Allegro - Learners

These people were long-term unemployed, receiving a low, basic level of benefit. They also suffered from mental health problems which had contributed to their difficulty in finding work. They stood out from the rest of the group due to their particular needs. Whereas they appeared challenging and a potential threat to the teacher at the beginning of the sessions, they actually turned out to be the most rewarding people to work with.

A good example is a retired lady called Françoise, who was suffering from depression and who learnt better communication skills in general, and thus more English. Thanks to the English classes, she started opening up more to those around her. Though shy and withdrawn at the beginning, by the end of the course she was actually quite “bubbly” and more than keen to take part in the end of session presentation.

Another memorable example was a younger lady called Annie, suffering from a behaviour problem, preventing her from moving from one place to another without first inspecting the table and chair at least 10 times. By the end of the course, she too had started to come out of her shell.

Despite not being able to overcome her disability to move around freely, she did manage to talk openly about her handicap and was thankful for the encouragement she received from her fellow classmates.

Another unemployed person, a man called Jean-Luc, was also suffering from severe depression when he started the English course and was particularly critical of modern language learning techniques. Neither was he very interested in British culture or way of life. He simply wanted to learn enough vocabulary, so as to get a job. By the end, his opinions had completely changed and he was even enthusiastically trying to arrange a trip to England to visit the sights.