I've been thinking about volunteer English teachers, is it realy a good idea to have people teach English to children who speak bad Quechua and worse Spanish, who can barely read and write at the end of elementary school, and who are not likely to learn English anyway, less to use it. isn't it better to have volunteers do art, theatre, music, environmental education, sport, or anything but English with them? Or is this condescending?
Damn questions that come with everything you do and everything you don't do, everything you consider doing or might do in development work. It's all a huge grey area!
I came to the conclusion that we'll do everything but English, in English. So if hte kids learn a few sentences as a side effect while doing art projects that's great, but it's not a good idea to have English classes... let me know what you think.
The gossip of the town (there's a lot of gossip, being such a small town)... but I will wait for that, for now. Juicy gossip is: Maricarmen closed her project because she realized volunteers are a lot of work and not a lot of money! Surprise! The coordinator she hired after me quit after 2 weeks, saying people in the area know him and he doesn't want to be associated with "mala gente" (bad people)...of course the version of the facts I got from her was slightly--totally--different!
And I love working with Laura and Danielle, I love their enthusiasm...the enthusiasm of Americans, which Italians are too often too cool for. If you come to volunteer with a community I'd hope you'd be excited about it!
Damn questions that come with everything you do and everything you don't do, everything you consider doing or might do in development work. It's all a huge grey area!
I came to the conclusion that we'll do everything but English, in English. So if hte kids learn a few sentences as a side effect while doing art projects that's great, but it's not a good idea to have English classes... let me know what you think.
The gossip of the town (there's a lot of gossip, being such a small town)... but I will wait for that, for now. Juicy gossip is: Maricarmen closed her project because she realized volunteers are a lot of work and not a lot of money! Surprise! The coordinator she hired after me quit after 2 weeks, saying people in the area know him and he doesn't want to be associated with "mala gente" (bad people)...of course the version of the facts I got from her was slightly--totally--different!
And I love working with Laura and Danielle, I love their enthusiasm...the enthusiasm of Americans, which Italians are too often too cool for. If you come to volunteer with a community I'd hope you'd be excited about it!
6 comments:
I think it's a great idea to teach English WHILE teaching other subjects as you are thinking. You can always sneak a lesson or two in there and have it be much more fun than sitting through a pure English lesson. I have always believed that language is best taught in relation to other subjects and not simply on paper or through repetition.
Buona l'idea di NON insegnare inglese ma di far parlare in inglese i volontari!
per fortuna la storia con MC è finita!
Papà
e così la tua ex boss ha adescato qualcun altro: 2 settimane bè tu hai fatto di meglio quella più che mala gente sembravano gente di m. e passami il francesismo!
Sono contenta che ti trovi bene!
Un bacio
Continuo a impicciarmi della tua vita leggendo il blog :)
Clelia ( Valeria)
I too think it's a great idea; they'll learn some English learning also something else and especially with children it makes no sense to teach grammar and rules and obtain a genuine dislike for the language for the rest of their lives. Also our schools should learn that if you make people bored you won't be able to put anything in their neurons...
I see that in the end you came of my same idea, that it's much nicer to have to do with most Americans with all their naivety and "lack of culture", than with most Europeans (not only Italians) who think they're quite smart and the heirs of a great culture (no doubt they are) and often miss the important things in life, including open and sincere relationships and enthusiasm towards new possibilities.
Bella idea!! Direi che imparare una lingua non faccia mai male... Inoltre vorrei aggiungere che non e' la quantita' dei progetti che fa la differenza, ma anche solo 1 fatto bene puo' innescare processi vituosi. Per quanto riguarda l'entusiasmo...non saprei se essere d'accordo... A volte gli Europei sono fin troppo entusiasti dei loro progetti e si dimenticano che le comunita' sono soggetti attivi e non passivi... Forse un po' di sana passione e dosato idealismo sarebbe la cosa ideale...
Baciotti
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