Teaching ESL

Teaching ESL is such a joyful experience. I sometimes wonder who learns the most. Each day I am immersed in the values and cultures of people who have come to Canada. Many of them have escaped very difficult circumstances, often leaving everything behind for the chance of freedom and safety.

I wish everybody could hear their stories. Canadians would get a greater appreciation for our own country. Also, some of the negative attitudes towards immigrants would disappear.

Teaching newcomers is sometimes not easy. Some come from places, like China, where there is no alphabet in their language. The Arabic alphabet doesn't resemble ours in the slightest and they write from right to left. Some of our sounds are difficult for them to make, like "th".

The approach I take is like putting post-it notes on a fridge. I stick as many as I can on each day. When I arrive the next day, I see how many have blown off and I start putting them on again.

Learning a language is not an instant process. It's like putting drops of water in a glass a few at a time. In the beginning, you might not see much happening and get a bit discourages. Drop by drop the glass eventually fills up as long as you keep putting liquid in.

Come to think of it, that's the way many things are in life. We live in an era where we want an instant fix to everything, but many things, including building great character, are the result of a long, difficult process.