The English Class

RTÉ isn't well-known for producing great comedies and it's not bucking that trend with The English Class. However, I found that it did grow on me slightly the more I watched it. Set in a Dublin college, immigrants of various nationalities are brought together to tackle that strange the English language: their ticket to a better life in Ireland. They're thought by an inept and incompetent teacher who is very much in the mould of David Brent. Most episodes centre on the teacher's pathetic attempts to befriend the class and impart his philosophy on life rather than teach, and the students' frustration at their lack of progress.

I wouldn't call The English Class comedy gold, but it had it's moments. It also reminded me of my disastrous, yet thankfully short, career teaching English as a foreign language. Sometimes I wonder whether I was as bad as him. I suppose the show also has a good motive in that it reflects a more modern, multi-cultural Ireland, and it certainly isn't Mind Your Language. However, The English Class does, at times, fall into the trap of reinforcing national stereotypes.