English Teacher. Me?

I have no idea what I am doing. I am not a school teacher. The only thing I have ever taught is dance. Or Bible stuff. The little school in Jocotenango, Guatemala, doesn’t know that. There was no interview. I said I wanted to help with teens. I was given seven young Guatemalans for an hour and instructed to work on the verb “to be.”

I am helping them with English. I was told that during their regular English class, I would take a small group who needed extra help and practice with them. That came true. I thought there would be some sort of workbook or lesson to review. That did not come true.

Um, ok. To be, to be, … huh? Oh yeah… am, is, are. What about was and were? That is probably too advanced since it’s in the past tense. We’ll stick with am, is, and are.

But then we need adjectives to finish sentences with! I am happy. You are sad. I taught them the word busy, which is apparently quite hard to pronounce.

What about words like hungry and cold? Are these adjectives or states of being? In Spanish, they are treated different. They say I have hunger or it makes cold. If I teach them I am hungry or I am cold, will they comprehend? I have no idea what they know or what they have learned!

They eventually got the courage to try to say words in front of me, and I welcomed their efforts because then I could figure out a bit more about what they know. We had a little question and answer time. Has it ever occurred to you how odd it is that English switches the subject and verb when asking a question? Are you hungry? (verb first) I am hungry (subject first). They seemed to do OK with this concept.

Somewhere in the hour, it became helpful to discuss the words what, where, and who. This was most fun because of the pronunciation. I had them hold their hand in front of their mouth and pronounce the words so that they could feel the breath on their hand. This induced giggles. Still, they did it, and I am convinced it helped. Otherwise, where sounded like were, and that just won’t do!

I honestly have no idea how to teach English. But I absolutely love getting to hang out with and talk to a group of young people. Oh, Lord, I pray I can be a benefit to these children and to this school. Knowing English is a huge asset in the world and a gift I can offer. I just need to learn how to teach it!