Norwich Library connecting communities through language learning

Photo: Joe Bunker

A library in Norwich is helping people improve their English, as figures from the most recent Census show that just over 160,000 people in England and Wales could not speak the language.

The English Exchange at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library, runs sessions every Monday and Thursday, and had to be stopped for 2 years during the Covid pandemic.

Alice Mouncer, who runs the sessions said, “the idea is [they are] very informal, it’s not about getting a qualification, it's about just coming in and speaking English.”

Photo: Joe Bunker

She explained how people from all around the world come to exchange, including refugees from Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion.

“When the war broke out in Ukraine… we thought were going to have a lot of people here coming to this part of the world needing to feel more confident with their spoken English, so we thought it would be a good time to get them set up again.”

She said, “some people come in and they have very little English, and we’re really starting from scratch.”

The sessions which are run by volunteers also have people who recently emigrated from Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Turkey, Lithuania and Brazil.

“It’s really lovely to see [the] same people coming each week and supporting each other.”

The Millennium Library, which is located in the Forum, has also been running migrant support sessions, for people that have just arrived in the country.

“We had things like free sim cards and free laptops that we could give to people, and also information about health services and getting their kids into school.”

The English Exchange runs every Monday afternoon from 2PM to 3PM and on Thursday mornings from 10:30AM to 11:30AM.