English teacher's lament Come gather round me boys and girls and listen to my song. It's only 40 verses so I won't detain you long. It's all about nice people who came here from far away to teach the natives English and to earn a little pay.

They came from places far and wide, New York and Liverpool In Dublin, parents cried sad tears saying darling you're a fool. Why not stay here with family and friends who love you dear For teaching natives English will frustrate you. This I fear.

But mother, father, listen now - 'twas spoken with one voice We have to go and help this Volk, you see we have no choice. Linguistic-underprivileged German people need our aid. So we'll work hard to help them talk and surely we'll get paid. Soon economic miracles were felt throughout the land Our English lessons helped them sell and surely all was grand

The schools we worked for raked in cash and bought Mercedes Benz But sad and true for me and you we'd barely meet the ends. Some men of vision met in Köln along with women too. The things they talked about that day made life improve for you. They said that things weren't going well for cash still wasn't great English Language Teachers boys must now Associate.

They talked of futures golden in fine language most profound. "When we all work together we will stand up from the ground" These happenings historical took place in '89 For that was when we rose again - the start of ELTA Rhine

Lorcan Flynn