Adrian M. Sanchez
A blog of Adrian's adventures! (Formerly a Peace Corps Blog) "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." – Mark Twain
Why is teaching English important development work? – And giving my English final exam to my students today!
Gave my final exam for my English class (as an oral interview) today in the governorship, everyone passed! It was the last day of class too! It was an excellent way as a first step for me to meet people here in Paraguay and to meet one of the needs of the community as a secondary project. 🙂
Dando mi examen final para mi clase de ingles en la gobernacion, todos pasaron! Todo bien! Para mi era un excelente forma para conocer gente.
WHY IS ENGLISH IMPORTANT?
Why teach it? I was actually most surprised to learn that they are all extremely interested to learn English and to learn from THEM how IMPORTANT the language is. Being an English teacher here is more than just an academic grammatical study – IT IS REAL DEVELOPMENT WORK – because it opens new economic and educational windows and it is a superb way to socially integrate to the host community. 🙂
They all really are eager to learn English because, as they say in their own words, not only is it a universal global language, it opens countless jobs around the world to them (which matters with the poverty rate, depending how you define it, at about 32% according to some figures – the 2nd poorest South American country), allows them to attain higher education in certain fields that are only taught in English especially Masters or PhD programs, and lets them even just enjoy and understand the ever popular American pop culture, the latest radio song or movie, etc, among many other practical reasons.
This is just something I didn’t fully realize until I taught English in Paraguay.
Paraguayans also have an excellent knack to learn new languages as most, if not almost all, grow up as bilingual children learning Guarani and Spanish and so are naturally used to learning languages and also, which is key, appreciate and enjoy it.
I have another reason now to respect the English profession and teachers and the value of the language. Go English!!
In this picture I’m giving my final exam to my students of the local university UTIC.
Adrian M. Sanchez 