In the volunteer editorial team, volunteers for Chemnitz 2025 publish reports on their experiences, assignments and adventures around the European Capital of Culture.
Ilona Helena Richter registered on the website of the European Capital of Culture 2025 in autumn 2024, among other things for the areas of guest accompaniment and city history. She was born in Leipzig and has lived in Chemnitz for several years.
On 7 November, I will be taking part in the kick-off workshop at INSPIRE am Brühl. It's an offer for volunteers who want to brush up on their English language skills for successful contact with English-speaking visitors to the Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025.
As I enter, I am greeted by a friendly welcome in the familiar atmosphere of this culturally rich place. "Hello, I'm Luise - nice of you to come!" At a table, four young women introduce themselves as tandem partners who are organising and actively supporting the workshop as students at Chemnitz University; all around them are people of different ages, engaging in friendly conversation.
I find a free seat at one of the tables in the cosily furnished room with large windows overlooking Brühl Boulevard. Introductions, objectives, programme, outlook. There's a lot of laughter, we're all on the same wavelength.
After about two hours of relaxed exchange, the tandems say goodbye, armed with tips from the organisers, a small brochure with common phrases and good wishes for lively exchanges in the coming period. A few days later, I have an appointment with Guli from Uzbekistan and Andrea from Chemnitz in a bistro Am Wall, we chat about this and that over delicious Russian tea, and I even manage to slip a German word into my somewhat slurred English ;). Five meetings followed, all of which I really enjoyed, for example when I learnt interesting things about Guli's home country.
Over the weeks, I had many chances to practice my English, including using the language app a lot. (I even dreamed in English once! :)). From my point of view, the workshop was a great thing. I also found the interaction between younger and older people wonderfully unifying and enriching.
I would like to sincerely thank all those who created this opportunity to organise something together with so much joy and commitment. Capital of Culture Chemnitz2025 - here we come!
