My Experience Teaching ESL

For me, nothing is more rewarding than knowing you've made a difference in someone's life. I looked forward to Monday nights for that reason. As a member of the Ithaca Colleges club, IC Intercambios, I knew I was going to provide someone the knowledge to speak ‘survival’ English in a country they immigrated to for various reasons.

As a daughter of two immigrants, I know it’s difficult to assimilate yourself in a world that’s vastly different than yours, especially with a language barrier. These migrant farmworkers work six to seven days a week and don’t have the time or finances to take an actual English class. The hour and a half that we’re there matters more than we know and I realized that shortly after I taught my first ESL lesson.

I gave my first lesson on a coffee table in a small living room. It was me and another club member teaching three farmworkers. The lesson was on ordering food at a restaurant. We came prepared with fake menus and practice quizzes.

I stayed quiet for the first ten minutes because I was nervous I was going to embarrass myself. But I started to open up when I realized they depended on me to prepare them for their next outing at a restaurant. Whenever I talked they listened intently, wrote every word down when I said, “this is important to remember,” and attempted to answer in English when asked questions.

Without even realizing it we went over our ‘end’ time by an hour. We were all wrapped up in the lesson, they wanted to know more and we wanted to expand their knowledge.

I left the farm knowing that I helped them, sure it was only one lesson, but at least now they have the confidence and ability to order food three different ways.