Second Language Needed

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31907, 7 February 1969, Page 2

Second Language Needed

(From Our Own Reporter) TIMARU, Feb. 6. Having attended two international women’s conferences, one in Germany and the other in England, Miss Dorothy A. Raymond is convinced New Zealanders require a second language. She said that French and English were the official languages at the sixteenth conference of the International Federation of University Women at Karlsbruhe. Some of the speakers spoke their own language (German), the French speakers insisted on using their own language, too, but by the time this was followed by a garbled English version a person had lost interest. At banquets and receptions, all the speeches were given in three languages, and this was extremely tedious and slowed down proceedings, said Miss Raymond. On the Continent, French, German and English were spoken mainly, but Spanish was creeping in. Miss Raymond was one of

two New Zealand delegates to the eleventh Business and Professional Women’s International Congress at Grosvenor House, London. The other delegate was the national president, Mrs L. Harrison-Lee, of Auckland.

One thousand women attended the congress. During her visit. Miss Raymond attended a production in St Paul’s Cathedral of “Son et Luminere,” organised by Dean Martin Sullivan. Other highlights were the London Festival Ballet in an extravagantly-elaborate pro-

duction of “The Sleeping Beauty” and a visit to a training school of the Bank of Westminster, which trains 3000 employees a year.