When I write about the Osher program, I almost always focus on short courses like the ones that I take or teach, but Osher offers more. This is the last week for the “Conversation Tables” that meet weekly during the Osher semester, so I want to tell you about them.
The German Conversation Table met on 12 Mondays, starting on January 30 and ending on April 24 this year. From 12-1 each week, 25 people who want to maintain (or increase) their German language fluency meet to talk about topics of interest, newspaper or magazine articles. The conversation is conducted in German with help from the instructor.
The catalog tells us that the instructor grew up in Bonn, Germany. She was a former member of the German Foreign Service and is currently working as a professional technical and legal translator. She has a B.A. in linguistics with an emphasis on bilingualism as well as language acquisition in children.
The Spanish Conversation Table met on 12 Tuesdays, starting on January 31 and ending on April 25 this year. This group operates in the same fashion as the one I’ve already described except it’s in Spanish. Here’s what the catalog entry says about this class:
La mesa española les ofrece a sus miembros la oportunidad de mantener y enriquecer su lengua española. En las reuniones, utilizamos artículos de periódicos o del internet para la lectura y facilitamos comentarios sobre el contenido. Es necesario tener un nivel de comprehension basica del español para participar en la lectura. El ambiente es amistosonos apoyamos y nos divertimos durante la hora.
I know just enough Spanish to realize that this means roughly the same thing as the earlier description. The final sentence emphasizes that this group is non-threatening and fun. The instructor taught Spanish I through Advanced Placement at Lafayette High School in Williamsburg until she retired. She has an M.A. in Spanish from the University of New Mexico. She has visited or studied in several Spanish-speaking countries, including Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Peru.
The French Conversation Table met on 12 Wednesdays, starting on February 1 and ending on April 16 6his year. This group operates in the same fashion as the ones I’ve already described except it’s in French. Here’s what the catalog entry says about this class:
La Table de Conversation Française sert de lieu de rencontre pour des personnes ayant un vif intérêt pour la langue et la culture française. Les séances sont organisées autour de la lecture et de la discussion d’articles de livres, de journaux ou de magazines, lus et commentés dans une ambiance décontractée. Un niveau minimum de compréhension de la langue française est quand même nécessaire pour pouvoir profiter pleinement de ces sessions.
I know French better than I know the other languages I’ve mentioned here. I attended one of the meetings of this conversation group a few years ago and I could follow the conversation pretty well, although I was hesitant to speak up much.
This conversation table is facilitated by two instructors. Here’s what the catalog says about them:
Didier de Vulpillières is a native of France who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years. He holds an engineering degree from France and an M.B.A. in international operations from Michigan State.
Kathleen Hickey spent 30 years teaching French and Spanish in public and privat middle and high schools. She has a B.S. in education and an M.A. in French literature from Washington University.
A related language class -- Hebrew: Explorations from the Past to Present Conversation – operates on a more traditional model, meeting for six Mondays for two hours each session. This course began on March 20 and ended on Monday of this week. Here’s the description of this course:
Hebrew is a truly remarkable language. It is over 3,000 years old, having evolved from a staid 8000-word language of the written Bible into a contemporary thriving conversational language with over 33,000 words. The objective of these classes is to understand this extraordinary transformation and the building blocks of the Hebrew language. Participants may select their level of involvement from just listening to actively participating in simple conversation.
And this is the instructor:
The instructor graduated from the School of Occupational Therapy in Jerusalem and earned a Ph.D. from New York University. She has been both a therapist and adjunct faculty member. She currently teaches conversational Hebrew at Williamsburg’s Temple Beth El.
Previous semesters have featured both an Italian Conversation Table and a sequenced course in basic, intermediate, and advanced Italian language. I took this class in the fall of 2019 in anticipation of a trip we were planning to Italy in the spring of 2020. Needless to say, that trip didn’t work out. But I enjoyed learning the language and interacting with people who spoke it better than I did. I didn’t participate in the Conversation Table but my understanding was that they frequently met at local Italian restaurants. I could do that.
You should realize by now that Osher offers something for pretty much everyone. We are recruiting new instructors and new course offerings all the time. Wherever you live, there are opportunities for extended learning near you. If you can’t find courses that you like, you can offer one.
Excellent! Thank you, Karen.