Heart to Heart Moments Overseas

As a non-native English speaker myself, I still remember fragments of my education where I felt disconnected and unable to communicate as effectively as my peers. Even so, because I moved to the United States at such an early age, I picked up easily on idioms, synonyms, antonyms, and other phrases that are typically thrown around in daily conversation.

It's often easy to forget how important it is to not only learn vocabulary and grammar of a language, but also the way that the people of that culture utilize it. It's important to be intentional but yet casual about talking so that connecting with an audience is not as daunting, and by teaching and getting accustomed to more complex words to fit in a certain context, that is possible.

I went into volunteering thinking that I had to have huge lesson plans, but was very thankful to find out that was not the case. While it was important to have a theme and intention for weekly meetings, it was also more important to see what my student wanted to learn, things that she had questions about, and clarification that needed to be done.

Common phrases like 'couch potato,' 'cool as a cucumber,' and other English idioms are ones that I don't typically use, but they do exist, and it's an incredibly unique experience to see someone learn the language I've grown up speaking. Idioms are really silly to use, but while they aren't thrown around daily in conversions, they're still an important component of the language to be familiar with.

In a different way, though, I was really inspired and encouraged by the extent of my buddy's vocabulary as she learned English in school. I'm learning Spanish at the college, and growing up with a comprehension in Tagalog helped me a lot, but I know that if I didn't have that exposure, I wouldn't be as confident in my skills. It's really cool to see people who have no understanding whatsoever of a language show interest in becoming fluent in it despite the weird structure and grammar in it.

Holding more sessions with my buddy really pushed me past my comfort zone to change conversation topics more often and 'go with the flow,' give her some synonyms to the words she already knew, and help her talk about more advanced topics like drones or the role of technology in daily life.