Page 5 - ELG1802 Feb Issue 454

WELCOME . EDITOR’S LETTER

Willkommen,

bienvenue,

welcome. theteam

It’s more important than ever to know how to be a good host MELANIE
BUTLER,
editor-in-chief,
You’re welcome. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, these three English started teaching
words are said as a polite answer when someone thanks you for doing EFL in Iran in
something. But welcome is not the word we use when we receive guests. 1975, she worked
for the BBC
Instead you hear ‘Come on in’ or ‘Make yourself at home’. World Service,
And in the case of my mother, deaf since childhood, and known for her Pearson/Longman and Modern
idiosyncratic take on the fixed phrases she had learned mostly by lip reading: English teacher magazine before
‘I’m so glad you’re near’. taking over at the Gazette in
1987 and also launching Study
Yinbo Yu, the international students officer at Britain’s National Union of Travel magazine. Educated in ten
Students, has made himself at home, even though he struggled when he arrived both because schools in seven countries she
of his own Chinese culture and because of the British trait of polite reticence. International speaks fluent French and Spanish
and rather rusty Italian.
students, he argues, should be embraced, not treated as slightly strange paying guests.
Many countries these days don’t seem in a welcoming mood when it comes to English IRENA
language teaching. The French-speaking Cameroons have responded to their English-speaking BARKER,
commissioning
Our magazine is responded to the recent demonstrations by banning English in primary schools. Meanwhile, studied French
nationals’ demand for independence by locking up their leader. The Iranian government has
editor,
and linguistics at
Korea has backed down on banning it in
Durham, UK and
Kindergarten and turned their fire instead on
Many countries these
taught English in France for two
preschool programmes in private language
years. Her subsequent 15-year
days don’t seem in a
read comes to English language schools. career in UK news journalism
But it’s not all doom and gloom. In
includes reporting for local and
welcoming mood when it
Ethiopia, the British Council are helping
regional newspapers, a news
agency and a 10 year stint at the
teach refugees. In Texas, a study finds that, on
Times Educational Supplement
average, migrant children will reach English
magazine.
proficiency within four years. And in England,

teaching
migrant students are beating their native
in more than Chris Leslie has devised a way to make New Oriental’s FEDERICA
TEDESCHI,
speaker peers in national exams.
senior reporter, is
Back in China, the ingenious Jocelyn Wang
a NCTJ qualified
reporter who
gained journalistic
30,000 teachers welcome teacher observation
experience in
in their classrooms.
150 countries reached across cultural boundaries to explain Malta, Italy and the UK. She
New Oriental’s study travel team has also
holds a Masters in International
Relations from the University of
Perugia, Italy as well as a Celta
what Chinese summer school students are
from Westminster College,
looking for. Our summer school ranking shows
London and has taught languages
where they can find what they are looking for
at a university and schools in
London. Federica, who also
while we gently remind them that they can’t
and we have 6,700 boarding school designed to take an average of just 440 students. But if you’re looking for a warm ANDREA PÉREZ
freelances in video production, is
always get what they want.
a member of a NUJ committee.
Oggi Tomic in Sarajevo 1997
You just can’t squeeze 150 visiting Chinese
schoolchildren into your average British
EGIDO, online
and production
welcome, read the story of the fifteen-year-old Bosnian orphan who escaped the shelling and
manager,
online subscribers deprivation of war-torn Sarajevo and arrived, for the summer, at a family-run summer school. has a BA in
Journalism from
Welcomed in as a member of the family, Oggi Tomic, now an award-winning film-maker, still
Complutense
works with his adopted family at the school that changed his life.
University, Madrid and a Masters
Now we know how we should welcome people in English, it is time to remind ourselves what to
in Corporate Communications
say when we leave our hosts. Small British children are trained to say, as they walk out the front
London. She previously worked
door of a friend’s house: ‘Thank you very much for having me’. On hearing this my mother would from Kingston University,
smile broadly and reply. on the international desk at the
Spanish newspaper La Razón.
‘Thank you very much for being had.’ MELANIE BUTLER, She joined the Gazette as online
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF and social media editor in 2015.
*Data from 2017 editorial@elgazette.com 5
*Data from 2017