When I found out that I'd be teaching parents, a little part of me started to freak out! After all, I don't even consider myself to be a mature adult so I cringed at the thought of having to stand in front of a classroom and teaching a group of mothers and fathers. I mean, I still watch Disney movies and get excited when I find prizes in the cereal box! Doesn't that say something about my unconscious resistance to grow up????
The information I was given about the group of parents did little to calm my nerves. All I was told was that there were 14 registered parents and that I would be the only teacher. I was clueless as to whether they knew any English at all. Did they even like English? Would they feel insulted that a little 24-year-old was going to teach them? What were their expectations? What if they didn't understand a single word I said? Would they like me? What if they were too shy and quiet? Even worse, what if they were too loud and talked over me? How would I discipline grown adults? My mind was overflowing with questions and worries. The anxiety I felt made my head spin!
When I woke up today, I immediately remembered what day it was. Today was my first parents English class. With my heart squirming in my chest, I trudged up 6 floors to the school library. I walked through the library entrance feeling nervous and jittery. Eighty minutes later, I emerged from the library feeling amazing! The class went so well; the group of parents were beyond friendly, which made the experience all that much better. Only 10 parents attended the first class but I was ok with this. I liked our little intimate group because I got to know the parents on a more personal level.
Obviously, the difference between teaching adults and teenagers is like that of night and day. My teaching experiences have reminded me that just because teenagers come to school, does not necessarily mean that all of them want to be there or that their main priority is to get an education. Whereas, meeting and teaching the Korean adults today was, in a sense, refreshing because they were all eager to learn. I asked each of them to explain why they were attending English classes and the most common response was, "to help my child(ren) learn English too." Other responses included, "I want to travel around Europe," "I want to understand and speak with foreigners," etc. Regardless of their reasons, I respected these parents for voluntarily stepping into the unknown and attempting to learn a foreign and intimidating language. I could tell that many of them were nervous when I spoke to them but I hope to change this by creating a caring and safe environment for them to learn and take risks in.
I'm definitely excited for the rest of our semester together. I've already surveyed the parents in terms of what they'd like to learn. I sincerely hope that I can help them improve their English but I also hope that I can learn more about Korea and its people through my classes with these parents.
Even if the parents don't leave my classes with huge English vocabularies or extensive conversation skills, I would much rather they leave with confidence and willingness to take risks in speaking English. Therefore, at the top of the course outline that I developed, I included the following quote made by businessman and philanthropist, David Packard:
"Take risks. Ask big questions. Don't be afraid to make mistakes; if you don't make mistakes, you're not reaching far enough."
Hopefully, reading this quote will not only push the parents to accomplish more with their English-speaking skills, but it will also serve as a reminder to me that I can achieve greater teaching and life goals if I step beyond my comfort zone.
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