Teaching English

Last week was my first attempt at teaching English as a second language. With the regular teacher away on a teaching trip, I agreed to be the substitute. I brought over a white board from my office and the leader's guide book I'd been given. The regulars showed up about 7:30 and we settled around a table in the back corner of the dining room.

There were seven of them, which is a few more than I was told to expect. I mentioned to them that I was worried there'd be as many as last week, when almost all the teachers were gone and the three different classes were combined with about 15 people. I said that made me nervous to have so many. They laughed and said they were nervous to work with a new instructor, so we all agreed not to be nervous.

The group is made up of mostly middle aged or older people, from late 50s to 70s. The culture in Europe is such that people want to be exact and precise in their use of a second language, and so they can often be a little hesitant to speak it unless they feel they can be perfect. This means that the attendees really want to be told when they need to work on a pronunciation, or what the past form of a verb is rather than the present form.

As an instructor, I had to remember to speak very slowly, and to repeat myself often. I also had to ask them often if they understood the meaning of what I was saying. Sometimes they would initially nod but look blankly at the white board. I would have to remind them to tell me if my explanation didn't make sense; then someone would admit they didn't understand, and I would try to explain the principle or rule a different way.

In the Deutsch language there is no sound like our "W". In their language, they write "W" to indicate the "V" sound. So, in our discussion exercise in which each person told a story about a vacation in which something went wrong, there was a lot of "Ve Vere going zere and it vas running late and ..."

Oh yeah, they don't have a "th" sound either. They really struggle to say "the" and "than" and "then" and so on. Often they will substitute a "z" sound. I know I struggle with certain sounds in Deutsch that we don't have in English, too, such as the ü sound. I

I had a lot of fun with the group. I hope I was encouraging enough and made them feel they were doing a good job, while at the same time helping them remember how to pronounce things and when to use the past version of a verb.

One challenge for me in doing this is that for about seven years now, I've spent time on a regular basis with people for whom English is a second language. That means that I have gotten used to hearing certain "mistakes" in the way my friends speak English (it doesn't really matter if you're Chinese, Korean, German, Dutch or whatever, people tend to make the same mistakes). After a while, I don't notice anymore. Last night I had to focus and concentrate extra hard to hear those mistakes so I could help them speak the way we would as native English speakers.

After the meeting, everyone from the three different level classes gathers in the dining hall for cookies, pastries or cake. The class members take turns bringing the snacks. It's another great opportunity for them to practice their English in an informal social setting. I sat next to two older ladies, both of whom have family connections in Canada and who had traveled there this year. So we talked a lot about the places they went, what they liked about it, the animals they saw. They were so sweet and so into the conversation. This is also a great opportunity for me to get to know residents here, because in this setting you can have these conversations and build on them over the weeks.

I will be subbing for two more weeks on Thursday nights. Then the regular teacher will return and take over. I'm still thinking about whether I'd like to continue attending as an observer or assistant so I can keep getting to know people around here.