My Weekend Online ESL Class
Written by Arushi Agarwal
As my cousin and I walked down a sandy path in the far reaches of the waterways in Kerala, a little girl and her brother approached us. She unhesitantly began to talk, “Hello! How are you?” My cousin and
I, in our American jeans and westernized kurtas, looked at each other. Then we both turned and smiled, replied that we were fine. We asked her how she was, said our goodbyes and left. As I replayed the scene in my mind afterwards, I realized that her younger brother was in a school uniform but she wasn’t. And as she was walking back from the dock, it was clear she was picking up her younger brother from school. It was blatantly obvious that this young girl did not have the ability to go to school and learn but her younger brother was receiving the opportunity she wasn’t able to. She’s not the only one. But what was different about her was her determination and action to practice what she knew.
Fast forward one year, and I still remembered that incident which had ignited a desire in me to use my English ability to teach others. I found Shikhya, an up and coming non-profit which had setup a way to help those wanting to learn English with a vision. A vision of a world where each child could access the
education they wanted and understood in their own language. We take Khan Academy for granted, yet don’t seem to notice a gap in these resources for children in India. Shikhya is filling that void. Impulsively, I began talking to three or four students every Saturday morning for 20 minutes each. They
ranged from college students hoping to make it to the United States, middle-aged men hoping to advance their businesses, and elders learning as much as they could.
As I learned from my mistakes, I enjoyed the conversations we had over time and the bonds that I made with the students. It almost became as if I was talking to friends about what they did that week and having debates over dogs vs. cats to which Indian festival is our favorite. I have learned how to prompt reciprocity of questions from the students who often look to me to guide the conversation. I have learned how to conspicuously and subtly correct the common mistakes. I have learned to assess their speaking level by asking exciting questions about Jagannath Puri or the newest bollywood film. Having a conversation with someone to help them practice their English is a very simple thing for us with our educated background to do and it really goes a long way.
