Over the past 12 months Jose Florez (late twenties) a Columbian that teaches English to Columbian students in Columbia has been at Derby University in England studying English. During the twelve months he taught Spanish at the University to raise the thousand pounds or so necessary to pay for the courses he wanted to undertake whilst over here. He visited my home on many occasions and taught my 18yr old son spanish. He is a delightful character and it was apparent that things are very different in Columbia. Back home he had three seperate teaching jobs which meant he worked from 8am until 10pm every day but Sundays and earnt very little. He sold all of his personal belongings so as to get to England.
He has now returned to Columbia where he lives in Pamplona and on the 8th October I received an E Mail from him which says " I have been trying to get a job around here, but so far it has been impossible since the situation in our country is not good at all. Guerillas, drug dealers and so on have transformed our country into a hell. Many schools have been closed and large numbers of teachers are working no more. Anyway I am trying to start on my own".
I asked, by Email what he needs and on 20th October received an Email saying "The sort of materials I would need would be English teaching courses where you can learn working with your PC at all levels (I'm particularly interested in phonetics and grammar for children and intermediate levels). Any other kind of teaching materials would really help me especially CD Roms"
Jose is a genuine character who I would dearly like to assist. I wonder Tim if you would be prepared to use the Trainingzone to make an International appeal for materials. Jose can be Emailed on joseflorez@hotmail.com
If prefered you can obviously Email me and any offer of materials could be forwarded to me for posting. I have passed details of the TrainingZone to Jose but the cost of paper in Columbia restricts the printing of too much material.
Anything you can do would be much appreciated.
Stephen P RADBURN
Derbyshire
nick@radbu.freeserve.co.uk
