Museum visit (trip D)
e museum we visited is a historical house that has been restored. It is a small local museum away from the city centre. It has limited opening hours and has been opened by arrangement for us. We were the only visitors there, and were welcomed by a volunteer. e museum contains rooms that have been furnished to show how they may have looked in Tudor times, and other rooms with more general historical and replica artefacts from the period.
Episodes
Planning the trip I tell them I have some money for a trip but appreciate that
their class time is important to them. T2 clarifies that the problem is whether we can get there and back in two hours. B4 says it would be a good memory of our class. He starts to ask whether they would be interested in doing something outside of their class. I interrupt and say I’ve had an idea to go to a local museum as it is quite close. T1 agrees and we try to explain what the museum is. B2 asks if it is a museum or a cafe. T2 finds a picture on his laptop and displays it on the screen. We spend some time talking about where it is and how to get there. T2 finds it on a mapping website. He says it is very close to his house and shows us on the map. We discuss different buses and how to get there. Several learners seem very knowledgeable about buses. ere is a conversation about complex travel arrangements; who will need to pick up their children from where. Once we have worked out there is enough time, everyone is keen to go.
Travelling to the museum We meet in the classroom and then walk two min-
utes to the bus stop. We wait a few minutes. I check the bus timetable with B2 but she doesn’t find it easy to read. We look at the daffodils and I talk to B4 about native flowers in her country. She talks about the permafrost. I have to tell her the word aer she has explained the concept. She says that daffodils can’t sur- vive because the earth freezes. I ask her what flowers they do have. She says that wild flowers can survive; they have a different kind of seed. B1 rushes up apologising for being late and two minutes later the bus arrives. I pay for the bus tickets. B1 has a ticket already. I tell her I can give her the money back if she brings me the ticket. She asks me why and I say I have money to pay for everyone.
Dresses ere are some imitation period dresses kept in a bedroom. B5 pulls
out the dresses and shows them to me. She says these are Indian dresses and then takes another in a different style and says like this as well. She says this one and this; they have this style in India. She then talks to me about the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and seems to relate this to the dresses but I don’t understand what she means and eventually she gives up.
Looking at the scold’s bridle In the next room B2 is looking at a glass case
which is about crime and punishment. It contains a scold’s bridle, some ankle chains and a spiked collar. ere is a notice board which gives information about the items. B2 asks me about the bridle. I explain how it is used gesturing to show how it is fied over the tongue so you can’t talk. I emphasise it is only for women and was used to stop them criticising their husbands. B2 sucks in her breath and seems horrified. She says we have come far. B5 asks me about the spiked collar. I don’t know so I read the notice and explain that it was worn by criminals. We both shake our heads.
Chien cake e volunteer has made some coffee for us. We sit down looking
at photographs of the museum. B8 has brought some biscuits that she shares round. B2 comes in complaining that we didn’t tell her we were having food. She takes out a plastic box containing a cake she has made saying it is chicken cake. Everyone seems surprised. She continues explaining it is a traditional food from her country; it is usually made with pork but she made it with chicken so her classmates could eat it. She says she knows that some of her class don’t eat pork. I think everybody except me has some. I don’t explain that I don’t eat meat and I don’t think B2 notices I don’t have any. B2 gives T2 the rest to take home for his family and he thanks her.
Evil eyes T2 asks if we have seen the daisy wheels. We say we don’t know
what he means and go to look. ere are some faint paerns scratched on the wood at the boom of the staircase. He explains that they were put there to ward off evil; to keep the devil out. B8 smiles and says we have the same, exactly the same in my country. B1 says yes we have the same as well. She explains about eyes that keep evil away. I ask her if it is like the evil eye in Turkey. She says yes and explains people put them outside their houses, on babies’ beds and wear them on their lapel (she has to gesture to explain this word). B8 asks if she still believes and smiles a lile. B1 says yes I do, why not? I had them as a baby; my
sister uses them, I use them in my home to protect my child. B8 doesn’t challenge her any further.
