Spain and Latin America.
Membership has remained at a steady dozen which is
about the limit our houses can accommodate. Taking it in
turns to meet in our homes means we don’t have to pay a
hiring fee for our venue.
In spring and summer however, we seldom have a full
complement because maybe a member is away for a week or
two in Spain or Latin America. When they are away we have
an unwritten rule that he or she must send us a postcard.
On the basis of ‘use it or lose it’, and that there is always
something to be learnt or revised or practised, we invest in a
course book from time to time, and I would be glad to hear
of any books that other groups have found useful.
We started with the BBC course España Viva, followed by
Paso doble, and we progressed to Sueños Books I and II.
I
The Lewes U3A Italian Class and members of Cuneo U3A
Turin and the Liguria coast, contact was made with Cuneo’s
equivalent of U3A.
A group from there made a trip to Lewes in May 2013.
Although several of them were less interested in speaking
English – good news for students of Italian with more chances
to speak Italian – some warm friendships were formed.
The week’s visit was similarly full in terms of activities: trips
to London and Brighton; an introduction to the local Harveys
beer; a tour of the town brewery; and several evenings of
enjoyable eating and drinking in hosts’ houses.
A number of Lewesians learning Italian have been invited by
their grateful U3A Cuneesi friends for some reciprocal
hospitality and further immersion in their language next year.
We can’t wait!
Then we discovered Es español 3 (nivel avanzado). But
course books go out of date and DVDs are expensive.
The book we are using at present is Perfect your Spanish
in the Teach Yourself series by Juan Kattán-Ibarra. It was
called Improve your Spanish, which is a more honest and
justifiable title. However, it is quite thorough and has an
accompanying CD which gives good practice for listening
and comprehension.
A piece of equipment which I have acquired is a
photocopier which I find invaluable. I may use it to
reproduce a newspaper article which I give to the group to
read and study for discussion the following week, or I may
photocopy an extra exercise that I think could be useful to
reinforce a grammatical point. For example: a language
laboratory drill from my full time teaching days.
The days are gone when the teacher relied on a single
textbook. I must say my group is generous and members
insist on reimbursing me for the cost of the photocopies.
Again, I would like to hear about what other groups do in the
way of teaching equipment.
I also like to introduce a bit of culture from time to time,
without wishing to turn the group into a Spanish Lit. class.
We have read, for example, Requiem por un campesino
español, by Ramón Sender, and La mortaja by Miguel
Delibes, or a short story to be read for a couple of weeks.
I enjoy leading this group because although they may show
a rebellious spirit (which I tell myself is only in jest) they are
quite tolerant, and we think of it as a weekly social occasion.
13
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
By Mike Wade
Rye & district U3A
N
ews headlines and their unhappy
content raise concerns about how
we as a worldwide family fall
short of applying our enormous
collective knowledge (as discussed in
such friendly fashion in U3A groups) in a
practical way to mitigate or overcome
such sad situations.
This brought to mind a U3A group that
was learning Esperanto. I was reminded
of this fascinating language by the
appearance of a report on its use for
improving language learning in primary
schools.
The issue of just how we learn
language is an ongoing subject of
academic debate, and a recent report on
Esperanto as a starter language for child
second-language learners in the primary
school by Angela Tellier, shines new
light on to a subject of interest to us all.
Most U3A members have children who
are bringing up children, while
attempting to ensure that they have a
good educational start. With growing
recognition of the need for children in
today’s international world to have a
second, third or fourth language, this
research into how this can be facilitated
is a useful contribution to the debate.
Some of us can remember the rather
difficult task of learning Latin, and
perhaps also the sad realisation that the
time spent on achieving any linguistic
competence was never going to be
rewarded by its use in any live situation.
The argument usually given was that
Latin gave us good preparation for
recognising the word roots that we
needed to know when we learned other
European languages. Esperanto is a
living language in use today by a
community of speakers all over the
world, and originates from a proposal by
Ludvik Zamenhof in 1887.
It combines common word roots from
classical Latin and modern European
languages with regular grammar and
word formation. This leads to much
quicker and easier achievement of
competence, and ultimately fluency,
compared with other languages. So the
traditional benefits of a grounding in
Latin have in a sense been retained
within Esperanto.
