Disorientation

I started my new college teaching job yesterday!

Well...I didn't actually teach anything. It was orientation day for 80+ ESL students, and I got to stand around for a few hours pretending I knew what was happening. I apparently did an okay job standing out as an employee of the school (must have been my clipboard) because I got approached by a dozen or so students who thought I could answer their scheduling and registration questions. I fudged my way through answers as if it weren't my first day on the job.

Man, I'm glad I'm not an ESL student. These people have to go through so much. It doesn't matter that they may have been lawyers or chemists or whatever else in their home countries. They come here, and they're suddenly lucky if they get a nanny job. Then they have to take all these expensive English classes just to retain their F1 status.*

For anyone who's ever said about newcomers to this country, "if they live here, they should speak our language," I challenge you to go to a foreign country with a completely different language. Not Spanish-speaking or even French - some place with a whole different alphabet system. Then, see how easy it is to learn and speak this new language with fluency. See how comfortable you feel communicating with native speakers.

If this isn't an option, I suggest you volunteer to tutor an ESL student (or ELL - the terms are always changing). There are thousands of opportunities like this available, and I'm sure it sounds so easy. You know English. Therefore, you know how to teach English. Well, not necessarily. Try explaining why "could" and "wood" rhyme or why "bought" has a "g" or why the plural of "moose" is "moose." That's just the beginning. When you start getting into parts of speech, the thousands of rules and thousands of exceptions to rules, past preterite, subjunctive, etc., etc., you'll begin to wonder how you ever managed to learn such a non-sensical language.

Okay, scrambling off my soapbox now. Despite the chaos and confusion that resulted from sticking dozens of students from many different countries into one small classroom to listen to a PowerPoint presentation, I think I'm going to enjoy this job. I start officially teaching tomorrow, so stay tuned....

*F1 status is given to students who can demonstrate that they plan to engage in full-time study in the new country. International students have to take a certain number of class hours to retain this status and stay here.