I'm choosing to change that. I've just completed three days of excellent training to become an English Language Partner to a migrant or refugee. Click here to learn more about this organisation.
In our group of trainees half of us did not have English as our first language!
There were two people from China:
two from India (different language groups):
one from Swaziland:
and one from Syria who had lived in Kuwait more recently but still has family in Syria:
These people were a great asset to our training. They know first hand the challenges of learning a new language and culture. I admired their willingness to sign up to help other new migrants even when they themselves had not been in New Zealand very long. I thoroughly enjoyed my interactions with them over the days of our training.
One of the training sessions involved 45 minutes with a Japanese teacher who did not speak a single word of English throughout the lesson. She aimed to teach us how to say: "Hello my name is ..." and "What is your name?" The written script on the whiteboard didn't help us at all (of course). It was a very salutary experience. Most of us didn't figure out what the sentences meant until well into the lesson and then could not remember and repeat the sounds without writing them phonetically in our alphabetical script. I was sitting next to the trainee from Syria/Kuwait who wrote her phonetic script in Arabic! She speaks excellent English but of course her native language is the one she used when under pressure. At the end of 45 minutes we all felt very tired and rather stressed. It is so good to know how hard our learners will be working at what we might think are very simple sentences.
I am now matched with a learner from Korea who has lived in NZ for 15 years but seems to be quite isolated and has limited English. Being confident to use the phone to call 111 in an emergency and knowing how to respond to the questions she will be asked is one of her first goals.
I am full of admiration for these new migrants and refugees. I highly recommend English Language Partners if you think you would like to give a couple of hours a week in this way.
