English in the Streets

It is by God’s grace and God’s grace alone that I have fallen in love with teaching English. The only catch is that the reason I love teaching is because I utterly adore my students.

It is also by His grace, as well as the wonderful preparation from my TESOL teacher (thanks Mr. C!), that I am apparently turning into a decent English teacher. One of my students in the youth class said I was a very good teacher, Anatoly has praised me multiple times for my teaching (once was in front of the entire transition home…pretty sure my face was beyond blushing) and one of our sweet translators, Ludmilla, has thanked me almost every day for allowing her to be a part of my classes. She says I am a very good teacher and that it’s a blessing to be in my classes.

My struggle with pride is continually being worked on, but I hope and pray that none of this is prideful because I know for a fact that any success in Russia should be credited to God. I was excited to come to Russia but terrified to teach. Teaching English, though it is my degree, is not my passion, and I have been anxious all over the place about this internship for that very fact. Even if I am not an English teacher for the rest of my life, I am an English teacher right now. And I am loving (almost) every second of it :)

Before coming to Russia I felt attacked — feelings of defeat and discouragement before ever stepping foot on the plane. And that is precisely why I know that this is all God’s doing. Any success is for His glory.

And that brings me to the title: English in the Streets. But first, a little background to my three classes:

1. My adults class is pure bliss. They have a desire to learn, they listen to me, respect me, they have fun in the classroom, they ask questions, etc. etc. I look forward to that class every Tuesday and Thursday and never want them to leave.
2. My kids class is a little more challenging. I have practically no experience with kids and especially not with teaching them. I have had to really learn classroom management, discipline, and control. Nonetheless, I love those kids. They may be hard to control sometimes, but they are wonderful, fast-learning kids.
3. Our (Michaela and I) youth class — now, this class is made up of the transition home “kids” plus a few from the church/surrounding area. This is by far THE hardest and yet best class to teach. For starters, Michaela and I are co-teaching it. Co-teaching is wonderful, especially with a class like this, but it is also incredibly difficult to put two teachers together who have their own ways of doing things to teach and control a class that will hopefully reap the same amount of respect from students for each teacher. We are still working on that whole last sentence.

These are some success stories (in our eyes) of what God is doing:

Sweet, incredibly smart Andre (from the transition home) has taken learning English to a whole new level. He is consistently interacting with Michaela and I, he asks questions, he practices in his spare time, and he is retaining so much. On multiple occasions he has read something in English by himself and almost perfectly. Then, the other day he walked up to me and out-of-the-blue said, “Andre funny guy,” followed by his adorable laugh. I was floored because 1) his statement is very true, 2) he said it in English, and 3) I did not teach him that English. I found out later that Michaela had taught him that. He loves to say it all the time now :) Andre has a job (slava bogo!) and cannot come to the youth class because he is working, so on Tuesdays and Thursdays he attends my adults night class. I assigned homework a week or two ago and while some of us were hanging out downstairs he asked for help on it. So we sat down for awhile and worked on the homework. Today, he accompanied us on a walk and the entire time he had an app out for learning English, which he consistently used as well as retaining the information.

After helping Andre with his homework, Sasha asked for help with his. Sasha has definitely been a transformative student. The first week or so was a time when it seemed like he hated class and would not listen to Michaela or I. Now, he attends youth class every day as well as my adults class twice a week. He is very attentive, participates in class all the time, leaves his phone at the back of the room, keeps his handouts, worksheets, and notes, asks questions, and uses the English he has learned throughout conversation.Our communication is very fun. English I have taught him + Russian he has taught me + hand motions and gestures to fill in the gaps + an occasional Google translation when desperate.

Kolia has not been one to really enjoy or participate in English class. A huge playing factor in that is his fear of speaking and pronouncing things incorrectly (so Ludmilla told me), however last week we Michaela and I decided to work on pronunciation by using tongue twisters. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. I had the pleasure of working with Kolia who did SO well with the tongue twisters. He wrote it down when we asked him, he worked with me on pronunciation without any arguing, he enjoyed saying it for Michaela, and he willingly participated with going up to the board to fill in the missing words. She sells seashells by the seashore. Same story. He loved it and did so well. His face lit up when we praised his good work. Michaela and I exchanged glances of utter tear-jerking-joy. The next day we played charades with animals and my-oh-my did he love it. He kept wanting to go up and act out the animals, and he did not need any help.

Then there’s Masha. Oh Masha. This brilliant girl perpetually claims the label of stupidity. I have had a yelling match with her about this haha. And yet she walks around quoting John 3:16 in English, pointing out all the colors in English, as well as saying, “She is twaveling to Moscow, Japan, and Texas” (the cities/countries change each time). Today she approached me with her notebook saying, “I study English.” All of the words and phrases on the page were ones that Michaela and I had not taught in class. It seems as if she actually has a desire to learn on her own.

Also, this is completely irrelevant, but the other day Andre surprised us by buying the girls ice cream. It was so so so sweet (pun totally intended). One girl that came up late asked about the ice cream and so he gave her his cone. SUCH A SWEETHEART.