actualización (update)

Schoolwork picked up and I forgot to update this for far too long. This is what's been happening:

Tutorials are going well. Malachi and I work well together and I have noticed our students becoming significantly more comfortable with speaking and asking us questions. They are also retaining more information from session to session. That is one of the biggest struggles for PALMA tutors, from session to session and from year to year. Most of the adult students speak Spanish in the home and do not use English much (if at all) on the job. Because of this they do not practice outside of PALMA.

Our students have been keeping stacks of notecards with vocabulary on them and I think that has been very helpful because they can use them during breaks in their days. We've also gotten into a pattern of a half-hour of questions and grammar instruction in Spanish, followed by English-only (we try for that anyway) conversation for the rest of the session. They were initially intimidated but have settled into it nicely and do well speaking English for an hour.

I have also noticed us growing a lot closer and this has influenced me a great deal over the semester. I am drawn to them in some way; I want to know their histories and know them as people despite the language barrier. Erika is not able to return regularly next semester and I will miss her. I find myself getting attached which, in these situations, does not always serve you well. But at the same time, how can you put in the necessary effort without getting invested?

One of our longtime members was recently diagnosed with cancer and is in the hospital. PALMA (and the Latino community in general) is a tight-knit group and it has affected most of the people I know. At the same time, I am glad the community is so close because we can work together to help her. Best thoughts and wishes for Lupe.

PALMA is coming to an end for the semester so I won't have much to say over the next few weeks, but I will try to update more regularly next semester.

Feliz Navidad y nos vemos.

todo transcurre sin contratiempos (everything is going smoothly)

I broke my promise of updating more often, so I owe the blogosphere an extra long post.

Tutorials with my students have been going well. Malachi and I spoke yesterday and agreed that all four seem to be engaged in the tutorials and bringing their own questions each session, which means they are thinking actively about English on a daily basis now. They will often ask things like, "I hear _____ so often, what does that mean?" It is great that they are taking more notice of English phrases in their everyday lives.

We have also gained quite a bit of cultural knowledge through working with the women. Malachi had never tried flan so Lilia made us one, which we split. Yesterday we talked about their personal histories back in Mexico. They all married quite young and were surprised to hear that our parents were in their late 20s or early 30s by the time they married and had children. Apparently, it is also more common for people to marry in the winter time in Mexico because people like to do so around the holidays. I am so interested in each of their stories and I hope I get to know them better so I can hear more.

We now try to have English conversation time at every Tutorial. Rosaura is the shy one and so she does not say much, but we try to prompt them all when we can. Rocio is the most vocal. They all have fairly large vocabularies but the others are unsure of their abilities so they do not always talk. Erika can read almost anything and Lilia has an easier time with pronunciation. I want to try to bring them out of their shells by playing to their strengths; I think they can all help each other learn.

I have been contemplating a project where I talk with them and record their histories in their own words (Spanish and translated into English?). Listening to them talk about their families, what they remember of Mexico, their town (they're all from around the same place), Rosaura's mother's little store, Erika's quinceañera (traditional 15th birthday ball), and their experiences as immigrants just appeals to the story writer in me. Hmm...

discriminación (discrimination)

At our last session the women were telling us about their experiences with discrimination. They said they were too afraid to try to buy medicine because they had been asked for ID when buying baby Tylenol. They said they had a very hard time trying to get apartments.

Plenty of non-immigrants here are unproductive members of society, but if you have an accent it seems like your inalienable rights tend to mean less. For them it hurts the most that they work so hard to support their families and yet they are treated like this.

For me it hurts the most to hear them say they know this is just something they have to live with.

desarrollo (development)

We have continued to work with a focus on immediately useful vocabulary and listening practice so our students can communicate as soon as possible. Malachi compiled an extensive vocabulary packet relating to medical conditions, medication, and doctor visits from travel guides and material he found online. They were a little cautious at first, feeling kind of overwhelmed I think, but by the second session with the packet they were very excited to keep learning. It has been wonderful to see that excitement every day.

