I’m really glad that I got to complete an internship with Speak Street, as it gave me an
experience of working in a dynamic and friendly environment where I could develop skills
while helping out other people. I also helped with the English classes at the Islington centre
on Tuesdays, where there are always lots of dedicated volunteers, and seeing the
overwhelmingly positive response from the students is such a rewarding thing.
At our last class before the holidays, some of the students said that Speak Street was like a second
family, and that they didn’t want to go on holiday as they would miss the class– it made me
realise how community-based learning can be really beneficial, not only in terms of language
learning, but also through meeting new people and supporting each other in different ways
(fun social learning!). Speak Street organises a lot of different activities that help its students
of different levels to develop in confidence and make friends, such as the summer picnic that
took place recently, so one of the other things that I did as an intern was to help with the
behind-the-scenes work that allows the events to take place. It was interesting for me to get
an idea of how everything is organised and seeing it all come together. I’d like to say thank
you to Joanna, the founder, for arranging everything and Kate, my co-intern!
Social