Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sharing language and culture in Sheffield

Sheffield student Natasha describes her first experiences of volunteering at the Conversation Club in Sheffield, finding that it’s as much about learning and having fun as offering a helping hand.

A student perspective


I first came across the Conversation Club in Sheffield when I found one of the best little kitchen books I now own – ‘Food For Thought’ – a cook book of dishes from around the world written by asylum seekers at Conversation Club.

When I looked further in to what this club was the website said that it was started by STAR and Sheffield Refugee Friendship Group in 2002, and was designed to give asylum seekers a safe place to meet people they knew and new people from Sheffield, to practice languages and get to know each other. It sounded a fun way of getting involved in a local charity!

Apprehensive that I wouldn’t be spoken to at first, but feeling brave, I went along to the class between lectures on a Wednesday. At first I thought my fears had come true and I did sit for quite a while by myself amongst crowds of men, but once their curiousity had got the better of them I was offered some very very very strong coffee (that they brought along themselves to share) and by the end of the hour I knew the names of everyone’s family members and their kind thoughts on the people of Sheffield. I even got a few proposals of marriage!

It was obvious that Conversation Club was a place where asylum seekers felt they could meet each other comfortably, without feeling like they were going to be moved on or asked questions they couldn’t answer. It also became obvious that they had little else to do, since they have no right to work and only £35.52 a week in cash to spend from the Home Office.

When making small talk to help people with their English I asked them their plans for the next week or month or even year, their answers were confused – what is there to do?

This sense of helplessness and lack of freedom are illustrated well by a conversation I had with a Kurdish man who had been on the move since he was a child caught up in the 8 year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

Now in his early 30s, he’d never had a job, and it was his dream to work. When I asked him what sort of job he’d like, he said “any”. When I asked what job he would like to do if he could do any in the world, regardless of money, status or time, he thought for a long time but just couldn’t answer the question, and ended up laughing a lot at me for asking it!

I realised it was the ridiculous question of someone that had the luxury of imagination and hope. In the end he told me he wanted to be a teacher, but it was almost as if he hadn’t dared to think what he’d really want to do before then.

I’ve heard a lot of sad stories at Conversation Club, it was not uncommon for people to have friends who had committed suicide through their frustration at the British asylum system.

But there was as much fun too. My favourite was the art table, it was interesting to paint portraits and create new individual things with people – it’s important to see someone’s personality rather than their status as an ‘asylum seeker’.

I like the potential for Conversation Club to be a mutual learning experience, to become more of a swap than an English lesson.

Though Conversation Club encourages people to come to help asylum seekers – I think it can be just as valuable to those settled in this country if experienced as more of a cultural or language exchange. Sharing knowledge helps to boost everyone’s self esteem, and as I discovered at Conversation Club: every person certainly has knowledge or a skill valuable to share.


Natasha Vavere
3rd Year student, Human Geography
Sheffield University

Posted by STAR team on 15/09/2010 at 05:45 PM
in Group News  

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