New Change

Throughout my life, I wanted to do something good for society. It was really difficult to do anything like that in school. My school did not have any type of program or anything else that would give me this gratification for helping people aside from other students. In 7 weeks of uni, I already have done more for society in university than I have done in school. Teaching the learners has been a great experience and I find enjoyment and happiness whenever I have class with the learners. It's a small break just to help other people and have fun with them. I did not know them in the start but we have learned stuff about each other and we have become a group that talk to each other. I am really thankful for Language Bridges for picking me to part of this wonderful experience.

A wonderful experience!

Being involved in this volunteering work has been amazing so far! To be honest, I could not think of a better way to reward all of the workers that work so hard to make CMU our second home. However in the beginning of this experience, I was a bit intimidated by the fact that my learners are older than us. But I was very blessed to have fun students that think of us as friends that are helping them to improve their communication skills in English. The fact that my students are in the advanced class, enables my colleagues and I to have more fun teaching them as their level of understanding is decent. There are six students in my class, and each one of them is very unique. But most importantly, I respect how they maintain their good mood, positivity and sense of humor during the whole class despite how much how tired they must be after working for the whole day. Therefore, I can definitely say that I am learning from my students as well, as they are constantly teaching me to stay positive no matter how much work I have. Even though, I wish to have some rest after a long day of classes, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I look forward to meeting my students hoping that they will benefit something from that class. It is definitely worth the wait, and I do not regret this at all!

Jake playing charades

My experience as a Freshman and an LBP teacher

Not so long ago we were getting introduced to what will be our home for four years and not so long ago we were all confused about what exactly we should do in our freshmen year. There are so many things to do here from being part of different clubs to having a paid job to volunteering - it's overwhelming. Honestly I can't remember how I got to be in LBP or who first introduced me to LBP and frankly I don't care. Why? Because what we do here is so much more than work. It is giving back to the society what some of us take for granted. We are all in a prestigious university which we pay a lot for ... by that I mean our parents do and sometimes we take that for granted. But LBP is the first opportunity I personally had to give back to the society, to help others towards perhaps a better life. 

We have six students in our advanced class and I must say they are all pretty awesome. Never have I seen someone who wants to study even after 12 hours of work. What is surprising is that they do their homework even if they have one day of holiday, their living conditions are not as good as they should but this is what real life is, isn't it?

This past weeks have been awesome. Of course in the beginning most of the students were shy but now it is quite obvious they feel quite comfortable during the lesson. They are very enthusiastic about coming to class. They have repeatedly said that they wished this class would hold for the whole year, which means that LBP is doing a good job! 

We are lucky for having the advanced class and teaching them is quite easy. Two of our students even went to university. They all know what they are doing and so our job is quite easy. They are all working in CMU.

What we do is we read the texts and then we choose the words they struggled with reading and then we ask for other words they do not know. Their "weak" point is vocabulary so in the last few minutes of class we play charades where they get to act few of the words out like "bachelor" or they act out a movie using at least one of our vocabulary words. They enjoy it so much that they make up a charade for us and we have to act it out. Some people said that they probably don't know much about movies or music etc but you would be surprised how much they know! They even know about Harlem Shake so.... don't underestimate them!

This was one of the best ways to start out our freshmen year. No regrets whatsoever, this is awesome!

Charades

The Fall 2013 Edition: A hopeful Silvia

After all our meetings this week, I am hopeful that the second part of our Fall 2013 Language Bridges will run smoothly and will be a truly learning and rewarding experience for all!  Our Fall 2013 classes kicked off in September thanks to the Language Bridges Club members, the curriculum designers and trainers (Natalia and me!), other volunteers (Nada, Mollie, Swapnil, Chathurika, and Fazel), and a new set of volunteer teachers.  Thank you to everyone who made the beginning possible.  Running a community program is not easy, but we all managed to do it as a team.  Now after some hiccups, challenges, and headaches, let's remember why we are doing this and continue to work together as a team to deliver the best possible classes. There's only 1 month left!  Let's make the best out of it!  And let's come together for the Fall 2013 Language Bridges Celebration on November 24th to showcase the wonderful work and mission of Language Bridges!  Seeing the happy faces of our teachers and learners on every celebration reminds me that it's all worth it!