you have lived in interesting times, Charmion

Back in the 80s a friend was an ESL teacher, teaching (Australian) English to Vietnamese Australians who had learnt their English in the French/Vietnamese school system, so naturally they couldn't understand conversational Australian English.

10 years ago I was teaching sewing at a Craft group run by a friend's church with a large Japanese congregation. Naturally these women couldn't cope with conversational English & the group offered ESL classes too.

sandra