volunteering sounds wonderful but i have my children with me full time and i doubt they could come along.
there are so many dialects i would suck at learning, although dh and i have talked about trying to find out how to say the simple greetings, i just have to find out what the main dialect is spoke, and hope it is the right one when i try to talk lol... that would be a little embarressing if it wasnt.

i have walked up to people in playgroups, in parks, at school and get the same response, i keep trying but it is knocking my confidence tbh.

part of me if looking forward to starting my new job in a few weeks as then at least i know we will have 1 thing in common to talk about lol!

i have also emailed dd's new school asking at the p&f and how to get involved to hope that helps too.