The great advantage of Esperanto is
that the time spent learning it prepares
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
Esperanto
Networking Its Experience Across the World Family
the child with a much easier path into the
learning of its next language. The
benefits which can derive from learning
Esperanto arise from the ease with which
speakers can learn how to express
themselves, a considerable hurdle with
most other languages, but with its regular
word construction and syntax, not such a
barrier in the case of Esperanto.
Having achieved this in Esperanto, the
difficulties in learning the next language
are more surmountable. Because U3A
members see education as a lifelong
process, anything that improves
children’s success in second language
learning is something of interest to us.
The U3A general age group often has
more time than their own children
struggling with the day-to-day effort of
child rearing, and so are in a good
position to investigate Esperanto to see
how it compares with their own language
learning experience.
This can be done easily via resources
available on the internet. Just type ‘learn
14
esperanto’ into the search box or go to
www.lernu.net and there is a mass of
material and a means to get in touch with
other learners and speakers locally and
all over the world.
The Esperanto approach opens up the
possibility of intergenerational cooperation in language learning within the
family, while leaving open the choice of
what other languages anyone may decide
to learn later, depending on their
interests, opportunities and needs.
This approach has potential: improving
language learning; furthering the U3A
belief in education throughout life; and
improving the world by supporting
greater empathy with and knowledge of
other peoples.
For those of us who communicate with
U3A groups internationally, there is the
possibility of better internationalisation
of U3A’s activities within its age group,
by opening up the ability for us to
communicate with U3A groups outside
the English-speaking world.
Mike Bench: Warwick U3A
Deutsch für die Äldelie
T
houghts for teachers and students.
Are you now or have you ever
been one of these?
The U3A student of French: ‘I was
hopeless at school but I’ll beat the b*
somehow.’
The student of German: ‘I struggled
with French for years at school so I
thought I’d give another language a go.’
The student of Spanish: ‘Couldn’t get
on with French at school but I need to get
a local plumber to fix the tap in our
holiday villa now that Barry has fallen
out with his Spanish girlfriend and come
back to England.’
The student of Italian: ‘I hated
languages at school and then I met Mario
at the new coffee shop in town.’
The student of Chinese: ‘French was
too easy at school and I wanted a
challenge.’
Student of ancient languages: ‘If they
helped Boris get where he wanted, why
not me?’
The universal languages student: ‘I
love afternoon classes. It’s like watching
Countdown. I can doze off and wake up
feeling I’ve been intellectually
stimulated.’
Some definitions
Computer: a boon, a blasted nuisance.
Native speaker:
A saintly person who never winces,
grits teeth or weeps at the mangling of
their beautiful mother tongue. Or a recent
arrival in the UK who has misunderstood
the ‘university’ part of U3A.
Refreshments:
A godsend, a chance to catch up on
gossip and say what you really meant.
These can be used by enterprising
teachers to deepen students’ experience
of target language culture.
German classes are favoured in this
area. The Kaffee part of Kaffee und
Kuchen is ideal for warding off pm
somnolence.
Germany’s wines and those of France,
Italy, Spain, and Portugal would also
carry a cultural punch and may be
considered an educational sedative for an
excitable class.
Warwick District U3A Language Café
Reading:
Love it. It reminds me of learning at
school. Hate it. It reminds me of learning
at school. Ideal for those who did Lit. at
school. A chance to rework ideas in old A
level essays or dust off Penguin Parallel
texts. Beware non-Latin alphabets for
beginners eg. Ancient or modern Greek
or Russian where you stumble
phonetically through a mixture of
familiar and unfamiliar letters to find you
have merely read out the name of a pop
singer or a well known beverage.
Creativity:
Why not enjoy the Pectopah effect.
Read Russian Cyrillic script as if it were
Roman script. So forget it should be
pronounced restoran. Warm up by
speaking English like Raymond Blanc
and then slide into French still sounding
like Raymond Blanc.
Make friends with German word order
rules. Don’t be put off by lack of
vocabulary. ‘Ich habe es upgecocked’, as
in ‘I have made an error’, will be
understood, brighten up a wet afternoon
and show you have a pretty impressive
grasp of German grammar.
