English Club volunteers and participants
We are currently developing a program called English Club here in Rabat. There are many students and professionals in our Moroccan communities who want to learn and improve their English. But the place to learn is generally limited to classrooms in schools. The reason is simple – this is a francophone country. From government and commerce to schools and media, French rules this country, even after 50 years of gaining independence from France.
The fact is that there are plenty of language schools in large cities such as Rabat and Casablanca that provide English courses, but not enough opportunities or environments where you can actually use English with real people. Even in these classes, how much can you improve your English in two 90-minute sessions per week with fifteen other students (if you are lucky) and only one teacher? Yes, they do practice with one another quite a bit, I hear from my friends who are teachers at these schools, especially in more advanced classes. But it’s not the same as actually speaking with native speakers of English. Moreover, there are not enough resources in English available in our communities to aid their language learning.
There is an enormous amount of intellectual and cultural resources available in the English language, but due to the strong emphasis on French, Moroccans in general have not been able to tap into these abundant and growing global resources and participate actively in the global community.
So, we recognize the need. Many friends of ours ask us for help. Thus, we are developing English Club, a warm, friendly community where you can practice English, participate in activities done in English, and also gain an opportunity to interact and develop friendship with English speakers from other countries and cultures. This is not a school or classroom thing (a. k. a. terribly boring and dry highly structured stuff). It’s about people, relationships, learning from one another, and growing together. So, this is the CultureLink idea of meeting this particular need in our community and serving our friends and neighbors.
So far, we’ve had three successful test-runs of English Club. Once we figure out the best format and means to run this, we will be offering it to the English learners in our community on a more regular basis. So stay tuned. It’s exciting stuff!
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