This year was yet another enlightening experience in understanding and interacting with migrant workers through the medium of teaching English. My skills as a teacher had been honed from my previous experiences and I was all set for another great year. Overall the experience has been fulfilling not only in the sense that I have been able to contribute back to the community of Qatar, but also enhancing my own personal development. The majority of Qatar's population consists of migrant workers, Qatar is at the peak of its economic growth thanks to these individuals. If anything, they deserve our utmost respect and attention for all of Qatar's glory.
I had first learnt about this program last year through Professor Silvia who was my English Professor. Back then it was a daunting aspect. Teaching children was one thing but I kept questioning myself as to how would I teach adults? How would they respond to the fact that a young teenager like me was teaching them? How would they view me as a person? How much English did they know? Would I be able to get through to them? These and many other questions had filled my mind.
However all was put to rest when my first class began with them. It was held in their mess hall where the workers would come to have their breakfast, lunch etc. The students were eager and nervous at the same time, just like me. It was awkward but me and my colleagues managed to get through to them really well. One big advantage which we all had was the fact that we had a common native language which was a mix of Hindi and Urdu. This was our starting point in really communicating with them and letting them know about our purpose. Once that was clear, we actually spent 2-3 weeks just trying to create a rapport with the students and getting to know them. We felt that jumping right into the material would not make sense as we really did not know how to approach them. After we established a relationship with them, we moved on to the material.
The material in itself was well designed by Professor Silvia, but we felt that we had to adapt to our students' needs. In general most of the students were at the same level so adapting to their needs was pretty straightforward. With that in mind the remaining weeks went by and it was great to see the students graduate at the end of the program with utmost satisfaction.
I was eager to return to the program this year as last year's experience had been so positive. In the previous semester I had taken a course with Professor Silvia's husband, Professor Erik, but that time the focus was on teaching children. However my general skills as a teacher had been refreshed so I was really confident in getting back into the routine.
Me and my colleagues went to the same camp as before. We were going to be teaching in the same mess hall. I felt nostalgic to say the least and I was eager to get back to teaching. When we went there it was a complete new set of students. The number of students which we had was also significantly more than last year. It was good to see a familiar face join us again for the course. I felt a bit nervous as the class overall was quite large. Nonetheless we got into the usual mode. This time they understood us pretty well so we started off with a test to determine at what level the students were.
What we found was that there was a huge discrepancy between the students. Some students were really advanced whereas others were just beginners. Me and my colleagues took this as a challenge and decided to find a solution to this issue in the most effective way. We ended up deciding to split up in order to teach two different groups. We would rotate each week and maintain consistency with the material.
However before our plan could be put into place, a number of issues took place. The companies claimed that they had no written agreement with the program so they would not be held liable for any issues regarding the teachers. Furthermore one of the teaching groups lost their class. We got delayed by 1 week and also we had to allocate some of our students to the other group. For a moment it seemed like the program was at an end.
But because of the efforts of Professor Silvia and Julie Zawadski (Language Bridges Program Coordinator), the students were brought to CMU to be taught here. I felt humbled and also excited to have the workers here. In essence what I felt that they were getting to not only just see the buildings which they have been contributing to make for so many years, but also now studying in them. They could have a glimpse of how their efforts have bore fruit. Furthermore we had all of CMU's resources at our disposal so it was a completely different experience. We could improvise a lot more and also bring a completely different feeling to the teaching experience.
The workers were really happy to be at CMU and the remaining weeks were a joy ride for us all. We took them through the material at the pace which they could handle. As we moved along, we continued to build relationships and learn more about each other. It was just amazing to see them all graduate at the end and see them so happy with their achievements.
After this experience my respect for these workers has grown and continues to grow. These individuals have families back home who rely on them to serve their needs. Its is indeed a life of hardship and they work for it. English has become a universal language and there is no doubt that it plays a major role in all sorts of communication. Providing these workers with such a platform really provides them with a fulfilling experience. I wish and hope that in the future Language Bridges Program will continue to expand, mature and move even further across Qatar as a whole and perhaps one day become a fully fledged system in which people from all sorts of places can contribute. This has truly been a life changing experience for me and I hope in the future I will continue to serve my community in such a manner.
