Desire to Learn
Yesterday I had the most uplifting and inspiring two hours of my year. I've had a good year, so this was really great :-)
I joined my friend Jane's ESL class - a subsidized evening class where, for about $1 per session of the 10 week course, people can sign up to learn English. I joined the class as the "Mystery Guest." I walked into a class room of smiles and eyes full of inquiry, and everyone was eager to ask the first question to try to figure out who I was. For the first hour I answered intelligent thought-felt questions one after the other. They REALLY were interested, "How does the community react to you being there?" "How do they view the occidental world?" (Even Jane was impressed with the vocabulary they were pulling out!)
After the break, they told me about themselves. They were from Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and Brazil. I assume their ages were about 20-60. They told me they had come here to make money, to support their families, to pursue a better life. Some of them spoke about America as a dream land, the land of the free, a place that they love. It had been a long time since I had heard America described in such idealist language, and was glad to hear some people still believed in the "American Dream". Others of course spoke about providing for their children and raising them here in the US but how those children no longer understand the value of working hard. I can relate....
I spent yesterday morning at a wealthy middle school in the area. To their credit, we all know that middle school-ers globally are at the age where they care much more about girls or boys than they do about learning. During my presentation, most were engaged, and some asked thoughtful questions, but they were out the door without much of a bye already back into normal middle school flirt mode within seconds ;-) I hope some of what I said resonated with them, but I'm not sure.
With the evening ESL class, there were at least 3 times during the two hours where I almost started to cry. They kept thanking me and congratulating me and telling me how proud they were of me and how they wanted to do something similar too, but I kept thinking how impressed and moved I was by THEM and how thet WERE doing the development work they dreamed of, but on a more personal and day to day level. They work SO hard to provide for their families, SO hard. Some of the women were cleaning ladies, the men painters. Others janitors or nannies. One woman spoke about how, when she was a very young child, three western girls came to their village for a few months, taught them English, and songs like "Head, shoulders, knees and toes." I thought she was almost going to be able to produce the names of those girls from her distant memory. I was impressed with the impact they had made an impact on her.
Then a man spoke about how he used to give money to one of the bigger "UNICEF" type organizations. Someone had come to his house and asked him to sponsor a child in his home country of Honduras. For YEARS he sent at least $20 per month. He said that when he had more money, he would send $40 or $50 per month if he could. He wanted to support that boy in the picture, the young boy from where grew up, as he knew that even though he didn't have a lot of money himself, that boy needed it more. When he finally made it back to his country for a visit, he went to that town and tried to find the boy. The organization would not let him see the boy, or even say if/where he existed. He stopped paying the money and was very disappointed.
How many others like him, who work SO hard here, are "scammed" in my opinion, into this type of donation? How many others of us, who have so much, would never send $20 a month for a child we had never met?
When I got back to the US, I met a man who said to me "My wife and I are going to DC next week to talk to our Senator. We need to make sure he deals with this immigration problem. Anyone who doesn't speak English should be kicked out. They are stealing our jobs." For a professional living in a multi-million dollar house, I'm pretty sure those "non-English speakers" are not stealing his jobs, and I know he even has one of "them" working for him as he isn't willing to cut his lawn himself.
When I meet people like him, I will want to bring them to Jane's ESL class. If they saw her student's desire to learn, their commitment to educating themselves after a full 12 hour work day, heard the sacrifices they have made for their families, or felt the love they gave to me just because I gave them two hours of conversation, those people would either be moved, or be imovable. Let's hope for the former.
I joined my friend Jane's ESL class - a subsidized evening class where, for about $1 per session of the 10 week course, people can sign up to learn English. I joined the class as the "Mystery Guest." I walked into a class room of smiles and eyes full of inquiry, and everyone was eager to ask the first question to try to figure out who I was. For the first hour I answered intelligent thought-felt questions one after the other. They REALLY were interested, "How does the community react to you being there?" "How do they view the occidental world?" (Even Jane was impressed with the vocabulary they were pulling out!)
After the break, they told me about themselves. They were from Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and Brazil. I assume their ages were about 20-60. They told me they had come here to make money, to support their families, to pursue a better life. Some of them spoke about America as a dream land, the land of the free, a place that they love. It had been a long time since I had heard America described in such idealist language, and was glad to hear some people still believed in the "American Dream". Others of course spoke about providing for their children and raising them here in the US but how those children no longer understand the value of working hard. I can relate....
I spent yesterday morning at a wealthy middle school in the area. To their credit, we all know that middle school-ers globally are at the age where they care much more about girls or boys than they do about learning. During my presentation, most were engaged, and some asked thoughtful questions, but they were out the door without much of a bye already back into normal middle school flirt mode within seconds ;-) I hope some of what I said resonated with them, but I'm not sure.
With the evening ESL class, there were at least 3 times during the two hours where I almost started to cry. They kept thanking me and congratulating me and telling me how proud they were of me and how they wanted to do something similar too, but I kept thinking how impressed and moved I was by THEM and how thet WERE doing the development work they dreamed of, but on a more personal and day to day level. They work SO hard to provide for their families, SO hard. Some of the women were cleaning ladies, the men painters. Others janitors or nannies. One woman spoke about how, when she was a very young child, three western girls came to their village for a few months, taught them English, and songs like "Head, shoulders, knees and toes." I thought she was almost going to be able to produce the names of those girls from her distant memory. I was impressed with the impact they had made an impact on her.
Then a man spoke about how he used to give money to one of the bigger "UNICEF" type organizations. Someone had come to his house and asked him to sponsor a child in his home country of Honduras. For YEARS he sent at least $20 per month. He said that when he had more money, he would send $40 or $50 per month if he could. He wanted to support that boy in the picture, the young boy from where grew up, as he knew that even though he didn't have a lot of money himself, that boy needed it more. When he finally made it back to his country for a visit, he went to that town and tried to find the boy. The organization would not let him see the boy, or even say if/where he existed. He stopped paying the money and was very disappointed.
How many others like him, who work SO hard here, are "scammed" in my opinion, into this type of donation? How many others of us, who have so much, would never send $20 a month for a child we had never met?
When I got back to the US, I met a man who said to me "My wife and I are going to DC next week to talk to our Senator. We need to make sure he deals with this immigration problem. Anyone who doesn't speak English should be kicked out. They are stealing our jobs." For a professional living in a multi-million dollar house, I'm pretty sure those "non-English speakers" are not stealing his jobs, and I know he even has one of "them" working for him as he isn't willing to cut his lawn himself.
When I meet people like him, I will want to bring them to Jane's ESL class. If they saw her student's desire to learn, their commitment to educating themselves after a full 12 hour work day, heard the sacrifices they have made for their families, or felt the love they gave to me just because I gave them two hours of conversation, those people would either be moved, or be imovable. Let's hope for the former.
posted by Daniela Papi at 7:34 PM
Daniela Papi
1 Comments:
I was an ESL student. I was eight, attending a public school full of Americans. Yet the school did everything to support me, and my sister. They opened an ESL class, for me, my sister, and one other boy. An English teacher taught us during lunch break. We were Czech, so they couldn't speak to us in our native language, but they tried to communicate in every way possible. Two years later, me and my sister were scoring 97% above the national average in reading, and writing.
Mum was taking an ESL course at the local community college. The price was symbolical, the teachers so eager.
The students try hard. They do lots. But the biggest thanks goes out to the volunteer teachers, my Polish classmate whom translated a word when I did'nt understand. The students are great, but don't overlook the teacher.
And while I have met some less tolerant Americans, most have actually done a lot to help me.
Post a Comment
<< Home