Teaching English

written Thursday, 31 May 2007

 

 

When I applied to Peace Corps, the one program I wasn't interested in at all was teaching English because I thought, what's the point of teaching English to villagers who most likely will never have any need or use for it?   So it is ironic that the one thing people have consistently asked of me since I got to the village (besides asking whether I will take them or their child back to America with me) is to teach them English.

 

It is mainly the men who ask, and I think a lot of their motivation is that they hope to emigrate to America.   At first I was resistant to the idea of teaching them English because I don't want to give people false hopes of being able to go to America or to encourage anyone's illegal immigration plans.   But after seeing how motivated people are to learn - many of them have already bought themselves books for learning English - I have decided that I will try out teaching an English class once or twice a week.   After all, I think it will be good to encourage any sort of interest in learning here, and it will help me build relationships with people here that could lead to opportunities for other sorts of projects.

 

We have agreed to hold off starting the class until my three month "integration period" is over, so that I can focus on learning the local languages.   So I will probably start the class in September.  Wish me luck!  (And if you know of any good English as a Second Language books I could try to get, please let me know).