Danny Singh, born and raised in London, but now based in Rome and Canterbury, gives creative English language lessons and teacher training courses all over Europe. He also offers stimulating monthly presentations on language related issues at Rome’s biggest international bookshop and has his own YouTube channel which contains a series of interactive English video lessons. He is author of two books, “I was a happy man...then one day I came across Laughter Yoga” and “Learning English through the mind and the body” and is currently working on his third book, “Life is full of surprises”. He regularly attended Pilgrims TT summer courses as a Guest Speaker. Email: singh_danny@hotmail.com, www.laughnlearn.net,  

www.youtube.com/channel/UCA2CFTD27Yw6Lf7kOW0PbOQ/videos

 

 

 

How I met Pilgrims and Canterbury

 

I discovered Pilgrims the educational institution and the University of Kent in Canterbury where its summer courses were located back in 1991, when I attended a basic training course on how to teach English as a foreign language. That short experience was enough to convince me to try and visit this place as often as possible.

In 1995, I got my first job there as a teacher on the English for Adults course. We gave lessons in the morning and had the afternoon to prepare our lessons for the next day. In the coffee break area, I noticed a list of workshops advertised for the afternoon and evening. One of them was called, “how to teach listening without tape recorders”. How strange I thought. I was nevertheless intrigued enough to attend it. The session was being given by a man called Mario Rinvolucri. Little did I know at the time, how lifechanging this event was to be. Mario gave his session and I was left speechless and in awe as I realised that this was the way I wanted to teach, not the way that I had been taught on the general training courses. This one session and the film, “Dead Poet’s Society” starring Robin Williams were the two biggest influences on my way of teaching. I decided to try some of these creative ideas in my lessons the next morning and so I did. They were a great success and the students enjoyed them. The next day I found another workshop on a different subject given by another Pilgrims trainer. Once again, I got some brilliant ideas which I applied to my lessons the following morning. And so it went on. These sessions were essentially for teachers who were studying methodology, so as well as getting some great practical activities, we had discussions and got explanations on how and why these ideas worked. Most of my colleagues spent their afternoons in the resources room going through books, looking for ideas, photocopying and generally looking stressed. I did a bit of that too, but I tried to attend at least one of these workshops for teachers per day, none of which ever disappointed me.

From 1996 through to 2019, I attended Pilgrims in many guises, initially as a teacher on the English for Adults course, then on the English for Young Adults course, as a Guest Speaker and even attending some courses as a participant. Around 2003, there were some dramatic changes at Pilgrims, as the main owner James Dixey decided to sell his stake and subsequently the only summer courses left were those for teachers, as the other courses were eliminated in a bid to cut costs. The courses for teachers was the area where I felt I could really learn more. Nevertheless, I was extremely saddened to hear that my previous courses had been done away with.

I didn’t go every year, but let’s say three out of every five years I was there. During my time, I met a plethora of people from all over the world, and as you can imagine, I had a lot of happy memories. The memories were so positive that in 2018 I decided to move my UK base from London where I didn’t really need to be, to this lovely small and compact city of Canterbury. As a Londoner, it was great to be able to go almost anywhere without having to resort to the tube or the bus. I had of course explored the area thoroughly before making my move. After all, one thing is being stuck on a hill on a university campus, another is running around a city full of shops, banks, coffee bars and a wide range of people.       

 

The Canterbury Ghosts

 

Despite the fact that Pilgrims no longer does any kind of courses in Canterbury, having closed its business office in the centre of the city and organising its summer courses for teachers elsewhere, I am still able to go walking up and down the hill, wander around the campus, savouring the sounds, views, smells and touch that surround me and relive some experiences from the past, thanks to the fact that I have Canterbury as my UK base.

I have no clear idea of when exactly it started happening, but it was in 2017 that I first became fully aware of the Canterbury Ghosts and how they affected me. Those of you familiar with Neuro-Linguistic Programming will no doubt remind me that when we remember an experience which was either extremely positive or extremely negative, we somehow manage to record all the infinite details that we would normally otherwise forget, what we were wearing on the day, what we ate, the temperature and other minor details. I do experience this in many places all over the world that I have been to, however, nothing is remotely comparable to what I experience while wandering around the University of Kent campus.