Last Thursday I worked primarily with Rosaura, who had been absent and missed the introduction to the packet. We worked through the vocabulary slowly and she wrote down pronunciations. Many of the words ended in the suffix '-tion', and she was having trouble remembering how to pronounce this. In Spanish, the similar suffix '-cion' is pronounced 'see-own', enunciating both the vowels. I started to underline the ends of every word that ended in '-tion' to see if she would see a pattern, and she did. Sitting there and watching her make this connection was so fulfilling, not only because I knew she was learning but because I could see the satisfaction on her face. A lot of times the women make jokes that they are dumb, and while they're not being serious it does say something about the way they view themselves. I am hoping through learning more vocabulary and feeling like they can communicate better, they will realize how much potential they still have as adults.

estrés (stress)

I have not updated in a while so I am going to write a short post in between papers...

PALMA has been going well. I have taken on another tutor in my group so that there are two of us working with the three (sometimes four) women. This seems to be a lot more effective, and I really appreciate his input.

I had been trying to work on more grammar with the women because, well, it is important to have some understanding of this in order to convey oneself clearly. But it did not seem very effective and at this point, in order to really help them, we have decided to focus on role plays of situations like going to the bank and making an appointment at the doctor's office to give them things they can use. Lilia told our other tutor (his name is Malachi and will henceforth be referenced as such because it is annoying to find other ways to reference him) that it's helpful to learn vocabulary and phrases to use in these situations because she can write them down but the problem is understanding what is said to her. So, the style is going to change and I hope that this is a lot more effective.

The only problem with this is that we administer grammar tests each semester, but hopefully through the practice they will learn better subject-verb agreement, etc. Until next time... (I will try to check in more often, by the way).

agradecimiento (thankfulness)

On Tuesday at PALMA a woman came up to me to told me she had read this blog. I had met her at the PALMA picnic and given her the web address. She said, "When I read your page, I started crying. I cried when you said that we are all people trying hard to make our lives better." She teared up again as she was telling me this, and all I could do was tell her I meant it.

Let me be honest here: if I was in a rough neighborhood and someone walking toward me was dressed or acting suspiciously, I would be on my guard regardless of their race. I think everyone can agree with that. But that is not an excuse for racism or a reductive attitude towards minorities. It is time to stop treating Latinos (and other immigrants) like second-class citizens in the grocery store, at the gas station, in restaurants. Not all Latinos are Mexicans. Not all Latinos perform manual labor. Not all Latinos are illegal immigrants. In the words of my Puerto Rican Spanish teacher, not all Latinos are brown. Some Latinos are people who work 12-hour shifts folding sheets at the Courtyard Marriott, or packaging food at Max and Erma's, or cleaning other people's houses, and still make the time to better themselves and make sure their children succeed.

After you know this, you can't look down on them out of prejudice, and you can't ignore their earnestness. You couldn't live with yourself if you did.

evaluación (evaluation)

Tomorrow we will be administering an English test to all our adult participants. We use this to determine their level of English so we can measure their progress at the end of the year (in April). It also gives the tutorials a goal and show tutors what each student needs to work on.

On Thursday I did a review session for my students. I have found that I like making my own worksheets for them to use rather than using things I find online, because I can tailor them to what they need to work on. We have been reviewing the verb 'to be' and talking about how to properly form verbs based on a subject. It is a lot easier to teach ESL when you have had to learn a second language yourself, because you have seen how a teacher might explain things.

All four women were nervous about the exam. Even though PALMA is an informal volunteer group, our students take their work very seriously. It has made me even more committed to helping them improve. Full-time students lose sight so easily of the actual value of learning- everything is to get a grade, to pass a test. Watching Lilia, Rosaura, Erika and Rocio taking the time to learn something because they truly want to master it really makes me reflect on what I'm studying here and how much I get out of it.