It’s hard to express how rewarding teaching has been. The students in my class have become incredibly connected with each other and it’s a rare and wonderful thing to be able to witness. We usually start of the class with a grammar lesson and then switch over to translation (usually of a song).
Their confidence has improved so much. When we started it was hard to get through a single sentence. Now they understand almost every word and can explain its meaning. I’ve started having them listen to song and writing down what they think they hear and they’re doing an unbelievable job. We’ve done I’ll be seeing you by Billie Holiday, A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke, Black or White by Michael Jackson and today we did Prelude to a Kiss by Alicia Keys.
The day before yesterday a few things happened. The beginning of class started like every other: I arrived around 8:30 and about 4 of my students were already there. One of my most advanced students approached me before I entered the classroom. He explained to me that he was having a lot of trouble. He told me that he didn’t have money to pay his rent and that the lady who owned his building would put all of this things on the street if he didn’t pay today. He said he needed to borrow 500 DHM (about $62). It broke my heart. I know there are a lot of people out there in the same situation but I have formed a genuine relationship with him, like with all of my students.
I said no.
I told him that I was with an organization that didn’t allow us to give money. This is a horrible position to have to be in. I had the money plus some in my wallet. It meant nothing to me and would have gladly given it to him. He wasn’t surprised by my answer but he was gracious and reassured me that he would be ok. The situation completely blurred right and wrong together. I knew it would be wrong to give him money because I would be breaking the rules and possibly setting inappropriate precedent. On the other hand he was one person that I could have easily helped. I feel like maybe I did the wrong thing. Today he got a phone call in class. He got up and left and when he came back he’s eyes were teary and he sat down and put his hat over his head. I spoke with him after class and he told me that his mother is very sick in the hospital. They don’t have money to pay their medical bills. He wanted to go back home to her (Democratic Republic of the Congo) but she told him no, she told him that his “country was dead.”
It’s hard to explain how I feel about my students. This man told me that the only time he was happy was when he was in class. I’m so glad that I could at least give him that.
Another one of my students- probably my favorite, gave me a gift today. Probably the best gift any teacher could hope for. He wrote me a note telling me how thankful he was for his english class. He said that before the class he couldn’t speak any english and that now he can read, write and speak and then he wished me luck in life. This young man is incredible. He was so shy at the beginning and didn’t try very hard. His progress has been so awesome. He volunteers almost every day now. He had a new french/ english dictionary that he bring to class and he’s all around every teachers dream. It was a moment that will probably live with me for a very long time.
After class today we have a fun singing session and then we all parted ways and for some reason it made really sad to leave them.
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