The public face of your subject.
If your U3A organises some sort of
jamboree or festival of the talents you
can bet your last euro, rouble, yuan even
denarius, that you will be asked to
perform. Bring out copies of vaguely
remembered children’s songs. Frère
Jacques in piping tones strikes a
15
sympathetic chord however it is
pronounced.
Written displays in foreign tongues can
present problems – beware. The Internet
will provide yards of reading material
but the problem is knowing where the
end is. You may end up printing off
linguistic wallpaper. You could explain
to your fellow German learners that you
‘have it gegoogled’ but they will have
done the same and be unimpressed.
Future trends
Developing the wider cultural
experience. Introduce courses based on
what is locally available:
Mandarin sponsored by the Great Wall
takeaway or Hindi with the help of the
Star of India.
Other potential sources for gastro
leaning could be Portuguese cafes and
Polish delicatessens.
Teachers: arrange for a food delivery
during the class and you may have even
more authentic input.
The strength of U3A language learning
is its freedom spurred on by enthusiasm.
Teachers: throw in some arcane even
recherché material. It might spark a
response and recruit another disciple.
Students: laugh a lot. Give those
awkward sounds a go or, if you are the
class joker, try persuading the others to
help you translate favourite jokes into the
foreign language. It may delay the punch
line but you will get A for effort, or
should that be E for enjoyment?
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
Kindling the Italian Flame
Kevin Daniels
Woodspring U3A
Using Kindle and the Internet
for learning and enjoying Italian
he Kindle and other e-readers have transformed the
experience of buying and enjoying books. There are
several facilities on the Kindle that will assist anyone
wanting to explore Italian and other languages.
Ownership of Kindle and other e-readers is becoming
widespread and we are using them in the Italian Literature
group of the Woodspring U3A.
Range of Books available from Kindle
Kindle is linked to Amazon and while books available on their
UK or amazon.com website are available only to UK readers,
the choice of Italian books is extensive. However, the range of
e-books is not as wide as conventional books, particularly for
older books, unless they have a high volume sales potential.
(A far wider choice is available from www.amazon.it but
currently you have to buy and register your Kindle in Italy to
benefit from this option.)
Reading Italian and English books at the same time
A straightforward use of any e-reader to enhance your reading
of an Italian book is to buy the Italian edition and an English
translation. E-readers automatically open at the last page you
have read, so you can keep the two versions in step. It is quick
and easy to switch between books.
Dictionaries and other reference books
The dictionary function is a major benefit to Kindle readers.
You can buy An Electronic Italian Dictionary by Luca Nicolato
for £1.99. You can set this up as your default dictionary. If you
then read an Italian book and hover the cursor in front of a word,
you will automatically see a translation in a window.
The photograph (far right) of a page from Kindle shows the
cursor alongside the Italian word ‘vezzo’ in the text of Lessico
Famigliare by Natalia Ginzberg. In a panel on the same page
appears the translation into English: ‘bad habit’ or ‘vice’.
Around 90% of words can be translated without using a
cumbersome paper dictionary. The Nicolato Dictionary
includes all verb forms and the masculine, feminine and plural
versions of nouns.
When I bought my Kindle it was pre-loaded with Vocabolario
della Lingua Italiana di Nicola Zingarelli, the equivalent of the
Oxford English Dictionary. The Zingarelli dictionary contains
more than 500,000 entries. The following dictionaries were also
preloaded: Portuguese, French, German, English (UK and
American versions), and Spanish.
The ‘note’ and ‘highlight’ functions allow you to annotate
your dictionary or any other book. Notes allow you to make a
comment such as the context in which you have come across a
word. Highlights allow you to copy selected parts of the
dictionary such as the translation of a word.
Notes and highlights are stored in the sequence in which they
appear in the dictionary. If you highlight an Italian word and its
English translation it will be stored in alphabetical order and so
you can create your own personal dictionary.
