A few weeks ago a student approached me during "cleaning time"--the 30 minutes designated at the end of the day where students clean up the school, and each student is assigned a particular task--to ask for some help. Her english name was Linda.
She wasn't actually a student of mine, but rather she's the student who mops underneath my desk. Linda comes by to talk with me while she waits for another student to finish sweeping around my desk--and we talk about all sorts of things.
But on that particular friday, she told me that she was applying to an international camp for environmental engineering--but that there would be an english interview for it. Linda, is a second year. She's not my student. That means she's not at an intermediate/advanced level. She was terribly worried about her interview, and to be honest, I was a bit worried too. Because it's one thing to be able to talk about you age, and where you come from, and what your favorite food is in english... it's a completely different thing altogether to have to talk about environmental issues and what you think about them in a language that is not your own.
Since Linda isn't actually my student, I decided to set aside some time after school to work with her specifically. There was no other way since she has classes each period and there's no way I'd take away her lunch. After school it must be. But that also meant that I would be working with her gratis. Her interview was saturday afternoon and I even went in on saturday to prep her for it. Teachers were surprised to see me there, wondering why I was showing up on a saturday since my contract states that I get the weekends for myself--I should mention that korean teachers work every other saturday.
I didn't mind working off the clock with her, I was happy to do it. She was such a trooper--she worked so hard. Each day coming in just that much better than yesterday. I worried that I wasn't actually doing much to help her, that the questions we'd work on were too simple, too vague. I worried that she would be so nervous that she wouldn't be able to remember anything we'd practiced, so I also gave her some advice and breathing methods.
I didn't see her for a while afterwards, and I was in suspense as we both wondered if she was accepted or not. Linda told me that she was incredibly nervous, and that she didn't speak as well as we had prepared. It was to be expected, but I hoped her nervousness would be overlooked given the situation.
Then, in the middle of the week, one of the teachers comes to my desk to tell me a student is looking to speak with me. The teacher's room was on lock down, since teachers were making up the mid-term exams & no students at all were allowed inside. So I head out, and there Linda is, completely happy.
She made it in. She's going to an international camp for environmental studies...in kazakhstan! Apparently, S.Korea and Kazakhstan have this crazy environmental program and my student gets to go there and have this amazing experience.
Linda was so happy, and I was equally thrilled, as if I was the one going. She thanked me profusely, saying something along the lines of, me speaking with her improved her english and that she thought she got in because of my help.
While I didn't think she got into the camp because of my help, I accepted that thanks for her improved english. Because the point of us talking wasn't so that I could feed her prepared answers. We all know how that can turn out:
But the point was just to get her thinking about the topic...in english.
After we parted, I excused myself to the ladies room where I promptly cried. I mean you always wonder how effective you are as a teacher...especially in this sort of situation. You wonder if you're just the fun teacher. You wonder if you are actually helping to improve students' english skills.
And then something like this happens.
And its humbling and jarring, and beautiful. It was the very first time I felt like I was making a difference in a student's life since coming here.
So, Linda, thank you.
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