Reflections on ESL
One of the biggest parts of my experience here on the Salaam Program was the two english classes that I taught everyday. Comprising a revolving list of characters, from 13 year-old girls to 33 year-old former soccer players, it was one of the most rewarding and exhausting parts of being here.
The most difficult part about teaching ESL is that it throws everything you've taken for granted about your language into disarray. All of a sudden, you find yourself analyzing the way you talk, your grammar, verb forms, etc. I've probably made more mistakes with English here now that I've started to think about what I say - instead of throwing a switch in my brain between present and past tense, I've become more conscious of the difference between all the different tenses and such. Often, students will ask me a question, and my mind will race, trying to formulate some sort of grammatical rule out of the nonsense that is a language taken for granted.
On the more positive side, there's been a fair share of interesting and downright funny experiences; I've had to do three closed-door sessions with my older classes where I explained in great detail how important the words cook, sheet, and beach were to pronounce correctly (I'm pretty sure the mis-pronunciations speak for themselves)... The worst part was that as I've already mentioned, I work right by the Akkari "Beach," so consequently, it's a frequent topic of conversation. Hearing about "beautiful beaches" from my students reduced me to tears of laughter more than once. Also, thanks to some of the grammatical irregularities you're bound to encounter in beginning english speakers, the word "cook" caused a few problems. While discussing hobbies, I had three girls in a row express their love for cooking by saying "I like cook." Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one to catch on, as some of the 16 year-old 50 Cent fans figured out why I was trying to stifle my laughter.
Another interesting angle on ESL has been the textbooks and workbooks we've managed to scrounge up. A lot of times, these books contain interesting lessons or grammatical errors. My favorite is a reading excerpt from the "Move Up" series of workbooks comparing my home state of Minnesota with New York City:
After New York, Minnesota didn't seem American at all. People walked slowly and purposefully, wearing yesterday's clothing, They sat for hours in cafes drinking lemonade and eating mountains of popcorn. They didn't argue about unimportant things. They arrived at church early on Sunday morning. They didn't have meetings. They didn't worry about investments. They didn't talk on car phones. They drove slowly, mostly in Chevrolets and old pick-up trucks and they parked carefully. The women all looked like someone's mother or daughter. It was like long ago. But this was America. And I wanted the noisy street life, crowds hurrying, people shouting noisily, taxis honking their horns...
This antebellum dystopian vision of Minnesota (which made me choke on my popcorn and lemonade) was followed up by a few questions, such as "Write down 4 things that people do in Minnesota. 1) They walk slowly and purposefully..." It also includes the same question on NYC, with response #1 already filled in as "They have meetings."
Overall, the best part of the ESL Classes were the students. They functioned as an amazing gateway to meeting people in Morocco I wouldn't have otherwise had any way of meeting. Out of those classes, I've met some of my best friends here, and have established contacts that hopefully one day, when I take my kids to Morocco, they'll be able to meet too.
The most difficult part about teaching ESL is that it throws everything you've taken for granted about your language into disarray. All of a sudden, you find yourself analyzing the way you talk, your grammar, verb forms, etc. I've probably made more mistakes with English here now that I've started to think about what I say - instead of throwing a switch in my brain between present and past tense, I've become more conscious of the difference between all the different tenses and such. Often, students will ask me a question, and my mind will race, trying to formulate some sort of grammatical rule out of the nonsense that is a language taken for granted.
On the more positive side, there's been a fair share of interesting and downright funny experiences; I've had to do three closed-door sessions with my older classes where I explained in great detail how important the words cook, sheet, and beach were to pronounce correctly (I'm pretty sure the mis-pronunciations speak for themselves)... The worst part was that as I've already mentioned, I work right by the Akkari "Beach," so consequently, it's a frequent topic of conversation. Hearing about "beautiful beaches" from my students reduced me to tears of laughter more than once. Also, thanks to some of the grammatical irregularities you're bound to encounter in beginning english speakers, the word "cook" caused a few problems. While discussing hobbies, I had three girls in a row express their love for cooking by saying "I like cook." Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one to catch on, as some of the 16 year-old 50 Cent fans figured out why I was trying to stifle my laughter.
Another interesting angle on ESL has been the textbooks and workbooks we've managed to scrounge up. A lot of times, these books contain interesting lessons or grammatical errors. My favorite is a reading excerpt from the "Move Up" series of workbooks comparing my home state of Minnesota with New York City:
After New York, Minnesota didn't seem American at all. People walked slowly and purposefully, wearing yesterday's clothing, They sat for hours in cafes drinking lemonade and eating mountains of popcorn. They didn't argue about unimportant things. They arrived at church early on Sunday morning. They didn't have meetings. They didn't worry about investments. They didn't talk on car phones. They drove slowly, mostly in Chevrolets and old pick-up trucks and they parked carefully. The women all looked like someone's mother or daughter. It was like long ago. But this was America. And I wanted the noisy street life, crowds hurrying, people shouting noisily, taxis honking their horns...
This antebellum dystopian vision of Minnesota (which made me choke on my popcorn and lemonade) was followed up by a few questions, such as "Write down 4 things that people do in Minnesota. 1) They walk slowly and purposefully..." It also includes the same question on NYC, with response #1 already filled in as "They have meetings."
Overall, the best part of the ESL Classes were the students. They functioned as an amazing gateway to meeting people in Morocco I wouldn't have otherwise had any way of meeting. Out of those classes, I've met some of my best friends here, and have established contacts that hopefully one day, when I take my kids to Morocco, they'll be able to meet too.
posted by Isaac at 4:12 AM
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