I teach English to people whose first language is not English. Most of my students came from other countries. Some of them were born here-- second generation born to families who fled in fear of their lives or after years of living in refugee camps.
I can count on my fingers the number of immigrants I have taught. Immigrants, who chose to move here, tend to be more highly educated, more likely to be literate in English. In their own language. I teach refugees, asylum seekers, and those lucky enough to have family planted here so they can grow in a place (that should be) safer than the one they fled. (Don't get me started on the fact that there is a "mass shooting" every day in the United States.) I talked to someone once who was so angry that people who move here still speak their home language. They are in America; they should just speak English. I have a friend whose mother has lived here for more than thirty years and she still does not speak English. The trauma of losing her home, her family, her country had some lasting effects. And for some people, learning language doesn't come easily. What if someone said-- you should just be good at quadratic equations! Wow, this is very soap-boxy. I talked to someone once who didn't see how my job would not be obsolete within a few years. Because the people who had arrived in the US would already know English and their children would be born fluent right out of the gate, so to speak. But here is the thing... In order to make my job obsolete, first we would need to deal with all of the following: political instability social instability war civil unrest civil war civilian casualties geological instability human rights abuse domestic abuse drug abuse famine drought flood fire earthquake meteor strike sexual violence racial violence religious violence tribal violence human trafficking slave labor insufficient food insufficient water insufficient currency insufficient education insufficient health care insufficient care All of this on the global stage-- not just here And THEN I will be out of a job. And perfectly happy. Comments are closed.
|
Archives
May 2020
Categories
All
K. BuchananQuaker, teacher, parent, |