I’ll suddenly hear voices, real voices of real people that I met, I’ll see faces of people I came across too. One of the locations where this happens is between Rutherford and Eliot College. This would make sense as at the beginning of the 21^st century, the English for Adults course was located in Rutherford. Another area where I hear voices is the Parkwood Village area, around the reception where we’d wave goodbye to people on Saturday mornings, as they drove off in taxis to various UK airports. The self-catering houses also bring back countless memories, as I shared houses with both teacher trainers, teachers on courses and participants from a range of countries. I can still smell the international food coming from the kitchens as I walk by, I can see another great Pilgrims trainer, Paul Davis as he sits outside the front door drinking a bottle of beer with a strange name. It was he who introduced me to real high-quality beer, after I had falsely believed that I didn’t like beer, having previously only experienced the sparkling water lagers like Fosters, Budweiser, Heineken and Peroni.

I can see Bonnie Tsai another great Pilgrims trainer, walking along the path from Parkwood to the main University area. My greatest fear was bumping into her while walking along the path, initially because she frightened the life out of me with her apparently accusing eyes, but later when she did talk to me the fear was almost as bad, as she walked so slowly, that having to share the walk with her would delay my breakfast by at least twenty minutes, meaning I had less time to prepare myself for whatever was in store for my first class. I have walked back and forth along that path countless times both alone and in the company of others, so I suppose it’s not surprising that I hear so many voices there which interrupt the sounds of birds signing and the rabbits rustling in the grass nearby.

The location where I have my biggest memories however, and the one place I make it a priority to visit if I have little time to spare is Keynes College. During the 1990s, all the courses were there, the refectory was up the stairs at the back, I can still smell the food if I’m wandering around there. The welcome and farewell parties were held in what is now a bar/canteen called, La Dolce Vita. It doesn’t matter what noise is coming from there or even if there is complete silence, as soon as I walk in, I can hear the sound of Gloria Gaynor with “I will survive” blaring out from enormous speakers and about two hundred predominantly female teachers dancing wildly as if their lives depended on it. The green area in front of it brings back voices as we often stood outside on a warm summer evening, saying our last goodbyes. The duck pond with the duck family was the inspiration for the Creative Writing sessions usually held on a Sunday morning, as Mario got us to look deeply into our inner selves. Near the main entrance before you reach La Dolce Vita, there are some benches which were also there in the past. But in front of those benches were four or five telephone cabins where people would queue to call their families back in their homeland. I’d often be there on the last Friday evening to remind my parents that I’d be coming home the next day. While waiting to make a call, I might start talking to someone that I hadn’t interacted with before for no more than ten to fifteen minutes. I occasionally find myself sitting on those benches nowadays, as I wait to meet a PhD psychology student who is looking for volunteers for some unusual experiment. While I wait, those voices still come back to me.

 

Conclusion

Although some of the “ghosts” that I experience while on the University of Kent campus are of people that I knew very well or saw fairly regularly like the three great Pilgrims trainers that I previously mentioned, all of whom are no longer with us, or people that I might have gone to visit, the great majority of faces and voices that I see and hear are of people that only came to Pilgrims once in their lives, for a one or two-week course and I have never seen again, yet the impact they have had on me in this particular context has been significant.

On Saturday 7 June 2025, there was a celebration of Mario’s life held at Darwin college, which I was fortunate enough to be able to attend. Even on that occasion, as I approached Darwin college, I suddenly saw faces that I remembered from around 2007/08 when we had our farewell party there. Is there nowhere on this campus that is safe?  

I’m curious to know if any readers of this article have had similar “ghost” experiences anywhere on the University of Kent campus or elsewhere? And if so, in what ways do they affect you?

 

Coming soon! Please check the Pilgrims in Segovia Teacher Training courses 2026 at Pilgrims website