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"BRAIN TRAINS" GIVE COMMUTERS CHANCE TO LEARN JAPANESE

 

By John Petty, Transport Correspondent

 

Fleets of “brain trains” on which commuters will be able to study anything from Japanese or palaeography to human biology, American football and antiques are planned by British Rail.

Some trains already have commuter study clubs, but Sir Robert Reid, BR chairman, is to give official backing to a huge expansion of the scheme.

And Mr Gordon Pettitt, general manager of Southern Region, said: “ Every suitable train in the regoin is being surveyed to test demand for classes.”

The commuter clubs started 10 years ago when Mr Michael Young and his daughter, Sophie, then 15, walked through a Cambridge-London train and questioned every passenger.

Huge range

They found many people interestedin using their daily journey to study a huge range of subjects, such as psychology, architectual history, accountancy and law.

“The remarkable things was that there were also people on the train willing to teach the same subjects aat no charge”,” Lord Young said yesterday.

“It was a kind of fducational miracle”.

Now the commuter clubs offer more than 100 classes a year, generally with three pupils and one teacher in each group.

They are organised by Mrs Pamela de Pelley and her new assistant, Mrs Marilyn Phillips. Classes are usually free.

The main growth in the scheme will be in Network South East, because that is where long-distance commuters are concentrated. But Glasgo-Edinburgh is among other routes with study clubs.

Places saved

Surveys to extend the system are being carried out on trains from Salisbury, Portsmouth, Didcot, Dover, Bognor and many other places.

British Rail provides stickers to put on carriage windows and cards to put on seats to save laces for the regular travelling students.

Learning Japanese has proved particularly attractive on trains bound for the City. A request for a class on American football has come from the Littlehampton line, while human biology – with a different part of the body studied each week – is on the Didcot-Paddington line.

The request for a class on palaeography – the study of the history of handwriting – was on the Portsmouth-Waterloo line.

 

Warm-up 

1. Do you know what a commuter is?

2. Why do people commute?

3. What are the disadvantages of commuting?

4. Are there any possible advantages?

 

A. Memory Test 

Read the article right through carefully and then test your memory by seeing how many of the following questions you can answer.

 

1. What “ nickname is given to those trains where passengers can study on their way to work?

2. How long ago did “ commuter clubs” start?

3. How much do the classes cost?

4. Where do the tearchers come from?

5. How many students are there usually in class?

6. In which part of Britain are the commuters clubs concentrated?

7. What are placed on carriage windows to reserve the compartments for “ student” passengers?

8. Which subject is popoular with business people travelling to the City?

9. Which line in Scotland has trains with study clubs?

10. Several subjects for study that passengers were interested in were mentioned in the article. How many can you remember?

 

B. Talking Points 

1. What do you think of the idea of a “ brain train”?

2. Do you think that such a scheme would be pracricle or popular in your country?

3. If you were a commuter, travelling into a big city every day togo to work,

A. what subject would you like to study?

B. what subject would you like and be able to teach?