We Need To Talk

For the second night in a row, I was very surprised that I was able to conduct a competent lesson. Last night I led an intermediate level conversation class, which went very well.

After a little prompting from silly questions I had written on the board, the students began to talk quite freely and openly. This was very exciting for me, because a conversation class is mostly impossible without vocal students. The very nature of a conversation class has made it hard for me to grasp what my role should be as facilitator. If the class is meant to be a place for students to practice speaking and listening in English, what purpose do I serve? I have to remind myself every few minutes that the time in class is the only chance these students have to interact with a native speaker. In a town this size there are few Anglos, and TV programs are aired in Czech, Slovak, German and Hungarian, but not English. Unless students buy American DVDs or scour the internet to find sitcoms, their chances to encounter native, natural English are rare.

Most of the conversation was natural. I occasionally answered a few grammatical questions, like how to use "me neither" (or, "neither have I", for more proper situations). Making these explanations throws me off at first, and I usually look blankly at the ceiling for a bit before I even understand the concept that is being questioned. For example, last week I tried to explain the difference between "borrow" and "lend", which is more difficult than you would think.

Example:

-A: Can I borrow that? B: Yes, you can borrow that.

[is the same as saying]

-A: Can you lend me that? B: Yes, I can lend you that.

The words cannot be explained only by saying that the lender uses the word "lend" and the borrower uses the word "borrow", since either person can use the word to describe the potential action of the other. And of course, I am trying to explain this to a Czech speaker who has been taught that the word "you" always means the one person being talked to, not a general "you" to apply to anyone in this situation. Therefore, I had to do verbal backflips to keep from saying "you only use 'borrow' when...", because the student would not have expanded the "you" to be anyone using the words in any situation. Confusing? I'm sure. But I still think this is so much fun. I love the ambiguity of grammar. Because it's not really ambiguous at all, is it?

Luckily, before I had thrown around too many "you do this when that, if here is there", I belatedly realized that I had a whiteboard. Through stick figures and multicolored highlighting, I was able to show the concept visually, and the student understood. Altogether, this process was nearly 12 minutes of explaining the difference between two words that a native speaker automatically differentiates. Just two little words. And it wasn't even something as complicated as "lay and lie" or "effect and affect". Wow. And yet other concepts that I would think would be very difficult the students seem to effortlessly pick up.

Just as my students are learning, I am learning as well, and I have been using the whiteboard to greater effect in my classes this week. After I asked a question last night, I then wrote it on the board so that the students could continually refer to it. (Fun note for people exploring ESL teaching: the literature that I read before coming to CZ advocated speaking to students before writing the words on the board. Any guesses why? Two reasons. One: how do children learn their first language? By listening for a long time, then speaking. How do they learn to read? By hearing the words, then by seeing them. What works for first language [L1] acquisition tends to work for second language [L2] as well. Second reason: English has a crazy alphabet. One sound is represented by several letters [c and k, for example], and one letter makes several sounds [see and sugar]. If something you are saying is already written on the board, chances are students will be looking at the board, trying to match the sounds you are making with the letters, and getting very confused because sounds and letters matching is practically an accident in English. This process will distract students to such a degree that they will miss what you are saying.)

We talked about Czech reality TV, the American obsession with medical and legal shows and interesting places we had traveled to. I also heard their opinions about Vinnetou, a classic Czech film about American Indians. A student had told me about this movie last week, and I was so surprised that European films had been made about America's Wild West that she brought in a copy for me to look at. As was explained to me later, during the Communist rule before 1989, Western culture was strictly censored in Czechoslovakia. The only way that the Czechs and others behind the Iron Curtain could encounter Western motifs was if they created them on their own. This confirms what a teacher in one of my classes told me last week, that the older generation of Czechs still admire the US, because it was sort of a gold standard of progress and fairness during the oppressive Communist regime.

Vinnetou is apparently an enduring classic, because all five students loved the film and all of their children loved it as well. I am looking forward to watching it, even though it's only in Czech and German. I think I will burn a copy to my computer and get Brock to practice his German by translating it :) The film was lent to me so that I can see the beautiful Croatian landscape that was used as a background, so I'm sure my eyes will be pleased, even if my ears don't understand :)

Last night's class was also wonderful because one of the students provided a Christian witness during the conversation. She is a church employee who is attending the classes to improve her English. While we discussed places that we had been, she talked about becoming a Christian while living in the Middle East with her Muslim husband. She shared with the group that even though her circumstances rapidly changed while abroad, God was visible and able to work through the bad. I was personally gratified to hear her story, as an encouragement to me. I was also glad that a student was discussing this, since I am concerned about how to be a good witness without compromising my role as a teacher, because my responsibility is to provide this service to the best of my ability. Please pray for my understanding of this interaction between teaching and witness to increase.

And speaking of prayers...thank you for them. I have felt so empowered during classes this week. I feel both confident and competent, like I am actually helping students learn English.

At orientation, the student.go supervisors talked about our calling to be "the incarnational face of Christ" this summer to all of the people we encounter. But it's much harder to check yourself on fulfilling this responsibility than checking if your students understand present continuous tense. Or as Martin said, when you build something with your hands, you can see the progress, and it is instant and rewarding. But the deeper progress is invisible, often slow, always a gift to witness, but never a guarantee.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. But sometimes I'd like the assurance that I'm doing this right.