Why I teach and why you should

Hi! I’m Esther. I’m from a very diverse background and am currently living in Bosnia. In someone’s bio I recently read “most of my favourite things are words” and realized that I’d probably never find a sentence that more aptly describes me. I discovered Pax Populi nearly a year ago and applied immediately because their goals matched my life’s mission so closely.

My student was a teenaged boy from Afghanistan who spoke English at a very basic level. I decided that my main goal for the four month teaching period we agreed on would be to broaden his vocabulary and deepen his conversational skills. To this end, our first session was spent simply chatting– telling him about myself, asking questions about his life, interests, studies, etc.  

Our next sessions had us reading and then discussing children’s books, favourite foods, holiday customs, learning football (soccer to you) terminology and simply brushing up on grammar. Another teenaged boy who was a couple years older sat through each lesson with my student and pitched in with translations and explanations from time to time when something was unclear. This was an enormous help and kept the lessons from getting halted or bogged down, especially on the occasions when our internet connection was less than perfect.

I looked forward to my tutoring days as opportunities to learn first-hand about another culture and form friendships. I plan to dive right back in when my schedule stabilizes once more.

As my favourite author, Terry Pratchett, says 'You know what the greatest tragedy is in the whole world? It's all the people who never find out what it is they really want to do or what it is they're really good at. It's all the sons who become blacksmiths because their fathers were blacksmiths. It's all the people who could be really fantastic flute players who grow old and die without ever seeing a musical instrument, so they become bad ploughmen instead. It's all the people with talents who never even find out.’

Pax Populi is doing something about that and I want to be part of this change. I’m so glad you’re joining us.

Wishing you a lovely day,

--Esther CW

*I was asked to write 'a paragraph' about my ideas and experience as a tutor. Hah! ME write just one paragraph. Very funny. I suppose I'll master that art one day. :-D