Friday Night Lights

Last Friday evening I dropped in on the Friday night English tutoring class. I was going to write a post about it, but Martin Whittaker emailed me with a much more comprehensive of the class. To make an understatement, Martin is enthusiastic about Friday night tutoring. Here is his report (and yes, he will take more volunteers).

Thank you for visiting the beginning of the TIF Conversational English Class on Friday night. It was a fairly typical night for us. Normally we have been averaging 17 students on Friday nights. On 10/22 we had 19 students. One student brought her daughter to translate because she has no English language skills. We had 12 tutors and 3 tutors in training sitting in on classes. We also had three church members attending, assisting the students in one way or another. There was one student from Russia, one from Taiwan, one from Mongolia, one from Mexico and the remaining 15 students were from China.

In the seven weeks of classes this year we have had 42 different students. Some of the other countries represented by the students this year are Columbia, Japan, Korea, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil. The student's backgrounds are varied from child care givers to medical doctors. The students' English speaking and comprehension abilities range from very limited skills to an excellent knowledge of English. For example, on 10/22 of the 15 Chinese students, 10 of them have PhD's or MD's. With this level of education they would have studied English at least 10 years in China. These extremely intelligent Chinese students can read English but have difficulty conversing in English. They are very motivated to improve their language skills so they can intelligently express themselves at Penn, Temple or Thomas Jefferson where they are involved in research.
 

Of the 12 tutors on 10/22 four were not from Tenth. Some of our tutors have structured lessons, especially those tutors working with the students with marginal English language skills. Some of the tutors will bring reading material. John usually brings the Wall Street Journal. I try to bring an appropriate prop. This week I brought a child's baseball glove, a baseball and bat because conversations where the students work have been and will be about the Phillies. I brought a child's glove because I wanted it to fit a Chinese woman's hand. The Chinese don't play baseball, so I wanted them to have a feel for what was being talked about in their work places. We have tutors that can speak Korean, Chinese, Japanese, French and Spanish (though that is not required).

I learn so much from the students about their cultures as I teach them about our culture. When we study the Bible during the second hour, my faith is strengthen by the students' questions. Their observations can be so interesting. For example, one night we were studying Peter's denial of Christ. After reading the passage, one of the regular students said to me, "I really don't like Peter at all; Peter is terrible for denying Christ." I asked him why he felt that way. He said, "Peter said he loved Christ, and Peter saw so many miracles. I am not a Christian but if I had seen what Peter had seen I definitely would not have denied knowing Christ."  About five of the students regularly attend the TIF services.