Yesterday I began tutoring one of the little boys I met in the city. It was one of the most challenging things I've ever put myself through. Prior to this, I thought my Chinese language was decent; I've not had too many troubles communicating with people who cannot speak English, and before yesterday, I was fairly confident I could encounter a wide variety of topics and still have something to say.
That was before "Jake", my new young friend, came over (I gave him this English name the last time we met). Jake cannot speak a word of English (even "hello" is a challenge, which I didn't think was possible in this country); I knew this, but figured, since he has "English class" every week, and since I can speak Chinese, we'd be fine. But we were not. Jake wanted to learn about prepositions, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, nouns, numericals (which apparently isn't even a word?), interjections and the likes. In a year, he has to take a big exam in order to enter a decent high school (there are entrance exams for high school placement in China), and these are the things he has to know in order to do well on the exam. I have no idea how to explain this! We spent 5 hours together yesterday, and in that 5 hours I think he may have acquired a very basic idea of what a noun and adjective are (with "basketball" as one of the few English nouns he can fully identify). Today, Jake is coming back (I insisted that if we're going to do this every day class can only be one-two hours… By the 4th hour yesterday I was so tired and he wanted to keep going!), and we're going to tackle prepositions. I have no idea how to explain them, and I've been researching my bum off for a proper explanation that I can sort of translate, but alas, I have nothing. How do I explain why we use "at" sometimes and "to" other times? What is the difference? And how do I translate this madness into Chinese?
To all ESL (English as a second language) teachers, I salute you. I think you have one of the most challenging jobs in the education field, especially teachers in places like the US and UK, where children from around the world with a plethora of diverse languages are coming in that the teacher may/may not be able to speak. So there is my shout-out to TESL folk, just in case they don't get enough credit at home. You guys are far more patient and skilled than myself!
And if any experienced ESL teachers read this and have good lesson ideas (reminder: any instruction I give in English will not be understood) please forward them on!
1 comment:
Hey Val!
It sounds like you're doing well in China, yet also facing some challenges. I don't know if you knew, but I'm in Bogota, Colombia (I arrived two weeks ago) and I'll be here for a year teaching English. I know exactly what you mean about explaining all the rules about English. I just started teaching but I know it's going to be a challenge. And to add to the fact that my second graders don't know much English, I don't know much Spanish! Now there's a challenge. So we should compare notes! I hope you're well. Take care! -Amy (Hall) : )
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