And relaaaaaax. It is oh so nice to finally have a tutoring partner, and one so wonderfully sweet and kind as Serap.
Serap is from Turkey. She is 23 years old and has been in the U.S for just a few months. Her husband is also Turkish but he has acquired his U.S. citizenship and is the Vice Principal at a local school. Her English is extremely basic but she is very eager to learn it; and that as quickly as she can! If she could acquire English by sure will of desire, she would be fluent already.
She has her B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology with a concentration in Cellular Immunology and Virology. She wants to get her masters and then Ph.D. in the same.
I ask you to contemplate this: This is a young woman who wants to cure cancer and other terrible diseases, who knows how DNA works, how our cells function, she has worked in a hospital and participated in research, but she cannot hold a simple conversation with the people that surround her. She has built up a good basic vocabulary but her way of speaking is at the poking and jabbing stage. Her deep brown eyes carry her intelligence and also show her frustration.
All her intelligence and experience is trapped behind this puzzle of words and no knowledge (yet) of how to put them together. To say she must feel clogged is putting it lightly, but she is so incredibly eager. She does not seem fearful or particularly shy but she has a quiet sweetness about her that puts me at ease. She is young but she knows what she wants and I found myself wanting it for her, wanting to give her English in a golden box.
I think I just met a life long friend tonight.
I really like what you wrote here, Sabrina. I especially like the part about you wanting it for her. I feel the same way with Xin. I think oftentimes people consider foreigners who can't communicate in English well, or at all, dumb. Such a horrible misconception and assumption. I have enjoyed getting to see the real Xin layer by layer as our understanding and comfort zone increase. Not knowing a language can be such a self-inhibiting thing that keeps you from being able to really be who you are because you are shy, fearful, struggling to work out all these details and thus you yourself get lost in translation.
ReplyDeleteHey! I saw you in there. I'm glad you saw the light, like Linda and Carlucci who I also saw, and joined the Leroy Collins ESL program!
ReplyDeleteSabrina: really enjoyed reading your blog entry and comments!
ReplyDelete