BTF Youth English Empowerment
In the month of September 2021, I was introduced to this beautiful program known as the BTF Youth English Empowerment program. You might be wondering what exactly this program is and what they do. This is an organization that was set up with the intention of helping Turkish students in Turkey who may not have had the chance to become fluent English speakers gain English proficiency. Knowing English to a certain degree can expand the number of opportunities you have in society widely, and that’s precisely what we want to do. English is a language that is commonly used in many parts of the world, but it is, unfortunately, also a language that many Turkish speakers have never been able to learn correctly, with many having trouble writing and reading in English. We need to help them with pronunciation and their conversational skills.
The many volunteers who have participated in this program, including me, are each assigned a partner who gets the opportunity to speak to a native speaker. You and your partner arrange times and dates on your own to have conversations with each other by phone, talking about anything you’d like. This is one of the best ways to improve your proficiency in any language; by having regular conversations so that you can get used to talking in that language. It ensures that you don’t forget anything about the language, whether it is how to form a sentence correctly or how to pronounce a word.
Although the objective of this program is to teach people English, that’s not the only thing it helps in; it also gives you a perspective of what life can be like around the world. I can use myself as an example for this; even though I am Turkish and can speak Turkish fluently, I only lived there for the first four years of my life, so I don’t exactly know what life there is like nowadays. This program has allowed me to gain a new perspective on what life over there is like. My partners have also been able to feel the same way, as they have gained a perspective on what life is like on the other side of the world, in Bolivia, the country I currently live in. I have also gained a perspective on what life is like at university. Even though I am a high school student, currently a junior, I have been paired with university students, and this allowed me to learn more about what life is like in college and start making some more plans and thinking of ideas regarding this upcoming period of my life.
I would put a photo of myself in front of a unique Bolivian landscape, but I do not have any recent ones, so here is a photo that I took:
I have participated in this program since the beginning of freshman year, so around two years ago, and am about to begin the upcoming 2023 fall season. Getting to know all the new people you help improve their English skills is truly very enjoyable, and you learn so much by doing something as simple as just having one hour conversations weekly with someone who you didn’t know before. I recommend for anyone interested in anything like this to definitely check out this program, as I have zero regret when it comes to being a part of this journey.
Sometimes, we even end up staying friends and talking to people who we were paired up with after the season ends; BTF is a wonderful way to make all kinds of friends from the other side of the world. This is also extremely useful for them, as they are able to contact us in any doubt they have with their English abilities as well as simply wanting to chat with us. Knowing that we are able to make potential life-long friendships in such easy ways is an amazing feeling; we create bonds that we did not think we would have.
If you are also interested and want to learn more, check out this link:
https://bridgetoturkiye.org/get-involved/form-a-youth-group/
