Welcome, Sina, to Kurus English!

Sina is doing a 4 week English Language Course with Kurus English. Afterwards she will be working with us for 2 more months, until January 2009. Sina is helping us with the administration of the school.

Thanks!

In this week’s Language Excursion we focus on Media Freedom, “Who’s truth is true?” and the new trend of user-generated news. On Tuesday we are visiting Cape Talk (capetalk.co.za) a radio station in Green Point. We will be given a tour of the facility, and the students will conduct an interview in one of their production studios. The next day we visit the ETV newsroom (etv.co.za). Experience the creation of a news story in the edit suite, where an editor will walk us through the steps. This will help us to lead the students towards creating their own news piece on video on the very next day, while visiting Cape Town Community TV Station (capetowntv.org). Students in groups will create their own news clips, edited at the TV station and screened in the media room for everyone. If we are lucky, our clips will even be broadcast on the channel!

www.academicworld.net published an interview with Johannes, Director of the school, the Kurus English concept, a review of the Capetonian Band MVRQ (for more info click here) and a review of one of our first students Corinne Bütler.

Please visit http://www.academicworld.net/index.php?id=140 and follow Kurus English!

Last week’s Language Excursion topic was Education & Youth and we asked ourselves some questions: What makes a good education? Free vs paid education?

We visited three different educational institutions in different parts of the City. On Tuesday we visited Kalkfontein Primary School and discussed with the Principal the challenges of educating the children. Afterwards, we met young people participating in a project called The Learning Lounge (www.reallifeconcepts.co.za/learninglounge/index.htm). On Wednesday, we drove to Langa and chatted with the Langa High School Debating Club and the Principal of the High School. On our last Excursion for this week, we met students from the Cape Peninsula Univesity of Technology (CPUT- www.cput.ac.za) who showed us around and gave us an interesting insight in their lives, future plans and their opinion on the educational system in South Africa.

Today you can see a huge picture of Kurus English in the Cape Times (www.capetimes.co.za). Swindon Properties (www.swinprop.co.za) published a picture in the Cape Times to show the successful letting of our beautiful building in 70 Wale Street.

Here you can download the picture!

Last week’s theme was the Environment. Our focus was on self-sustainabilty and urbanisation. Our first excursion led us to Rondevlei, a nature reserve in the Cape Flats, where we had a guided tour of the plants and wildlife. Unfortunately, we did not see the hippos…

On Wednesday, we visited 3 ladies in their vegetable gardens, who form part in a programme called Harvest of Hope (www.harvestofhope.co.za). It is a project coordinated between 3 pioneer organisations: Abalimi Bezekhaya (www.abalimi.org.za), the South African Institute for Entrepreneuership (www.entrepreneurship.co.za) and The Business Place (www.thebusinessplace.co.za). The ladies grow vegetables and Harvest of Hope helps them in finding secure, longterm outside markets where they are able to sell their products. It was great to meet the ladies in their gardens!

On our last excursion for the week, we visited Clinton Dilgee, the Fire Ranger for Table Mountain National Park. Clinton explained to us how they deal with fire in the area, and most importantly, how they prevent the occurance of fires at all. Please vist their website for more information (www.sanparks.org/parks/table_mountain/conservation/fire.php)

This week we are looking forward to meeting several pupils, scholars and students at different education facilities in and around Cape Town. Our topic is Educaction & Youth!

Kurus English appears in the German-African Business Association Newsletter (Afrika Verein der Deutschen Wirtschaft) this month!

Please click here to read the article (in German only).

For more information about the organisation, please follow the link: http://www.afrikaverein.de/de/index.php

Hi Rita!

Welcome to Kurus English and thank you very much for your support!

Rita is doing a 2 months internship with us. Rita will be liaising with language travel agencies in Brazil.

Our topic this week was Belief Systems. Compared to last week, which was a very active week, this week was quieter but less interesting. We visited an Imam in a mosque and learned a lot about Islam. On Thursday we had a meeting with Hildegarde, a Sangoma, an African Tradional Healer. Hildegarde had invited us to visit her home in Constantia and told us the story of how she became a Sangoma. It was very moving and thought-provoking to listen to her speak of her experiences with her ancestors. This was a Language Excursion week that made us all think!

The focus this week was on religious tolerance, the role of belief and spiritual expression. In South Africa we are fortunate to have many different belief systems where people live  peacefully next to each other and repect each other. Something the rest of the world could learn from!

Sorry, that we only have a few pictures this week but it was hardly possible to take any.

Kurus English had its official opening yesterday! 120 guests celebrated with us. All the various groups involved in setting-up and running an English Language School were present: Family and Friends, Marketing Agencies, Host Families, Guesthouses, Hotels, Language Excursion Hosts, Media and Press, Local and Provincial Government and various organisations!

Thank you all for coming and making our launch a great evening!

Special thanks to the musicians and to the people who prepared the delicious Cape Malay food for us!

Tomorrow afternoon 07.10.2008 you can listen to Iain (Coffeebeans Routes) and Johannes (Kurus English) live on Cape Talk. Iain and Johannes will be guests on the Soli Philander Show from 1:30 to 2:00pm.

Click here to see the short description of the interview. There is just one little mistake. Iain is the Director of Coffeebeans Routes and not Kurus English.

Our first week of Language Excursions took off!

This week’s topic was Art, Dance and Music. On Tuesday our students performed a Dance Workshop with Celeste Botha. We had the opportunity to learn the South African Gumboot dance and the Pantsula. On Wednesday, we had an art workshop at the Castle of Good Hope with John Bauer. Finally, yesterday we travelled to Langa where we took part in a drum session with Nceba.

We are all looking forward to next week’s Language Excursions. The topic is Belief Systems.

Enjoy the pics!

Our first marketing campaign in Cape Town is bearing fruit! The magazine www.capeinfo.com published the article about Kurus English and Coffeebeans Routes!

To read the whole article please download!

The Cape Business News has published our press release today. Click here for the whole article!

To visit the Cape Business News website go to http://www.cnb.co.za

The Language and Travel Magazine published an article about our new school Kurus English in its October 2008 issue.

You can read the article here!

For more information about the Language Travel industry go to the Hothouse Media website: http://www.hothousemedia.com/ltm/index.htm

The company, SCA Containerboard Aschaffenburg, where I did my apprenticeship as an Electrician from 1996 to 1999, published my story in its company magazine. Enjoy! Unfortunately, it is only available in German.

Here you can download the article!

To go to the SCA Containerboard website click here!