Barrister or Bankrupt

CELTA in Poland

[Squinting in the spring sun on the Wisła river in Kraków. Next to my head is Wawel Hill, site of the Royal Castle and the national cathedral]

I'm between jobs at the moment (really!), so I took the opportunity of spending a month in Kraków with the Talking Bear. We studied together here at the Jagiellonian University as part of our Polish degree course, and John loved it so much he emigrated the day after his finals. He's now firing on all cylinders with a translation bureau, a sideline teaching English & Linguistics and what must be the most uncommon name found in a Polish passport (John Beauchamp pronounced in Polish sounds something like Yon Bohamp). Thanks for having me, mate.

On the Bear's recommendation I signed up for a CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults) course during my time here. What I thought would be a holiday of sorts and chance to start revising for law school turned into four weeks of late nights spent familiarising myself with a new set of jargon (Gap-fills at the Clarification Stage, anyone? How about a spot of Test-Teach-Test before the Gist Task?) and preparing for daily teaching practice in real classrooms with real students. I really enjoyed being thrown into the deep end and teaching from the second day of the course. My fellow trainees were a great bunch of very interesting people and it made the world of difference that we were so well supported by experienced and inspiring tutors. I hope they get round to reading this post and decide to stay in touch (not least because my classmates each owe me 25 złoty. Grrr)!

So the CELTA was enjoyably challenging and may prove useful as a means of earning extra income whilst abroad. Unexpectedly, learning to teach English also gave me some food for thought about how learning impacts upon the lawyer's profession.

When presenting complex legal argument in court, advocates need to keep the target of their advocacy (single judge, panel of judges, jury) with them - "because of point A, we submit point B, the effect of which is point C", etc. This can be extremely difficult to do and is one of the reasons why some want to abolish juries in complex fraud trials. A little CELTA methodology might be useful here.

The course encourages analysis of the way in which individuals prefer to study and the adoption of a style of teaching with this preference in mind. If your judge has an auditory preference, offer to read her the section of the statute before directing her to a written version. If your magistrate is teacher-dependent, be prepared for questions for which answers are already in the bundle you have given him -  he wants to hear you say it.

Perhaps I am stretching the metaphor between advocate and teacher - effective advocates must also be great salespeople, and the teacher-student / advocate-judge relationship are totally opposite in many ways. However essential to both professions is the skill of conveying information and some reflection on how humans (this includes judges!) best receive and retain information might result in a worthwhile advantage.

BoB recommends International House Kraków for anyone wanting to take a full-time CELTA course for as long as Magda Markiewicz and Declan Cooley are the course tutors. The fees are approximately half of what one would pay in the UK and even after accomodation a significant saving can be made. The course is very intensive however so make sure you leave some time for sightseeing before or after (but not during) the course.

(click Comments just below to start a discussion or leave a message related to this article)

Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent the positions, strategies or opinions of my employer. Because I don't currently have one.

The London Detainee Support Group

(Two Immigration Removal Centres near Heathrow Airport. On the left is Harmondsworth, with Colnbrook on the right. Though they appear to be part of the same complex, they are distinct centres run by different private firms.)

As a volunteer with the  London Detainee Support Group (LDSG) I visit detainees at one of two Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs) next to Heathrow Airport. Previously called Immigration Detention Centres (IDCs) they resemble prisons in many ways.

The purpose of the IRCs is to detain people who do not have a right to be in the UK and are imminently to be removed. Some have been detained pending this "imminent removal" for many years. This could be due to lack of travel documents forthcoming from their country's government, an unsafe situation in the country of origin, uncertainty as to the detainee's identity, policy, or administrative mistake. To be detained without trial is to be detained indefinitely; detainees are not automatically released after a certain period of failure by the authorities to remove.

Placed right next to each other on the busy Bath Road, the centres seem out of place next to the hotels and multinational HQs that make up their neighbours. There is little by way of privacy for detainees; for example I am told that detainee's toilets are situated in the middle of their shared bedroom in Colnbrook IRC. There have been numerous suicides by immigration detainees, and at least two hunger strikes have taken place in the 9 months I have been a visitor (at time of writing). It is oftensaid that transport links are inadequate and make visiting more difficult as compared to many of London's prisons.

The service provided by LDSG is similar to that provided by the Personal Support Unit but in a totally different setting; LDSG provide practical and emotional support to detainees that request the service. This involves calling the detainee, a weekly visit, a monthly phonecard to call home, and anything else within reason. In the past I have been to hotels to pick up bags for a client who was detained without notice; liaised with another's friends who were too scared to visit the IRCs; and given a client procedural advice as to his rights in detention. We do not give legal advice but refer clients to reliable sources of legal advice, for example the Refugee Legal Centre.

If you would like to support this charity with your time or money, please follow the link to the LDSG website.

(click Comments just below to start a discussion or leave a message related to this article)

Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent the positions, strategies or opinions of any organisation I am associated with.

406 Squadron Air Training Corps

Flying was my first passion. Ever since I saw my father play dashing Polish RAF pilot "Zaddy" Zadarnowski on TV, I wanted to be a pilot. A Battle of Britain computer flight simulation followed, and I would devour any information I could find on flying machines in general and the Royal Air Force in particular.

Becoming an Air Cadet at 406 (Willesden) Squadron brought me within touching distance of my dream. I joined at 14 and was airborne within the year. I piloted gliders and trainer planes, and flew in RAF air-to-air refueling tankers, chinook helicopters and heavy transports. Although short-sightedness (and later height) cut short my hopes of being a fast-jet pilot I recall my years with the local cadet squadron with great fondness. That's why I jumped at the chance to return as a Civilian Instructor when approached by a former fellow cadet turned Chairperson, the indomitable Ella Barrett.

My main role is the teaching of flight-related subjects to cadets; Principles of Flight, History of Flight, History of the RAF, etc. There is also an element of pastoral care; like supervising off-site squadron activities such as flying, shooting and memorial events.

The Squadron is located in the London borough of Brent, which according to the 2001 census has the highest proportion of foreign-born residents in the UK, 46.53%. This is reflected in our cadets who in addition to the British-born originally hail from Somalia, Kosovo, Jamaica, Iraq and Nigeria. When I was a cadet out-of-London units called us "the black squadron" due to the heavy presence of dark-skinned members. We grew to like the name, especially as it matched our parent squadron's history: 406 Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force was a night-fighter outfit during World War 2.

Teaching these youngsters is a challenging experience. Resources are tight so ESL (English as a second language) students must be taught together with "natives". There are also issues of discipline and the need to maintain the attention of my class - after a day at school these teenagers aren't attentive Personal Support Unit volunteers! However the payoff is the knowledge that I am helping them learn and enjoy as much as I did when I was in their well-polished shoes.

(click Comments just below to start a discussion or leave a message related to this article)

Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent the positions, strategies or opinions of any organisation I am associated with.