Question:
I strongly recommend that you enroll in a professional program before
attempting to teach ESL to any children. Experienced teachers can help
you resolve the major cultural issues before you hit the classroom. They
can also teach you techniques that work with children or adults of
different cultures.
In addition, there are all kinds of communities in the desert. You
could teach ESL to adults or children of White, Hispanic, or even
Chinese backgrounds. You just have to know what you want and where to
look.
Answer:
Heh. I AM an ESL teacher NOW, you know. And I'd like to tell you a
story.
I was enrolled in a "professional program" at Rhode Island College --
actually I still am. Three years ago, you needed three courses to get
certified in ESL -- today for some reason you need twelve. And the
twelve courses are curiously similar to one another. And most of them
are offered ONLY at RIC. And... well, you can probably figure out where
that train of information goes.
In any event, one of the class archetypes (because they are all so damned
similar, I call them that -- there are still only about three courses,
with different names, so far as I've seen...) is something like "cultural
awareness". Now I'd like to tell you a little story that, to me,
describes the epitome of the fundamental problem with these courses.
We watched a movie about a Hmong family who decided to move from their
remote mountain village to the United States. The movie tracked their
move from beginning (in the village) to one year or so after settlement.
In the beginning, the family went to an elder of their village to ask
for spiritual advice on their decision to stay or leave. The elder
performed a ceremony to ask the Spirits for advice, and part of the
ceremony was shown on the tape. Part of it involved taking a small pig
and cutting its throat with a butcher knife, letting the blood drain into
a bowl. The pig screamed and kicked as it died.
Now, several students in the class got up and left. And a few more
turned their heads or made other disgusted comments about this
"barbaric" practice. And the professor said NOTHING.
After the film there was a discussion about "cultural sensitivity" and
"acceptance". Everyone was all happy hoo-hah about how warm and fuzzy
they felt towards other cultures, and how all cultures could live
together in peace and harmony. And in the same breath, some people were
talking about how SICK it was that the piglet had had its throat cut.
The whole thing made my skin crawl. No one seemed to see what they were
doing. And when I brought it to the attention of my professor, and the
class at large, that it didn't seem like anyone really thought what they
were saying if they were so repulsed by what had been done to the little
pig that they thought it should be stopped. I asked them what they would
think of this Hmong family if they had continued practicing that sort of
thing in the States.
The professor claimed that "most people who choose to live here WANT to
adapt and change to fit the culture of the country". I thought that that
was pure bullshit. If it was really true, *WHY* on earth waste so much
time on "cultural tolerance training" and other $500+ courses with
variant names? I never did get a good answer out of her, even after I
asked her about female genital mutilation and whether or not she thought
THAT was OK to "tolerate", if it was a "cultural practice".
The bottom line is that, as ESL teachers, the dominant culture wants us
to kill the cultures of our students and pave the way for their
indoctrination into it. Maybe we can do it slowly and subtly, by
allowing them to wear their funny hats and eat their spicy food, but
anything that really MATTERS must bow and submit to the dominant
culture's values.
Ach. Now I'm angry again. I thought the dishonesty inherent in what we
were taught in that "professional class", and others like it, was a bit
sickening. Why not just be honest about it? I look at my students and
tell them the truth, not some candy-coated lie. I tell them about my own
family (Dad's first language was French), about my own situation (I know
very little French, learned in school), about what happened to us -- and
about what will more than likely happen to them. Maybe it isn't "nice",
but maybe being honest is better than honeycoated lies. Especially if
you're lying to YOURSELF, for Pete's sake.
Maybe I'm just pissed off and feeling too much. I dunno.
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