Evening class students do not always last the course, for various reasons. Chinese, being the difficult language that it is, has a higher casualty rate than most languages, I think.
I had initiated a post-lesson routine, however: going to the pub after the class, where often the conversation continued on the theme of things Chinese — language, culture, travels.
This did play a small role in reducing the drop-out rate, as students felt that they were part of a group, rather than an individual turning up just for the lesson: going into the classroom, not speaking to anyone, then leaving at the end of the lesson, feeling isolated.
Not everyone liked going to the pub, so some would keep in touch by going for dinner, usually around Christmas.
One particular student decided to form a group just for dining out regularly (in Chinatown, of course), although everyone in that group was a drop-out (with the exception of Frazer Gleig [now deceased, bless his soul]).
I came up with a name for the group for the round robin emailing: the DODGers. DODG = Drop Out Dining Group.
For those for whom English is not the first language, one of the meanings of “dodger” is (from the MacBook Pro dictionary):
dodger
[in combination] British humorous
a person who dislikes or avoids a specified thing: a greasy-haired soap-dodger.
(London, the early noughties)
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