The Craft Café in St Angeau was set up in response to a request for a weekly activity that would involve both English and French participants with the aim of improving their language abilities, whilst enjoying sharing and learning about new handicrafts.
One of the most interesting afternoons was when an English speaking member brought in her spinning wheel and provided a demonstration on how to work with a variety of materials such as sheep wool, llama wool and local rabbit fur. One of the French speaking participants kept angora rabbits from which she harvested the fur to make into wool from which she knitted hats and scarves to sell at local markets and was delighted to share her expertise and learn about how to use a spinning wheel.
In this case at the beginning of the afternoon none of the ladies could speak the other’s language, but by the end of the afternoon, not only were they communicating, albeit on a basic level, barriers were broken down and other participants were confidently talking amongst themselves in both French and English and enjoying learning new words, expressions and a new handicraft.