A Memorable 8 Weeks

This was my first time volunteering as a tutor for the Language Bridges Program and I must say, it is one of those decisions that I will never regret! Since the 3rd grade, I have had a soft-spot for teaching. Add to that the fact that English is a subject I am good at and I enjoy immensely, and you can imagine why Language Bridges was a great experience for me. Yes, there were some times when we would get stressed out trying to juggle our coursework while tending to the lesson plans for that week's class, printing all the required material and planning out what we would teach that day but the satisfaction at the end of each class and the smiles on the students' faces made it all worth it. 

I still remember the first day of Language Bridges as if it was only yesterday. The anticipation as we drove to the labor camps at The Pearl had filled us with adrenaline even at the end of a long and tiresome day. A million questions were flying around the car - "They're older than us, wont it be embarrassing?", "What if they call us Ma'am?!", "What if we don't do a good job?" Now it seems funny that these things would even cross our minds! 

The first day of classes at the labor camps.

Even though there were several difficult, frustrating moments, the memorable moments made up for them all. When we finally succeeded in teaching the Simple Present Tense to our students, when we taught them the lyrics to "Waving Flag" and had them sing it on their own, when we played entertaining games like "7 Up" and "Hangman" and saw the joy on their faces - these were the times that made the difficult obstacles seem even more trivial than we thought they were at first. Most importantly, watching our students hard at work doing the activities we assigned them and completing the quizzes we set for them gave us an immense feeling of pride and accomplishment.

Students hard at work finishing up Present Tense practice exercises

At the end of the 8 weeks, at the LBP Recognition Night, I can undoubtedly say that I was very proud of each and every student who received a Graduation Certificate. Learning a new language is almost as difficult as teaching it and I am glad that most of our students persevered, stayed motivated till the very end and worked hard to take away as much as they could from the Language Bridges Program.

To students considering volunteering in the next session of Language Bridges, I would highly recommend you go for it. It is a great learning experience because it puts you in your teachers' shoes and makes you appreciate them a whole lot more. Apart from that, the satisfaction of teaching English to people who do not have the privilege of knowing the language as well as you do is something that will stay with you for a long time to come.

Vanessa, Tasnin and Devika