I first came across the Guardian Weekly while teaching English in the Czech Republic. Having initially trained to teach French in England, where I brought up three children and saw them branch out on their own worldwide, I added Tefl and English for Business to my qualifications, and took on a third career in a town 100km east of Prague, where I made many friends, learned to speak the language after a fashion, and enjoyed the music and the mountains.
This enabled me to explore eastern Europe, and I have ventured as far east as Lithuania and Romania. And everywhere the Weekly has been both my lifeline to the realities and improbabilities of the world, and an essential teaching resource.
It is frequently passed on to local acquaintances, articles scanned and sent round the world to my family and friends – what would I do without the invaluable Polly Toynbee, Jonathan Freedland, Timothy Garton Ash, Martin Kettle and a host of others?
And, even more – I’m now retired (not really!) in the south of France, what would my students do without you – my “advanced” English evening class ends up as a debating group analysing articles scanned from the previous week’s Weekly.
One of these students is already a subscriber. Long may the GW last; I’ve just sent off my subscription renewal.
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