English Teaching

In college, I completed a minor in Linguistics and a minor-length program in Teaching English as a Second Language. This sounds impressive, but the trick is that the Linguistics department was so small that almost all the courses counted for both.

I wanted to be an English teacher abroad because that sounded like a great way to go live somewhere new and learn to speak a new language. For a while I thought I might go to Eastern Europe, or somewhere in Southeast Asia like Vietnam, or somewhere really wild like Bakersfield.

The certificate program required two kinds of practicums, one as an individual tutor and one as a teaching assistant in an actual ESL classroom. I tutored a cook at a Mexican restaurant for a few months and then was placed in an ESL night class at Cuesta College a quick bus ride away from San Luis Obispo. The best thing I can say about how I taught is that I did my best.

I also volunteered between my third and fourth years of college at a week-long summer camp in Poland called Angloville. That was a marvelous time. The students were all eager to learn and the teachers happened to be representative of an uncommonly wide range of English accents. If my memory serves me right I was the only American, and there was one person each from Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Yorkshire, Wales, South Africa, New Zealand, and two from London. We stayed at a beautiful large house in the Polish countryside, playing games and chatting with the kids every day. I cried when I left.

After I graduated, I went on a long trip that also included a similar week-long stay near Yangshuo in southern China.