A penny for their thoughts

Switzerland is a wonderful country. Great scenery, great (if expensive) food, great cities, great accents and dialects, and great people. Well, that's my executive summary.

My only gripe with Switzerland is that, a year ago, the authorities gave me four speeding tickets within the space of 13 hours. Three of the fines — which were hefty — were from the same speed camera. As a colleague said, a case of "not learning by doing".

But that's history, and I won't bear a grudge against a country whose unemployment rate, though at its highest since 1998, is still only 4 per cent.

It was the positive side of Switzerland that I experienced again last weekend in Basle at a conference organized by the English Teachers Association Switzerland (ETAS). To be on the safe side, I went by train.

The conference was impressive for many reasons. More than 350 teachers gathered to discuss aspects of their trade. This is an extraordinary number, given the size of the country.

Among the highlights was a fascinating plenary speech by award-winning author Scott Thornbury on "7 ways of looking at grammar", ranging from the traditional rules to seeing grammar as little more than typical word combinations.

Another highlight was a workshop by Marjorie Rosenberg, a business English trainer based in Graz, on ways of learning business English vocabulary in the classroom. One of the tasks Marjorie set us was to act out being office items such as a company stamp or an overhead projector.

But the killer presentation was by Cindy Hauert, treasurer of ETAS. Cindy presented the latest news about the ETAS Teacher-to-Teacher Project at the Matopo Primary School in Zimbabwe.

The aim of the project is to support teachers at the school and improve facilities, including a "Spend a penny" project to build new toilets. Cindy also proudly announced that the Roger Federer Foundation will be supporting the project over the next three years.

Congratulations to Cindy and ETAS both for the fabulous conference and the inspring project. That's the sort of thing I'm happy to send money to Switzerland for.