Amos reflects on the 2007 Summer Print Journalism course

South African journalist Amos Mananyetso left his home and job in Johannesburg in June to attend the Thomson Foundation’s UK-based Print Journalism course. Now back at his desk at the Sunday World, he reflects on his three months in Cardiff.

“When I was accepted on to the Print Journalism course at the Thomson Foundation, I thought 12 weeks seemed a long time.

But it was only at the end of that period that I realised I needed more than that to savour the city of Cardiff and also to better understand some of my 24 colleagues.

Even though it was not an easy exercise to comprehend how each individual’s culture and background inform their thinking, it was a worthwhile experience learning about certain countries and cultures first- hand.

The experience opened my eyes about the origin of some of the debates in countries like India and Nigeria.

What also helped is that all candidates were mature individuals with a high level of intellect that came to the fore during discussions.

Solid relationships were also forged with some of them as a result of the debates and social interaction that dominated outside the classroom.
On a personal level, I was thrilled by the opportunity to analyse British newspapers on a daily basis.

Having been schooled about this industry from third-party sources, it was an eye-opener to be able to dissect most of the influential titles daily and get to follow their editorial policies and historical ideologies.

And the fact that Cardiff is a relatively small city compared to Johannesburg also added to the overall learning curve. It was easy to navigate around and get to understand some of the local cultural practices, albeit at regional level.”