Submitted by Aaron Tinkleman on the 2016 winter session program in China sponsored by the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice..
“I’m laughing with you, not at you,” I tell and gesture to my friend Martin – a Chinese law (grad) student who’s trying to improve his English fluency. He’s been learning English since his teenage years (about 10 years), but he tells me he’s had little opportunity to practice it conversationally. Now, though, we have spent some time together actively going over things. Through this program overall, it’s been a beautiful experience laughing with people over the fact that we cannot understand each other well..or at all.
So far, I’ve had a good time trying to teach English to Martin. I’d say he’s at a beginner/intermediate level of vocabulary. He needs to think when he speaks, most of the time. My roommate is Chinese, so he sometimes steps in when I ask or when he sees fit. This picture was taken a few nights ago in our hotel, where we ended up going over some things for about a half hour.
My instruction wasn’t too formal – I gave him pointers as we talked casually, while I marked some things in a notebook. These experiences have me considering whether I want to live abroad and teach English after college. Teaching English to my foreign friends (from China, Honduras, etc.) makes me feel like I’m doing something to help other people, and one thing I’ve always been good at is learning foreign languages, so this may be a nice option for me.