Day One

Today was my first day at work. I am already exhausted, incredulous at the months ahead and, perhaps most of all, inspired.

I spent the morning chatting with the three older boys who requested an English teacher. At 18, they're not really boys anymore, but they have a marked innocence about them: it could be the product of their broken English, but I think it springs more from the nervous excitement in their faces than anything else. Also, they're all shorter than I am. (This country is great for the self-esteem of the average white girl: she feels beautiful just because she's pale, and statuesque at the mediocre height of 5 feet and 6 inches.) Two of the boys are studying computers as part of a B.A. correspondence course -- video and sound editing in particular. The other has finished twelfth grade, but for some reason (and it's not hard to see the obstacles in his way) has not yet entered a university-level course for further study.

We sat in a circle on the second floor of their dorm building, which does quadruple-duty as a study room, sleeping area, dining hall, and computer lab. Tomorrow, when things get more formal, I suppose we'll migrate to a long desk. We talked about where they were in school, how much English they had studied, why they wanted to learn English ("very important for high society gatherings," said R., the oldest, at which point S., the second-oldest, fervently nodded his head in agreement), and what they wanted to practice. It will take many more days to assess where they really are with the language -- and goodness knows I'm the least experienced tutor they've ever had -- but my heart leaps around a little when I think about working with such dedicated students. They've had far more than their fair share of difficulties in life; their commitment to education and optimism about the future feels disarming.

In the early afternoon, I headed over to the Handuman mandir contact point to meet the kids there. There are up to twenty kids (aged 9-15) who come every day, but their afternoons are pretty unstructured: a class was just finishing as I arrived, and the rest of the afternoon was to be spent playing marbles, cuffing other kids on the head, or in self-study. "Who wants to learn English?" one of the teachers asked after I had walked in. Four hands flew up in the air. Great, I thought, another small group -- this will be a breeze. Boy, was I wrong about that: when the others saw their friends practicing "what is your name?" and "how old are you?" in English, the group instantly grew ten kids larger. Almost all of them knew no English at all. Communication is such an amazing thing, though, because the gigantic language barrier didn't seem to matter. Things moved slowly, and sometimes frustratingly, but everyone had some fun in the end.

Then there were two tenth grade boys studying by themselves off to the side; the staff told me that they had wanted help with English, so I went over to introduce myself. I was greeted with almost total silence. As it turns out, they've been studying English for two years -- but they can hardly speak a word. I took at look at their textbooks, issued by the National Institute of Open Schooling: are first-year English textbooks supposed to use technical grammar terms on page five? Perhaps -- but it certainly explained how all of their energy has been directed on simply learning how to read. As R. said, "I can read, but there is no meaning." Their faces lacked the enthusiasm and smiles of all the other kids I met today. I'm still thinking about why.

I've vowed to come more prepared for everything tomorrow, and so it's time to flip through the coloring books, newspapers, magazines, and comic books that I bought this evening from overpriced stationery stores in Defence Colony Market. For some reason I also bought a stuffed elephant. It didn't seem out of place for the younger group at Hanuman mandir. Perhaps we can name it together (Nellephant?), give it a life story, sew sisters and brothers for it, all in English of course.

So I'm currently accepting any tips and tools of the trade that my readership has to offer! Anyone taught English as a foreign language before? Had experience with kids of these age groups? Worked with "underprivileged" students? Thoughts and comments are welcome.