Lunch with the World- Day 1

I recently accepted a position to teach a class of low-beginning refugees for a refugee resettlement agency in partnership with a local community college in suburban Maryland. The class is held in a library not far from the complex where most, (if not all) the refugees live. The class meets Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 10am to 1pm.

The meeting room where the class takes place is a public space in a library. The library maintains that the room must be left essentially untouched or empty; save tables, chairs, and trash can. This means teachers and students can not leave anything on the walls. The room is therefore quite sterile. There is, however, a sizable window which provides the room with sufficient natural light, off-setting the cold institutional atmosphere.

Resources and materials may be kept in a side closet which is full of roll-y carts, a desk podium, stacks of paper, fans, and other discarded library items. The teacher(s) may use two of the shelves closest to the door, next to a lumpy cardboard box full of ratty and love-stained toys. On the shelf, there are piles of books and workbooks for in-class use, although I'm doubtful that all my students can use them. There is a large tupperware bin full of paper and flashcards that needs to be organized. There is an old plastic pen box labeled, “dry erase” that is empty and the hinges have come undone. There are some dull number twos, smudged gray. And there is a CD-radio. This looks fine.

I scrounge for some paper and uncover a packet of construction paper. Some of it has clearly been used to occupy children of the students; there are thick marker lines written with an unsteady hand littering the back sides of several of the papers. I have the students fold the paper to make name tags that can be propped up on the conference- style table we are sitting around . On one side they write their names. On the other side they draw or write three things they enjoy. Then the students share the information with the class:

Student: My name is Tim*. I like to read. I like English. I like to cook

Teacher: What's his name?

Students: His name is Tim.

Teacher: What does he like?

Students: He likes to read. He likes English. He likes to cook

This activity takes up a rather long time with several errors, indicating the students' low proficiency.

We go over the date and the confusing order of things in the US (month, day, year - april 30^th 2012- 4/30/2012, instead of day, month, year 30/4/12). The student laugh as if to agree that America is indeed a strange, strange place.

Then we move on to another speaking activity. As a primer, we review the vocabulary, which are verbs, that have explanatory pictures. “sell” is one of the words. The students explain the difference between, “buy” and “sell”. I role-play selling a pen to one student. I joke by pretending to bargain with him. The students laugh. I ask them if it is ok to bargain in the US. Some think about it. Some students add that it's not ok at the grocery store. Another student remembers the phrase, “fixed price.”

The students practice a dialogue on the next page.

Now it's break time, I'm informed by a student. This was the time the other teacher always did it. Then, two students have to leave for work. Another student has forgotten her glasses so maybe she should go home now. Another student would like to go home with her preschooler, who has been incredibly patient, silently drawing as his mother sits in class. Also, a couple in the class has an appointment with a case manager. Then, a man comes in. He rather urgently shows me a government notification. It says that failure to come to such and such appointment (that happened two weeks ago) would result in a termination some kind of temporary financial assistance. He shows me the envelop that has a yellow label on it that indicates that it was initially sent to the wrong address. He just received it last week. He leaves with his wife, who is in the class. The lady without the glasses (although she may not be able to read with them) tells me that she was essentially orphaned or abandoned as a child with “no one to take care of me” so she didn't go to school, but she wants to learn now.

An hour left of class, I sit down with the two students left. It is apparent that one has trouble writing full sentences but he can still communicate the time of day and basic vocabulary for routine ( wake up, eat breakfast, etc). The other student has trouble reading the time and copying basic words.

One thing becomes apparent: These students, especially unemployed and stuck in Maryland suburbia, spend a lot of time watching TV.

We end early. They are tired from all that English work. There is so much more to come, so much more to come.

*pseudonym