One of the best parts of working here is the impact a foreign teacher has. Lots of students ignore me or are not interested, and lots of students enjoy having me teach me. There are also a handful who seem truly excited and grateful to share their culture with me, and to learn English from me. I have had lots of sweet moments over the years, but one of the sweetest occured last week.
I was standing outside the school waiting for my English Club to come and meet me and another student walked past. He was from my 2-6 class. Now 2-6 is the rarest of rare classes. The students speak English well, love to participate and try their best. They are a teachers dream, and believe me this is not the case for most of the classes I teach. Anyways this particular boy was from 2-6, but is a quieter student with sweet brown eyes who I couldn't even place right away. As I teach almost 500 students it is difficult to remember what class or grade they all fall into. He asked what I was waiting for, then walked by.
About 15 seconds later he turned around and walked towards me.
"Thanks to you... Thanks to you....Thanks to you I could enjoy English this year"
He had worked up all his courage and stumbling over his words managed to execute a sentence that truly meant a lot. My eyes filled with tears (for real!) and I told him to keep speaking English and that I would see him next year.
In my career I expect I will teach hundreds, maybe thousands, of English language students. Some will stand out, some I won't remember a week after their last class, and some will have a powerful effect on me. I have to confess I still don't know the student's name, but his kind words will stay with me forever. I hope that he will continue to pursue English in his life, and that he never forgets that with language he has the power to communicate with millions more people.
No comments:
Post a Comment