T
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
Jenny Daniels, Anna Pritchard, Kevin Daniels & Frank
Bridges studying from their Kindles
The Nicolato dictionary is only available as an Italian/English
dictionary. One of the better English/Italian dictionaries is the
Collins Unabridged English-Italian Dictionary designed for
Kindle at £9.99.
Most translations are accompanied by examples of usage.
While this dictionary is wide-ranging it is not as comprehensive
as the similarly-titled hardback book, Collins Sansoni Italian
Dictionary: Complete and Unabridged.
Two other Kindle edition reference books are helpful to
students of Italian:
Italian verbs: 100 verbs conjugated by Max Power £0.77
Soluzioni. Second Edition. A practical grammar of
Contemporary Italian Grammar by Denise de Rome £13.50
Unfortunately an e-book edition of The Big Green Book of
Italian verbs-555 fully conjugated verbs is not available from
Kindle but it is obtainable from Feltrinelli at 9.20 euros. Access
to Feltrinelli’s e-book store is covered below.
Access to e-books other than a Kindle e-reader
Kindle books can be read on PCs, tablets and smart phones if
you download the free relevant app. So you can start reading ebooks without needing to buy a dedicated e-reader.
The advantages of an e-reader include: ability to read easily
in sunlight; battery life typically of a month or more; and the
size of a slim paperback suitable to slip into handbag or coat
pocket. On the other hand the other devices are all
multifunctional.
Alternatively you could order e-books from organisations
such as Feltrinelli, a leading Italian bookshop. Their web site is:
www.lafeltrinelli.it
Feltrinelli does not link to Kindle, but other e-readers such as
Kobo are compatible with their catalogue of e-books and it will
download to the Adobe Digital Edition software which is used
by UK libraries for the loan of digital books.
The Feltrinelli catalogue is extensive.
16
cont >>>
The Internet
Translation support-word reference
Despite the use of a dictionary, some
phrases can prove difficult to translate. In
these cases:
www.wordreference.com
can help. This website is free to use and
provides assistance with short phrases
and sentences. It is particularly useful for
idioms and dialect words.
Native Italian and English speakers use
the site. Once you have submitted your
query, a thread of replies follows from
other site users suggesting translations.
As an English speaker you can help
Italians translate English phrases and
sentences. Many languages other than
Italian and English are covered.
Recently I was unable to translate:
‘Cuccù! per farmi mangiare tutto il mio!’
in Lessico Famigliare.
The words are spoken by a
grandmother in response to a question
about why she had not remarried after
being widowed. I received five responses
from wordreference.com in a little over
one day from which I established that the
phrase could be translated as:
‘You must be joking, he would rob me of
all I have.’
Translation support:Google translate
Surprisingly accurate translations can be
achieved for individual words and
sentences using Google translate. It also
supports translation from the spoken
word although this depends, in part, on
your ability to pronounce accurately. A
huge variety of languages are supported.
Online Newspapers
Television and Italian Wikipedia
Most Italian newspapers are published in
electronic editions. The online versions
of La Repubblica and Corriere della
Sera incorporate dictionaries.
RAI, the Italian TV and Radio
operators, provide a range of online
material including a good selection of
replay material.
The Italian version of Wikipedia
(www.wikipedia.it) contains more than a
million major entries in this Italiancentric encyclopedia, written in Italian.
In Conclusion
I have touched only the surface of the
possibilities to enhance your enjoyment
of Italian using Kindle and online
sources. If you have any queries or
suggestions relating to this article please
contact me at:
[email protected]
For a self-help group, this must include
audio material such as CDs or better still
video. We used a video series from the
Welsh television channel S4C, called
Talk About Welsh.
I had been on a course on Methods of
Instruction in the army half a century
ago, and was aware that the more senses
that are occupied during the learning
process, the more it’s likely to stick.
The audio helps to develop a good
accent but occupying the visual sense at
the same time adds to the efficiency of
the learning process. Additionally, the
course that we were following (5 series
of around 20 episodes each) took the
form of a continuous soap opera from
start to end of the course.
Wanting to know what was going to
happen next was an additional
motivation. We completed the course and
are now going over it again from the start
to consolidate what we have learnt.
It is important that the group should
decide on the programme and review it
from time to time. Different people
benefit from different methods of study,
and variety is necessary to keep it alive.
