Lessons Learned

I was at the Working Centre on Thursday for another wonderful time with the Speak English Cafe!There were almost 50 people who came out, the place was packed! I met a few new people and had to 're-meet' many of those whom I met last week because I had forgotten many of their names.

The activity for the night was very fun for such a large group. We were each given a sheet with 20 questions on it. We and to go around the room and find someone who could say yes to each question. The tricky part was that each person could only sign your sheet once. This was an excellent way to meet many new people and learn something about them. Next we had discussion questions again which we answered in small groups.

I still can't get over how relaxing it is to go there. It seems like when I am there, I stop worrying about all the things I need to get done for school and just have such a good time in the presence of others. I think I mentioned this in the last post, but I find myself fascinated by the kindness of everyone who attends. I tis refreshing to be able to be in the presence of others without technology and other gadgets to interfere. It is amazing to have such face-to-face conversation, not msn, facebook or telephone. I've learned so much from those I've met and I've only been twice!

Lessons learned:
- do NOT apologize for saying something that isn't wrong: When I first arrived at Speak English Cafe I paid special attention to speak clearly and use standard vocabulary, no slang. We were discussing summer activities and I was saying that my sister and I often go biking together. The participant asked me what biking was, and I said "Oh, I'm so sorry its bicycling", immediately one of the other volunteers stopped me and said: "don't apologize, the only way she will learn is by hearing vocabulary from you." I realized she was right, I hadn't said anything wrong, and my trying to speak only proper English wasn't going to help others who were out in the world hearing the slang and dialect that we speak, not necessarily proper English all the time. It is important to use words that are used in everyday conversation. When a participant asks a question because they don't understand a word they are learning, and they are able to put that word into context in the sentence that it is used in.

This also made me think of the time in class that we were discussing and someone mentioned an opinion and apologized. I remember Scott telling us not to apologize for our opinions and this helped to reinforce that lesson.

- Be open: Sometimes it is hard for me to open up to total strangers, I'm often fairly quiet in settings where I don't know anyone else. In the first two weeks at the Cafe, I have learned many things about each person I have met and talked with. Many of the participants are very kind and love to talk about their life experiences and travels and such. I find this makes people much more approachable and easier to talk to and relate to. Also, as a result of hearing these stories from others I tend to open up and tell my own stories and I find myself sharing much more easily than I normally would.

- Just talk: In this setting it isn't always important to follow the discussion questions or specific instructions for each activity. These things are general guidelines to initiate conversation. At the end of the night it doesn't matter if you followed the sheet perfectly and answered all the questions, it matters that you had conversations with others to help them to improve their vocabulary and understanding of the English language. Often I find that what starts out as the answer to a question turns into a conversation about many different topics with the questions forgotten.

As always, I can't wait to go back :)