I had first learnt about this program last year through Professor Silvia who was my English Professor. Back then it was a daunting aspect. Teaching children was one thing but I kept questioning myself as to how would I teach adults? How would they respond to the fact that a young teenager like me was teaching them? How would they view me as a person? How much English did they know? Would I be able to get through to them? These and many other questions had filled my mind.
However all was put to rest when my first class began with them. It was held in their mess hall where the workers would come to have their breakfast, lunch etc. The students were eager and nervous at the same time, just like me. It was awkward but me and my colleagues managed to get through to them really well. One big advantage which we all had was the fact that we had a common native language which was a mix of Hindi and Urdu. This was our starting point in really communicating with them and letting them know about our purpose. Once that was clear, we actually spent 2-3 weeks just trying to create a rapport with the students and getting to know them. We felt that jumping right into the material would not make sense as we really did not know how to approach them. After we established a relationship with them, we moved on to the material.
The material in itself was well designed by Professor Silvia, but we felt that we had to adapt to our students' needs. In general most of the students were at the same level so adapting to their needs was pretty straightforward. With that in mind the remaining weeks went by and it was great to see the students graduate at the end of the program with utmost satisfaction.
I was eager to return to the program this year as last year's experience had been so positive. In the previous semester I had taken a course with Professor Silvia's husband, Professor Erik, but that time the focus was on teaching children. However my general skills as a teacher had been refreshed so I was really confident in getting back into the routine.
Me and my colleagues went to the same camp as before. We were going to be teaching in the same mess hall. I felt nostalgic to say the least and I was eager to get back to teaching. When we went there it was a complete new set of students. The number of students which we had was also significantly more than last year. It was good to see a familiar face join us again for the course. I felt a bit nervous as the class overall was quite large. Nonetheless we got into the usual mode. This time they understood us pretty well so we started off with a test to determine at what level the students were.
What we found was that there was a huge discrepancy between the students. Some students were really advanced whereas others were just beginners. Me and my colleagues took this as a challenge and decided to find a solution to this issue in the most effective way. We ended up deciding to split up in order to teach two different groups. We would rotate each week and maintain consistency with the material.
However before our plan could be put into place, a number of issues took place. The companies claimed that they had no written agreement with the program so they would not be held liable for any issues regarding the teachers. Furthermore one of the teaching groups lost their class. We got delayed by 1 week and also we had to allocate some of our students to the other group. For a moment it seemed like the program was at an end.
But because of the efforts of Professor Silvia and Julie Zawadski (Language Bridges Program Coordinator), the students were brought to CMU to be taught here. I felt humbled and also excited to have the workers here. In essence what I felt that they were getting to not only just see the buildings which they have been contributing to make for so many years, but also now studying in them. They could have a glimpse of how their efforts have bore fruit. Furthermore we had all of CMU's resources at our disposal so it was a completely different experience. We could improvise a lot more and also bring a completely different feeling to the teaching experience.
The workers were really happy to be at CMU and the remaining weeks were a joy ride for us all. We took them through the material at the pace which they could handle. As we moved along, we continued to build relationships and learn more about each other. It was just amazing to see them all graduate at the end and see them so happy with their achievements.
After this experience my respect for these workers has grown and continues to grow. These individuals have families back home who rely on them to serve their needs. Its is indeed a life of hardship and they work for it. English has become a universal language and there is no doubt that it plays a major role in all sorts of communication. Providing these workers with such a platform really provides them with a fulfilling experience. I wish and hope that in the future Language Bridges Program will continue to expand, mature and move even further across Qatar as a whole and perhaps one day become a fully fledged system in which people from all sorts of places can contribute. This has truly been a life changing experience for me and I hope in the future I will continue to serve my community in such a manner.
No comments:
Post a Comment