CD-based courses with books also give
variety as do games such as Hangman;
describing what’s happening in pictures;
and giving directions to one another on a
simple map of a village or small town.
U3A national language advisers are a
good help on what resources are
available and there is a verbal only
course on the internet called Say
Something in Welsh. No note taking, no
texts and built-in revision.
Conversation, such as telling in turn
our previous week’s news which
stimulates questions from other
members, is essential.
Three of us move to a pub after the
group meeting where we started with a
rule that only Welsh should be spoken for
the first ten minutes. To keep the flow, it
is permitted to use English words if a
Welsh word is not known.
By the way, the Welsh for Ugh! is Ych
a fi, or Ach a fi, depending on which part
of Wales you are from.
Automatic translation of ‘vezzo’
Put the cursor in front of the
word (top line right) and the
panel at the bottom appears
Barry Parkin : Ware U3A
T
he ideal situation for a U3A
language group is for it to be led
by a qualified language teacher.
But language teachers who have had a
career in education want to branch out
into other fields when they retire.
Otherwise why retire? The challenge
then is how to set up and run an effective
language group with an amateur leader.
I had tried learning Welsh on my own
and made modest progress. (By listening
to my grandmother whilst playing in the
dirt as a small child, I had learned the
Welsh for ‘Ugh!’)
However, I felt I would make better
progress if I attended a formal group that
met regularly where I could open my
mouth and speak to someone. Ware is not
ideally located for popping into a Welsh
tea room or pub for a chat with the staff
as you might in Aberystwyth.
The experience in Ware during the last
five years has been positive. Whilst I had
a small amount of knowledge of the
language when we started the Beginners
Welsh group, I do believe it would be
possible with a leader who has no prior
knowledge. The key thing is to have
good resources.
17
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
Life in a French group
Richard Owen
Bishop’s Stortford U3A
fter the previous incumbent had
announced her departure from
the UK to take up residence in la
belle France some four years ago, I
became aware that all eyes were turned
towards me. This is how I took on
leadership of a French group.
I took stock of what we did, then discussed with my fellow
members a set of objectives for the group. Fortunately we all
agreed. I have a template for what we do and we have kept
to it pretty well, but variety being the spice of life there is no
set format for each of our weekly sessions.
I prefer not to call them classes, nor should I be seen as le
prof. My approach to leading such a group is driven by
enthusiasm for the subject and a willingness to learn.
Choice
I try to ensure that we have a mix of things to do each time
we meet. We have regular practice in reading out loud in
French and translating as far as possible without reaching
for the dictionary too much.
It’s just as well that some of the texts come with some
English translation to help us make sense of the less familiar
words or idiomatic phrases.
There is plenty of source material around, either in print or
from the Internet, and the more I look the more choice there
seems to be. The trick is to pitch it at our level.
We call ourselves the Improvers Group which means
we’re not beginners nor are we competent to conduct the
session wholly in French, but we move around somewhere
in the space between these levels.
Understood?
There is always some conversation and quite often some
grammar – where would we be without it? One of our aims,
apart from just enjoying what we do, is to develop our
language skills so that we have a fair chance of being
understood when conversing with French people.
Most of us don’t have much regular opportunity to put that
to the test, but we all studied up to GCE O level or
equivalent. One of us lived in France when young and I have
A level so we have a reasonable foundation.
Also, we aim to visit l’Hexagone at least once a year. Most
of us reckon that our regular exposure to the language has
boosted our confidence at having a go.
Quoi de neuf en France?
When a story about what’s new in France gets into the UK
media, I like to get to an original source and present that to
the group.
A
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
l’Hexagone
For instance, in December
2012 a Frenchman known
only as Philippe S made the
news when he took his
wife’s family name on their
marriage, because his own
Turkish sounding name
made it difficult for him to
find work.
A male equality law had made this possible, although he
had to go through a long and bitter struggle with some parts
of officialdom which had not heard of this new law.
Another example would be the story of a fire at the office
in Paris of the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné
which had published an anti-Islamic cartoon.
