My Experience at Language Bridges Qatar

The experience at Language Bridges for me has been very enriching. I have taught several times before and I believed that I had a lot of experience with teaching prior to this. However, I later realized that my experience had always been with teaching kids, which was an entirely different domain. Teaching adults was obviously more challenging since I had to improvise a lot more. It was important to know what kind of material they enjoyed and it was really important to not over-simplify certain aspects. After this experience, I certainly feel much more content and I also feel confident about talking to people from different cultures with totally different backgrounds.

Before teaching at Language Bridges, I never really considered how migrant workers lived and worked in Qatar. They were always the “part of the landscape” in Qatar. The huge number of workers in Qatar probably is the main reason as to why I had this kind of a conception. I always respected them for the outstanding work that they did in the heat of Qatar, but I never really talked to any worker for a period of 8 weeks before this. After this experience, I think my respect for them has increased a lot. During the teaching period, I learnt a lot about their lives and their problems due to which they have come to work abroad. Seeing the fact that they have come to class after/before working a shift of 12 hours is really encouraging for us teachers. I personally found their quest for knowledge so amazing. Most of the students came to all classes without fail and contributed really well to all in-class activities and discussions.

From the experience of teaching adults, I feel that I’ve become more confident to teach. Usually, when I used to teach kids, it was more game based and videos. This was the first time that I was actually leading class discussions for an hour or two at times and teaching new material non-stop. I think this kind of experience with facilitating discussions and moderating class is really important in terms of leadership. Dialog is very important to have and managing dialog peacefully is a vital skill to possess in today’s world.

As a long-time resident of Qatar, I actually feel a lot more satisfied after this experience. I’ve seen Qatar grow in front of my eyes all these years and I’m glad that I could help the people who essentially build this country and the great structures that we have here. Although in a small way, I think the knowledge that I’ve shared with them will definitely help them in the long run and they will definitely enjoy recalling the fun times that we had in class. At the beginning of this program, I think I was a very stern and rigid teacher, who would just stick to the lessons planned and try to execute it. However, in our class discussions, all the other student teachers suggested that it was important to get quality information across and that quantity was not really important. I really am glad I could hear from other student learners. From then on, I prepared shorter lesson plans but focused more on the learning part. I wanted them to have fun and remember them instead of just bombarding the students with information. What I had in mind earlier was the “Banking Concept of Education”, in which the teacher deposits information onto the students. After our discussion of the class readings, I later realized that this was the wrong approach. I started involving them in our classes more often and focused more on their class participation. I ensured that each student spoke at least once or twice during the class. Since the number of students was manageable, almost everyone had the chance to speak during class.

The learners themselves really enjoyed their time with us and were so thankful of our efforts. On the last day, each one came to us and thanked us, which was really nice of them. I would totally recommend this to some of my close friends. It not only gives you a sense of satisfaction about returning to the community but it also teaches you about yourself. I think one can use this platform as a self-assessment of one’s teaching skills, patience, harmony, and teamwork.