We visited Theatre in the Mill at Bradford University today (Wednesday 26th July) to take part in something very special. Every Wednesday, 11am – 1pm, Rosie Macpherson from Stand and Be Counted Theatre (https://www.sbctheatre.co.uk/) runs a session there called Soap Box. This is open to adults who want to come together in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere to meet new people and practise their English in a creative way. 

The lovely group that we met today were from China, Myanmar and Dubai. After checking in, talking about how we were and what we’d been up to this week, we were all put into pairs and created colourful portraits of each other. Embarrassment at dusting off our art skills soon gave way to the joy of creation, and getting absorbed in speaking to each other and finding out as much as we could to include in our portraits. When our masterpieces were complete, we showed them to the group and committed to speaking about them for 30 seconds to a minute – most people were so absorbed in telling everyone about their portraits, they ended up speaking for much longer! What a wonderful way to develop new vocabulary and practice speaking English.