World Café: The weekly Weymouth coffee group welcoming all nationalities
The weekly meeting is held at the Palm House in Weymouth, among other activities the group carry out
Last updated 22nd Dec 2021
International English speakers living in Dorset are being invited to a new coffee morning at The Palm House in Weymouth.
Set up by the business and local member Christina Rushton, they are families and people without children.
The meetings are held every week starting at 10am and finishing at midday.
The group (International Parents Dorset) do other activities outside of The Palm House too, you can find out more about those on their Facebook page.
It first started at the beginning of December with people from Poland, Venezuela, Italy and Spain attending - the next meet up will be on today (December 22nd).
Christina's mum is Spanish and her dad is from Weymouth, she told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset more about the group:
"It can be anybody, mums, dads, both, people who haven't got anybody and they just want to meet. English people that want to go there, but the idea is mainly people who have different nationalities or different speaking languages but obviously anyone can come.
"It started when I was talking to the owner of The Palm House when he was very interested in our countries and cultures and we thought why not start meeting up with people. So between us and my friend Alessandra we organised the group.
"When we meet, we talk about the difference in our countries and compared to England. Considering it can be bad weather here, shopping centres and high streets are outside and in the open but you would think that they would be closed."
The group are on Facebook as international parents Dorset but anyone can join.
Christina explains why it is beneficial for the children.
"The kids were altogether trying to speak together and hopefully they will all stay friends, grow up together and learn each others languages.
"We are hoping more people will join, but we appreciate that the meetings are usually during the week and people work."