Notes from the chapel
Elena and Rhiannon write one of these when something in a lesson is worth passing on. They are short, and there are never more than a few a term.
Three most recent
18 September 2026 · Elena Moretti-Sanz
With twelve people in a room, each person speaks for about four minutes in an hour and a half. With six, it is nearer thirty. That one number decides almost everything else about how this school is run.
Read the note
29 August 2026 · Rhiannon Lefèvre
Everyone arrives braced for the double L and leaves defeated by the vowel in the middle of an ordinary word. A fortnight of listening fixes it faster than any diagram of a tongue ever has.
Read the note
11 July 2026 · Elena Moretti-Sanz
Sonnet, cartoon, balcony, piano, umbrella, novel. Beginners always say they know no Italian; they have been carrying several hundred words around for years without noticing.
Read the note“People do not give up because the grammar is hard. They give up because nobody ever asked them a question they actually wanted to answer.”
Rhiannon Lefèvre · on week threeThe conversation café is free and needs no booking: four tables, one language each, 10:00 to 11:30 every Saturday of the year.
The Old Chapel, Lion Street, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5AD · +447700900215