Travelling home Aer we have finished looking round the museum, I check
who needs to get back. I look up the next bus on my phone and say there will be one in ten minutes. B2 stands up saying let’s go. I say it’s OK we have time and we slowly move outside. I check with T2 where the bus goes from as he is going straight to his children’s school. He shows me, and we all start to walk that way. We have a long complicated discussion about who is going where. Eventually B1 and B8 walk down the hill with T2 to get a different bus. B2, B5, B4 and I wait at the stop. ey see the bus coming the other way and think we’ve missed it. I reassure them that it is not ours. B4 asks me what kind of person lived in that house. We talk about gentry and peasants, merchants and farmers. She chal- lenges me when I say it was a farmhouse saying there is no land. I explain that the other houses weren’t there when the house was built. I get the leaflet out to show her and realise I shouldn’t have taken the laminated one with me. ey laugh with me a lile. I point out a blackbird and B4 asks me what it’s called in English, she looks at me in disbelief when I tell her.
Eventually the bus comes and we get on. I check with B2 she has enough time to get back to school and we talk about our children. While on the bus T2 phones B4 and asks to speak to me. He explains that he le the tablet at the museum so is on his way back there, and asks if I have the volunteer’s number. I say I’ll try emailing her. I get an immediate response giving her phone number. I ask B2 if I can use her phone to call T2. ere’s no answer so I try to send a text message. It takes me a long time to work out how to use her phone and she has to show me how to do it. I eventually manage it aer we get off the bus. She hugs me goodbye.
6.1.4 Group interviews
As part of my research with this class we had two group interviews. e first interview was aended by B2, B1, B8 and B4, and the second by B1, B4 and B5. I arranged to meet them in the cafe near the classroom for an hour before their class. We sat round one table and the learners came in gradually. On both occasions I spoke to one learner alone and then others joined. e first meeting was interrupted by the cafe manager as she was closing the cafe. We continued
standing outside classroom and then when T2 came and unlocked the room we spent a few more minutes talking in there.
Episodes
B4 talking about benefits I am talking to B1 when B4 comes in. She seems
upset and changes the subject to say that her and her husband are now prisoners. I ask her to explain and she says that because they have housing benefit the government has decided that they can’t leave the country for more than four weeks. She explains further from April 2016 we can’t go out for more than 4 weeks or we will be losing benefits. I am confused and ask her who told you this? B4 says I know it exactly and repeats who told me? I ask her how she found out and B1 repeats the question who told you this information? B4 says I searched it on the Internet because there will be lots of changes aer 30th April. I am very confused about what she is saying and ask B1 if she understands. B1 says no and B4 explains that there is a change in the law; if you are on benefits you are not allowed to leave the country for more than four weeks. It used to be thirteen but now it is four weeks. I eventually understand what she is saying. I am still surprised and when I get home I search online and find out it is a change to the benefit system that has been introduced with very lile publicity
B8 showing me her book We are standing outside the classroom talking about
which languages she speaks. I ask if her first language is Arabic and she says it is my second, my first is Amharic; it is very different from Arabic. We have our own leers and our own. She pauses and then says I will show you. She looks in her bag and finds a book to show me. I look at a few pages; I don’t know what the book is about and don’t recognise the script. I say oh it is completely different isn’t it? I’ve heard it: I’ve never seen it wrien down before. I then say I did not know she spoke three languages and ask her when she came to the UK how she communicated with her caseworker. She answers only in English and explains it is her third language. She says she studied English in high school but never used it. She explains that she learnt how to listen to English but not to speak it so when she came to the UK she had to learn how to have conversations in English.
B1’s migration story B1 was very keen to tell the story of how she came to
and then to work. She then explains that her husband used to be her neighbour. Aer he came to the UK he decided he wanted to get married so he talked to their families. And then four years later they got married and she came to live here. B4 asks did you meet him before? B1 repeats that yes he was her neighbour but he was in the university and she was in the secondary school. B4 says so it was not an arranged marriage? B1 says no, I was engaged for three years and then I came to the UK on a visa. So I don’t have any benefits until now and now because he’s working we don’t have any. B5 asks her how long have you been here? And B1 says I came here in 2010 so about 6 years, nearly 6 years. e learners were keen to carry on discussing this but I drew the interview to a close saying T2 will be wondering where you are. B4 makes some final comments about the problems of migrants not knowing their rights when they first come to the UK and then I finish the interview.