5 years ago, I met a guy on a gay dating website. We chatted for a while, and when I asked where he was from he said Syria.

I complemented him on his English, to which he replied he did not speak English and was using Google Translate.

As I had decades experience teaching English as a foreign language, I offered to help.

We agreed this would be completely non-sexual (he was 20) and to hold the lessons in a neutral location in the city centre to avoid any ambiguity.

We had lessons together for a year. He was a nice guy, and sometimes brought along another Syrian friend of a similar age to see if I could help.

We lost contact, except on social media with the occasional message, but he has since moved North, he is working full time paying taxes and his English is coming along. I messaged him yesterday out of the blue to ask how he was, given what was happening in Syria, and he replied as below. I have to say I was moved by his response, and to have played a small part in his integration in the UK.

'Hello David, how are you? Thank you for your message. I’m feeling great thank you so much. Yeah, finally see back to people not the government and I hope very soon everything will be same before to be honest a lot of people back to Syria not from Europe I mean from Arabic countries like Lebanon Jordan Egypt, all of them take back to Syria and I hope I can visit soon how are you? How is everything?'

david wrote:
5 years ago, I met a guy on a gay dating website. We chatted for a while, and when I asked where he was from he said Syria.

I complemented him on his English, to which he replied he did not speak English and was using Google Translate.

As I had decades experience teaching English as a foreign language, I offered to help.

We agreed this would be completely non-sexual (he was 20) and to hold the lessons in a neutral location in the city centre to avoid any ambiguity.

We had lessons together for a year. He was a nice guy, and sometimes brought along another Syrian friend of a similar age to see if I could help.

We lost contact, except on social media with the occasional message, but he has since moved North, he is working full time paying taxes and his English is coming along. I messaged him yesterday out of the blue to ask how he was, given what was happening in Syria, and he replied as below. I have to say I was moved by his response, and to have played a small part in his integration in the UK.

'Hello David, how are you? Thank you for your message. I’m feeling great thank you so much. Yeah, finally see back to people not the government and I hope very soon everything will be same before to be honest a lot of people back to Syria not from Europe I mean from Arabic countries like Lebanon Jordan Egypt, all of them take back to Syria and I hope I can visit soon how are you? How is everything?' Wonderful David. Let's hope that Syria's transition is as painless as possible. Well done btw.

Very interesting and keep us posted if you can..news from a source on the ground so to speak.

Israel of course is straight in their bombing the joint.

hedda wrote:
Very interesting and keep us posted if you can..news from a source on the ground so to speak.

Israel of course is straight in their bombing the joint. Hamas using Syrians as human shie....oh. Only just reported by BBC hidden as an also ran on their news site. Starmer will be sweating. Very clammy in his under shorts as he ponders whether to risk condemining Israel this time and branded a vile Anti-semite.

Downing Street Cat wrote:
hedda wrote:
Very interesting and keep us posted if you can..news from a source on the ground so to speak.

Israel of course is straight in their bombing the joint. Hamas using Syrians as human shie....oh. Only just reported by BBC hidden as an also ran on their news site. Starmer will be sweating. Very clammy in his under shorts as he ponders whether to risk condemining Israel this time and branded a vile Anti-semite.

The more that piece of trash sweats and panics the better. When he leaves he can write a cooking book dedicated to book burning.