Today I saw a little girl, maybe three years old, being carried across the Market Place by her mother. “I don’t understand you!” the little girl screamed in English as her mother lectured her in German.
I envied that little girl. I wished that I could take a moment to scream in English. I wanted to stomp my foot and get everyone’s attention. “I am smart!” I wanted to proclaim. “I am funny!” I wanted them to know. But the thing is, I’m not smart in German. I’m not funny either.
This sad realization made me think of our ESL students. We have a very small population of F-1 Visa students at Delaware Tech who come to learn English. In reality, most of our ESL students are degree-seeking students who are immigrants.
In my first semester as an adjunct, I quickly became aware of the sacrifices these students and their families make when they choose to leave their homeland and come to the United States. Some forfeit professional careers and become housekeepers so their children can grow up in America. Some leave their children behind with relatives to establish a home in the United States, only reclaiming those children many years later when they have saved enough money to help them immigrate. These students have given up so much, yet I was never aware that they were forced, for a time, to give up everything they thought they knew about themselves.
I am learning some things about language while at Concordia (I’m learning some German too, but that’s secondary). The most important is the direct tie it has to our identity. Everything I know about myself became irrelevant when I became a beginning German speaker in a German immersion program. Yet beneath my language struggle still existed... me. The me that is smart and funny and confident.
Next semester, take a look at your roster. Do you have an ESL or international student? Imagine a day in that student’s shoes. Observe the reactions that student receives from his classmates. Pay attention to your own behaviors. I hope that you are inspired to take the time to sift through the language differences to get to know him. The real him. The smart, funny student lying beneath a second language.
I envied that little girl. I wished that I could take a moment to scream in English. I wanted to stomp my foot and get everyone’s attention. “I am smart!” I wanted to proclaim. “I am funny!” I wanted them to know. But the thing is, I’m not smart in German. I’m not funny either.
This sad realization made me think of our ESL students. We have a very small population of F-1 Visa students at Delaware Tech who come to learn English. In reality, most of our ESL students are degree-seeking students who are immigrants.
In my first semester as an adjunct, I quickly became aware of the sacrifices these students and their families make when they choose to leave their homeland and come to the United States. Some forfeit professional careers and become housekeepers so their children can grow up in America. Some leave their children behind with relatives to establish a home in the United States, only reclaiming those children many years later when they have saved enough money to help them immigrate. These students have given up so much, yet I was never aware that they were forced, for a time, to give up everything they thought they knew about themselves.
I am learning some things about language while at Concordia (I’m learning some German too, but that’s secondary). The most important is the direct tie it has to our identity. Everything I know about myself became irrelevant when I became a beginning German speaker in a German immersion program. Yet beneath my language struggle still existed... me. The me that is smart and funny and confident.
Next semester, take a look at your roster. Do you have an ESL or international student? Imagine a day in that student’s shoes. Observe the reactions that student receives from his classmates. Pay attention to your own behaviors. I hope that you are inspired to take the time to sift through the language differences to get to know him. The real him. The smart, funny student lying beneath a second language.