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My English Students |
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Quite by accident, I have acquired a group of young people interested in practicing their skills in listening and speaking English. This endeavor, while somewhat time consuming, has brought me a great deal of pleasure, entertainment, and enlightenment. While they practice their English with me, I also have relearned a lot English I haven't thought about in years -- lay and lie, sit and set, lead and led, etc. It also has broadened my understanding of life in México and the history of this area. And I am very pleased that I have acquired several new friends. Nery In November ’06 as I was coming out of my neighborhood tienda, a young man road up on his bicycle and said, in pretty good English, “I’d like to be your friend to practice my English.” That stuck me as a fun idea, so I welcomed him to come to my house. Since we live on the same street only a block apart, he already knew where I was. Since that day, Nery has been coming to my house two or three mornings each week for conversations about just about everything under the sun. We spend some time on grammar and difficult words. One of our favorite subjects is food. He brought me some very tasty things from his mother’s kitchen which gave me the idea of asking her to do some cooking stories for my website. That’s how I met Adriana Rosales and started new cooking adventures at her house. His English has gotten quite good. He will be starting college this fall (2008) – computer science. He’s 24-years old and has waited this long for college because the family could afford to send only one son at a time to college. His older brother recently graduated, so now it’s Nery’s turn. Four nights per week, Nery goes to a private English school taught by a friend of mine. The teacher concentrates on grammar and vocabulary; there is little time for conversation practice – that’s where I come in. Nery has brought two fellow students to my house for conversations, but they lacked stick-to-itiveness, so they dropped out pretty quickly. Misael Recently, he brought another. Misael is a 17-year old high school senior who plans to go to medical school like his older sister. He is determined to learn English. He is also very bright and funny. I have really been lucky to have these two gems come knocking on my door. Misael’s English is not nearly as good as Nery’s, so to encourage him to talk more, I started asking him questions about his school and course of study. ¡Boy, did that turn out to be an eye-opener! There are two public high schools in Lerdo. They are as different as night and day, but that’s another story for another day. In Misael’s school, sophomore students are given a battery of aptitude tests and discussions with a counselor to determine which academic track the students should take. Among the available tracks are business, computer science, mechanics, construction, clinical laboratory, and others. Misael was accepted into the clinical lab track. In this final semester before graduation, his courses include math, biology, human metabolism, biochemistry, and a couple of others. He says all his teachers are excellent, know their subjects, and present them well. I was surprise when he said they draw blood to run various lab tests. But I was completely blown away when he said the male students were asked to bring semen samples, so the class could study sperm under the microscopes. Can you imagine the uproar such an assignment would cause in the USA? Misael took the assignment in stride and seemed to think it not at all unusual. He made some jokes about it that I won’t repeat here. When he graduates from this clinical lab program, if his grades are good enough, and if he passes the entrance exam, he will be eligible to enter directly into medical school, just as his sister did. At this writing, he is attending a cram course every Saturday morning to prepare for the entrance exam. I have no doubt that he will pass. He is a very bright guy along with being personable, handsome and eager to learn. Karla A couple of weeks after Misael joined us, he asked if his girlfriend could come. She also attends the evening English school with Nery and Misael. She is at the beginner level and is rather shy about speaking with us. But that will change. She attends the same high school as Misael. She is in the business track. Through her I met her parents. They have a gorditas business that I featured in a picture story. |
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Nery with his iPod wires is standing behind Karla and Misael UPDATES: Saturday night (1 Mar 2008) my three students and their classmates from the evening English school put together a carne asada party at my house. What a fun time with a patio full of teenagers doing their best to speak English. The boys cooked the carne on the charcoal grill, and did a good job of it. I sat with the ladies and talked with them until they lapsed into gossiping in Spanish and playing with their cell phones. They couldn't understand why I do not have a cell. They seemed to think it really strange that someone could actually not want one.
They did a good job of
cleaning up the patio, but my kitchen was a disaster area.
May 2008:
My English classes have
taken a bit of a technical turn. The guys have signed up with Skype,
so we are chatting via computer as well in person. VoIP has a big
advantage for them -- they don't have to walk to my house in the hot
sun. It has the disadvantage that we can't write words or look at
printed matter.
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