I have had the image of the Harry Enfield character, Kevin the teenager, in my mind so often in the past few weeks when faced with my two temporary classes while covering for a sick colleague since March. Their default setting seems to be to assume the worst of each other and often of me.

The lower level class labelled themselves the no-hopers the very first time we met them and this is re-inforced every so often when a small group of them, asked to do something say 'Well it's no use asking me, I don't know a word of English.' They are as afraid of their peers as they are of what I might think of them. This means that they won't speak English for any length of time in front of each other so we have had to agree that they send us (the teachers) individual voice mails to have a chance of awarding them grades for oral English.

The voicemails have belied their low opinions of themselves. Some of them have gone into minute detail of their personal history and revealed information to us who are relative strangers which they would never dare to do in class. Even fairly innocuous observations such as introducing family members and saying 'I love them very much' I am sure would not be acceptable in open class discussion.

In the higher level class it is obviously not cool to study and there are also a lot of defensive reactions. Pacing over to the other side of the classroom last week I explained that I would have to repeat my instructions as they would certainly not have heard what I had said to the other group. 'Well you were too far away!.' was the immediate reaction and it took two more tries of explanation from me before they understood that I was not accusing them of not listening but coming over to help.

I am learning that if I have similar groups in the new academic year there will need to a lot of boundary setting and negotiating of norms at the beginning. For example just because they are working with internet enabled computers does not mean that they should be instant messaging with their cyberfriends. I do use chat in English teaching but normally with a specific goal in mind and also obviously in English.

But I am a little stymied about how much we have to discuss. My last session with them was delayed a while because nobody had thought to bring writing utensils and paper. It never occurred to me that I had to list paper and pencil as a pre-requisite for a class. It seems kind of obvious to me even when you are working in a computer-equipped room.

The HG class have mostly completed recordings. These were sent to me and my co-teacher as voicemails. The option of posting the recordings on a class voiceboard was rejected because the students were afraid that the others would laugh at their efforts. I have so far heard 16 out of 21 and I have heard many interesting and sensitive postings about the students’ lives, hopes and fears. I think it is sad that they cannot entrust these to their colleagues. However it does mean that I have had a chance to get a truer representation of their skills in oral English than I might otherwise have been allowed to hear.

A review here of Waxxi, a new kind if podcast seems kind of chaotic. It sounds like a type of Internet phone-in. I can see a case for live discussion on an occasional basis in our own www.absolutely-intercultural.com efforts. But first I must conquer the issue of sound quality. We released show 4 at the weekend which is the first one I have produced myself and I must say that the sound quality is much worse than I would wish. I have finally succumbed and bought a USB microphone and sound card which should be delivered very soon. I hope that it does the trick because it'll be a pain to return if it fails to live up to expectations.

Just back from Germany and a project meeting of the group managing the Leonardo project LIPS; Linguistic and Intercultural Preparation for the Workplace. Apart from meeting up again with old friends, we also met some new and interesting people. I can't help comparing the progress made in the LIPS project with the one I am running since it is in the same programme and running to the same timetable. But then I must not become too dispirited. The LIPS project had a headstart while my own project has only been mine to manage for about 4 weeks as the previous project coordinator had too much on his plate so it is not surprising that we are behind schedule. I am confident that we can catch up as long as we all start working hard now.

In the LIPS project we have been having monthly online meetings and this was evaluated in the face to face. Even though most of the partners do not feel too comfortable with the online medium, the vote was to carry on with the online meetings since the feeling is that motivation and activity levels are maintained at a higher level because of these monthly mini events.

On the social agenda was a wine-tasting evening at a small vineyard just up in the hills behind Remagen where we were staying. The wine was delicious and the building, in Gaudi-esque style, was amazing.

Bananas, bananas, chemicals, stuff, bananas, cars, cars, coal, coal, gravel, bananas, freight, freight.

Germany always strikes me as a busy place or is it because I am usually on the Rhine which is flanked by a railway on either side?

Ten years ago, I wrote a textbook about the European Union which meant I had to write about every member state of the EU. Much of the information was second hand as I had not visited every corner of the EU and this was not a high-profile celebrity travel book with a huge budget. I remember writing with some scepticism about the importance of the European canal network but now that I come to Germany so often I can appreciate what an artery the Rhine is for commercial traffic in the way that the British canal system simply is not, reduced as it is to a picturesque tourist attraction. I was told also that the German freight rail system is what makes a profit for German railways rather than passenger traffic and after being kept awake in my hotel by freight trains rumbling through the night, I can well believe it.

An article I wrote to accompany my online session in the Webheads in Action Online Convergence Event last November has just been published on the Web at http://www.iatefl.org.pl/call/callnl.htm in the May issue of Teaching English with Technology, exclusively devoted to publishing the first part of the proceedings.

The article describes our progress to date in the Teaching Culture! project in which we are piloting a blended learning course to enhance the intercultural competence of teachers in adult education in Europe.

I have only been responsible for one show so far in our Absolutely Intercultural podcast but I have several recordings 'in the bag' waiting to be edited and I can see that this is a great excuse to renew old acquaintances or start new ones.

Already I have been in touch with a friend in Scotland who we haven't seen in over ten years and with someone I knew in Denmark but who is back in South Africa at the moment. It has also given me an excuse to get in touch with interesting people all over the world who I would otherwise never have contacted. This mix of old and new contacts is quite exhilirating and at the moment I am not entirely sure where this will lead, if anywhere.

Our institution is merging with a similar institution round the corner. We had a big meeting last week which was a familiarisation and strategy planning meeting. As part of the process of getting to know each other the bosses have started a Moodle in which we were invited to post the results of our small group discussions about the future which we held that day. We had been divided into special interest groups. I was allocated to the project development group and was therefore interested to see what had been discussed in the other groups. Having online discussion fora is a completely new approach in our institution.

One group was the soft skills group and they had decided that there was little place for e-learning tools in their future work. I understood why they had said this since they believe very much in the power of group exercises preferably carried out outdoors but still I can see a role for reflective activities both before and after the practical activities and posted a response to that effect in the Moodle.

Then I went to a project meeting in Germany and while there I got a response from someone in the group telling me that nobody believed there was a place for e-learning tools in soft skills training. When I went to the Moodle to reply, (because I am arrogant enough to think that I am not 'nobody' and that what I do in the inter-cultural field is as soft as you can get) I discovered that the response had been sent to me privately and not in the Moodle. I thought this was kind of ironic and asked the respondant why the reply was not in our shared discussion area in the Moodle. No response. So after a few days I posted a response anyway to the private message I had received and got some encouraging reactions from other colleagues which was good as I was otherwise beginning to get the feeling that I was just talking to myself.

Then a couple of days later I thought I would try another experiment asking for ideas for a new project. I find getting project ideas quite difficult sitting on my own (while my other colleagues are outdoors helping teams build bridges and so on) and wondered if it was worth touting for ideas. To my delight I got four worthwhile replies within the first day which were spot-on and which I will certainly follow up.

We have often complained in the past that we don't know enough about what our colleagues are doing. Perhaps this could be the start of a new era of closer collaboration in spite of our physical distance from each other.