TNAG-2077-FCO40-2957-Hong-Kong-culture-1990 — Page 206

this

itiative was worthwhile and that it could well be given a

fair wind by the JAU. I pointed out that in Hungary, for example,

any BBC project of the sort for schools would need to be meshed into

the Hungarian Government's overall ELT programme which as I recalled already had many organisations involved Peace Corps, VSO, World

Bank, British Council, International House etc.

-

3. The BBC mentioned that it was planning to send a small stage show 4 to 5 actors from the BBC English Repertory Company - to Budapest, Warsaw and E Berlin in the late spring or early summer.

The show is aimed at learners of English and looks humourously at

the culture and language holding the British character together. is receiving a small (£4,500) grant from the English Language Promotion Unit, agreed at its meeting last week which I attended.

4.

It

The BBC agreed that one of the ironies of the E European

situation was that in due course and as local broadcasting improved,

audiences for the BBC might diminish. But this had not happened

yet.

HONG KONG

5.

I encouraged the BBC to do whatever it could to improve EL

broadcasting (and re-broadcasting via local radio) in Hong Kong. I

mentioned that the Secretary of State had expressed a particular interest in ELT there and that he was somewhat surprised at the poor

English spoken by many of the Hong Kong Chinese he met. The BBC

said they were already working on a project to improve ELT with

Peter Pelham of the Hong Kong Government and with the backing of the

Hong Kong Shanghai Bank amonst others. Elizabeth Smith was going to

Hong Kong shortly. I described some of the ideas in the British Council's/Hong Kong Government's mind on summer school courses in

the UK for Hong Kong English teachers.

SEMINARS

6.

The ODA is hosting a seminar on 21 February on Broadcasting and

ELT to evaluate the findings in the Cripwell Report on this.

(Perhaps Information Department has been invited; CRD has not been.)