THE popular language classes that have been held at the same Kendal venue for more than 30 years have been forced to move to a new location.

The Brewery Arts Centre has hosted the classes, which will now be held at Kendal’s Castle Street Community Centre from September, since 1989 when Madrid-born Pilar Valera began to teach Spanish.

Since then Pilar and her language tutor colleagues have taught students French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and sign language at the Brewery. 

Parisian tutor Dominique Pluskwa, who has taught the classes for 18 years, said: "I was shocked and sad when we heard that the Brewery were stopping language classes. 

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"Most of us come from another European country and we love sharing our language and culture with our students. 

"We’ve not only held classes but also movie and dinner nights, full-day language immersion experiences in a place that acted as a real international cultural hub, and we fully intend to carry our enthusiasm forward".

Tutor Dorothea Williamson, from Stuttgart, added: "There are so many reasons to learn a foreign language - to be able to communicate while travelling, to keep our brain engaged, to practice what we learned in the past, to expand our horizons, and to have fun with like-minded people".

Local multi-linguist Cath Bond said: "We are very excited to continue to offer all our classes in a different venue.

"We’re looking forward to settling into our new home at the Castle Street Community Centre, Kendal LA9 7AD.

"We can’t wait to welcome you there in September and discover together a new area of Kendal."

Miriam Randall, CEO and Artistic Director of Brewery Arts, explained the cessation: "These classes were historically supported by grant funding received by Brewery Arts, but this ended in 2018. 

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"Now that we are building back from Covid we are adding new arts activities to our programmes, resulting in increased demand for our venue spaces.

"Unfortunately the spaces available to the language tutors no longer suited their specific needs, so they have chosen alternative venues. 

"I am pleased that we will continue to promote the language classes through our marketing, and we wish them every success in the future."

To find out more visit www.bankfieldlanguages.co.uk or www.frenchwithdominique.co.uk