Could it happen here at Private Eye? Or how about the last
Miss France beauty contest when the entrants also had their
brains tested? We had a bit of fun trying to do the quiz that
the organisers had set for the contestants.
Le Cinéma
From time to time I inform the group about French films
being shown on television or locally at the Hertford Theatre
cinema or Saffron Screen. The films are with English
subtitles. It would be hard work without them.
Start a new group?
Our group is a small one allowing our members plenty of
opportunity for as much active participation as they want.
Like other French groups in our U3A, we have a waiting list
but in common with other leaders I have offered to help
newcomers to start a group.
So far I have not had any takers but my own experience
shows that it can be done.
18
Maggie Gravelle : U3A SE London
R
ecently, on my way to a U3A French conversation class
I met a friend who, learning where I was heading,
reminisced about her experience of French at school.
She had lost interest at about the stage when, presumably
learning the use of prepositions, the class was asked to practise
sentences such as: The snake is under the bed.
I could picture the scene – a textbook with pictures of
similarly unlikely events: The book is on the tree; The jug is
behind the wardrobe; The chicken is up the ladder. As my friend
said, it was hard to imagine a genuine situation in which such
sentences would be used.
Our conversation group ranges from those such as me, whose
French education is confined to O level years ago and
subsequently several summer holidays in France, to those who
have lived and worked in France for a number of years.
It is facilitated by a native French speaker and takes place in
her home around the lunch table. Each of us brings some food
to share and a topic to discuss.
We are encouraged to bring ‘un objet fetiche’, or object of
personal significance for discussion. Examples include
postcards, photographs, a musical instrument, a precious book,
theatre and concert programmes, and maps and brochures.
Increasingly we have had the confidence to interject ideas and
comments without the security of something concrete. This
aspect of sharing food and conversation is indicative of the
relaxed and sociable approach we take, exemplified by joint
social occasions such as the Christmas meal or Beaujolais
Nouveau tasting at L’Institut Français.
In language conversation, as distinct from language learning,
you cannot predict what vocabulary or grammar might arise.
La Bella Lingua
By Martin Shirley
[email protected]
his article gives an overview of how the Chard, Ilminster
and District U3A Italian language group works. We meet
for a couple of hours on Friday afternoons. The group has a
dozen members but we function best (i.e. everyone can get a
word in!) if eight or so come along.
We are an intermediate group rather than beginners. One of us
lived for years in Perugia and is bilingual while the rest of us
can make ourselves understood in Italian. We like to call each
of our sessions a conversazione rather than a class or a lesson.
Each week we choose a topic for the following week and then
next time we bring along a couple of appropriate paragraphs in
our best written Italian. It has been most rewarding for me as the
group leader to see how the contributions steadily become more
inventive and eloquent.
We start each session by getting our heads and tongues into
Italian mode. We then read through a text selected from an
Italian website or blog – so we are using texts written by Italian
people for Italian readers. Our most recent topic was: ‘What
makes me laugh?’, so the order of the material used was:
T
Valerie May, Patrick Hallinan, Suzanne Healey (tutor) & Rose Sneddon
It is conceivable that a member might talk about their visit to
an Israeli kibbutz when they had to check if there was a snake
under the bed. Or about a trip to the zoo with grandchildren
who, watching the penguins waddle down the ramp, exclaimed:
“Look! The chicken is up the ladder.” Or about the notice in the
hotel room in Guatemala explaining that water was to be found
in the jug behind the wardrobe.
Identifying the language level or specifying the curriculum is
inappropriate for such a group which relies on the social event
and the guidance of the French-speaking tutor to steer the
conversation, suggest alternative vocabulary and expressions
and, on occasion, to correct grammar to clarify meaning. One
day we will perhaps, need to know and use the French for:
The snake is under the bed.
An Italian blogger’s summary of English humour and the
difference from Italian humour.
A paragraph from George Orwell on English comic writing,
with the Google Translate version of it, which gave us some fun
in spotting the mistakes in grammar and vocab.
The members’ paragraphs on their favourite comedians,
comic writers and jokes.
A discussion about the different Italian words for jokes as
funny stories and as practical jokes.
