Q&A with Linda Osborne: 2023 City Lit Award Winner

Linda has been studying with City Lit for almost three decades. Her development and commitment to courses across many departments in the college over that time meant she was nominated for an Outstanding Learner Award at the 2023 City Lit Awards.

Video: Linda and other award winners talk about studying at City Lit.

My name is Linda Osborne and I'm studying Chinese at City Lit with Ting Poon. I've also just completed a memoir writing course taught by Julie Garton. I started studying at City Lit in 1998 and I've done a lot of courses since then.

The main things that I enjoy are the quality of the courses, and the tutors are fantastic. They're normally experts in their field, and they're really good teachers. Often, I start a course and I don't know much about the subject. But by the end of it, I feel that I've reached a good standard. 

And there's things like learning Chinese characters. At first, I thought that was really daunting, but the tutor has many different approaches, and if I work hard, I find that I can read a lot more characters than I ever thought possible. It feels like I've really made progress through coming here. 

Doing the courses also stimulates my brain, and I feel that it spills over into other areas of my life. So, I think I'm better at my job, and that's important because I'm in my early 60s, and I want to continue working for as long as possible.

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I'm a quarter Chinese. My mum was born in China, and she lived there until she was 10. She came to England in 1946, as a refugee. My grandmother was Chinese, and my grandfather was English.

For me learning Chinese is about connecting with my heritage. I feel more at home in the UK now, because I'm learning Chinese. And it's great going to the classes because I'm mixing with other people who are really interested in China – the language, culture and history.

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Well, I've had a lot of different goals during my time at City Lit. The main way in which City Lit has helped me professionally, is through getting jobs. There was a period of my life when I was going for many interviews and not being successful. But I found just doing a few City Lit courses boosted the way I came across. I felt and sounded more confident, and I got jobs. And it was a succession of different jobs that I obtained, which was great. 

But these days, my goals are quite small. They are ‘improving things’, rather than doing well in job interviews. But I find that sometimes I undertake a course and then I've got a new goal. For example, radio and podcast presenting involved writing short pieces to deadlines. And I thought, “Oh, I quite enjoy writing.” Then I enrolled on a few writing courses, and I'm really enjoying them. And now I'm thinking about writing a memoir about my life and my mother's. So, City Lit has helped me to meet my goals and find new ones.

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The main thing for me about being part of the City Lit community is that I meet a diverse range of students and tutors; people who I wouldn't encounter in my normal day-to-day life, and it's interesting getting to know them. I also meet people who are part Chinese. It has been really good for me. 

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I love being able to take courses with the same tutor again and again. I've mentioned Ting Poon, I first met her in the year 2000 when I started learning Chinese. Then with the lockdowns, I thought I'd take up Chinese again, and I re-started with Ting. It was great to see her after all those years. She's a brilliant tutor.

All of the performing arts tutors are very dedicated, and help people to build up their confidence and presentation skills. I loved the online radio and podcast presenting courses taught by Allis Moss. They were creative and such fun, and gave me so much confidence for speaking at a microphone generally. Allis was very sensitive to students’ needs and always gave supportive feedback. 

My second City Lit course in 1998 was ‘Public Speaking’ with Stephanie Lunn. There were a few years when I didn’t attend many courses but this changed in 2018 when I found out that Stephanie had returned to City Lit, I thought to myself, “Right, I’m coming back because Stephanie is excellent.” I enrolled for ‘Presenting on the spot’ and ‘Communicate with confidence’ with her, and since then I’ve been on lots of courses and met many incredible tutors.

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