Let’s Talk Anew is one of our traditionally published educational books, used in schools mainly in the Czech Republic, but also Slovakia. Below is the story behind its publication, also giving its rationale.
In the Right Place at the Right Time
The year was 1995. My husband and I were living in the Czech Republic and teaching English for a couple of years. Only about five years before that, the Iron Curtain had fallen. Everyone was now learning English – it had replaced the previously compulsory Russian in all schools. We were grateful for the opportunity to teach English – even at the university – though some of our students were at only beginner to lower intermediate level. In those days, it was easy for native English speakers to get jobs teaching English at all school levels – from elementary school through to university and adult education. Also, most of the former Russian teachers were now in crash-course education and ongoing training as English teachers.
It was also a time when visionary, enterprising Czechs began fledgling businesses, some of which are still doing well. One such person was George Fraus who started under his own name a small publishing house for language-learning materials.
From our teaching, we got some ideas for a possible English conversation book and so decided to contact several educational publishers with a query letter. Fraus responded by return mail – which usually means rejection, but in this case, to our pleasant surprise, the response was positive! They requested specific subject and chapter proposals, which we submitted. About a year later, on a cold winter’s day, we visited Fraus Publishing in Plzen (west of Prague) to discuss our proposal. Several of the small staff including the director gathered around a table with us, and we hammered out the details of the format, content and graphics.
From that meeting, Let’s Talk was officially conceived and born a few years later – a black and white English conversation book with photos and drawings. It finally came on the market in 1999. We were pleasantly surprised and delighted at how well the book sold. Over 60,000 copies were purchased and the book was used in schools all over the Czech Republic and in neighboring Slovakia.
Time went on and in 2001, after my mother passed away and my father was left on his own, we found ourselves back in Australia.
One day, ten years after the publication of Let’s Talk, Fraus Publishing contacted us again. They asked if we were interested in revising and updating our original book! The publishing company had grown and was occupying an impressive three-story building with an educational supplies shop on the ground floor. They were also working in partnership with a German publishing house. (As of this writing, they continue to grow and doing very well. Their website is http://www.fraus.com/)
We gladly accepted the opportunity and dived into reworking the book – all from the comfort of our Australian home. As a result, a totally new version of our first book was created, this time in blue-green duo-tone, and entitled Let’s Talk Anew. The sales were much more moderate as by that time, the English as a Second Language (ESL) market had totally changed with lots of competition from the UK and USA as far as learning resources. However, we were still grateful for the opportunity to influence young English students in Europe.
Today, English teaching in the Czech Republic is very different from those first few years after the Velvet Revolution over thirty-five years ago. The Czech young people we taught have gone on to become fine English teachers in their own right. The book market for English learning has a rich diversity of quality books – alongside valuable online tools, undreamed of when we produced Let’s Talk.
Our vision for Let’s Talk had been twofold: Firstly, to help young people learn the skills for conversing in English, and secondly, to share with them timeless values for life in a rapidly changing world. The same vision was still reflected in Let’s Talk Anew – which too is now out of print. Hopefully, those students who had used our books not only found them beneficial for mastering English conversation on a wide variety of themes but also were helped in learning to make sound choices in life that will have brought them wellbeing and contentment on their life’s journey.
Let’s Talk Anew is one of our traditionally published educational books, used in schools mainly in the Czech Republic, but also Slovakia. Below is the story behind its publication, also giving its rationale.