A page of jokes from an Italian website (some making fun
of the country’s best-known politician).
In reserve we had a (not so funny) article from an Italian
newspaper about the problems caused by starlings in Rome, but
we didn’t find time to do it justice.
Once a month we use a textbook. Earlier this year we were
relieved to finish a guide to Italian grammar, and are now
getting more enjoyment out of working our way through an
Easy Italian Reader.
Members are kind enough to bring biscuits to go with our tea,
and on special occasions a bottle of Pinot Grigio may appear
too! It’s entertaining and stimulating and I’m convinced that it’s
good for our brains to use a different linguistic gear on a regular
basis. It would be good to hear how other U3A language groups
work – per favore!
19
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
F
or some years a friend and I went walking in our beautiful
Chiltern Hills (Area of Natural Beauty) and although we
are both English, we conversed only in German. We
found the discipline of committing ourselves to struggle in the
foreign language hugely rewarding in the improvement of our
vocabulary and also our fluency.
We decided to offer the idea to the U3A and duly formed an
Anglo-German Walking Group.
The group was established on the following basis: monthly
walks; ten to twelve mile circular walk; pub lunch; walk ’n’ talk
in German before lunch; conversational German as a minimum;
mother-tongued Germans welcome; all walks to be in the
Chilterns (living in Watford we are half an hour, to an hour’s
drive from the Chilterns, which lie in Buckinghamshire and
Oxfordshire).
When we announced the idea at the U3A monthly meeting we
were laughed at – ten to twelve miles (are you kidding?). What,
and speak German as well? Ho ho!
So we circulated the U3As in and around the Chilterns with
the idea and seven years into the group we have 20 members
representing ten U3As. Six of the group are native Germans.
Some are married ladies whose husbands are English but don’t
speak German.
Apart from the two of us who started the group, there are nine
others who have been regular members during the last four
years, which tells you we have built up quite a friendship with
one another and have benefitted from the experience.
The common feeling is that walking in the countryside
provides the relaxed, natural, fun environment to chat in
German with friends about what is relevant to one another. So
we are kept up to date with family events (holiday plans/reports,
grandchildren impact, etc.) and other common interests.
We solve the world’s problems but in German. On a one-toone basis we overcome the difficulty of not knowing a
particular word by ‘speaking’ with hands, feet or gestures or,
failing that, dropping the odd word in English, hoping our
companion can help us out.
We also constantly use our German mother-tongued members
as ‘walking dictionaries’. The pairs swap around all the time,
with the same information being re-cycled to help fluency and
consolidate vocabulary.
Sources Jan 2014 No 51
Dick Chapman : Watford and District U3A
It may be a cheap pun, but re-using
relevant language such as the word for
‘mud’ – ‘Schlamm’ in German, sticks
in your mind as well as on your boots.
The opportunity to initiate, listen to,
and respond to German gives us more
and more confidence with fellow
walkers, and when visiting German-speaking countries for
example in shops, restaurants and obtaining information from
strangers.
Most of our members have been to German lessons in
colleges or wherever, and find our one-to-one basis compares
favourably with being called upon to ‘perform’, when you
might panic or freeze in an unnatural environment using
vocabulary you might not imagine ever using in practice.
You might wonder what our mother-tongued German
members get out of the experience, apart from hearing their
precious language being crucified by us Brits. The fact is that
they like the opportunity to speak their own language. I quote:
‘It enhances, enriches and refreshes my German’.
Another member has started her own U3A Walk ’n’ Talk in
German strollers group for those not wanting to walk more than
a few miles.
We do the majority of our walking in the morning and stop
talking in German when we hit the pub for lunch, by then we are
ready for a break – physically and mentally.
We think the concept of Walk ’n’ Talk could be applied to any
other language with equal success and hope this article will help
the spread of its use across the U3A.
A suggested way to start might be for the various established
conversational foreign language groups to consider holding a
meeting as a stroll in their local park or garden centre and
finishing in a café.
For potential members who haven’t touched their foreign
language since schooldays – never mind, it’ll flow back quickly,
especially using it in the fresh air and amongst friends.
Go for it!
If anyone would like further information I’d love to help.
[email protected]
20