English as a Second Language Training - Reporting

 I said, at one point, that I would report on how things were going. And so ....

I just looked at the desktop on this computer, and I am sitting at my desk, and both are cluttered and stacked with ESL bits and pieces. The funniest of these is a drawing of underpants. The least funniest is an email from one of my coaches who has had to cancel at the last moment, too late for me to fill in.

I have seven coaches for four young people now in their homes and adjusting to Canada. I have access to the Google Calendar that is supposed to keep us all organized, ‘us’ being not only the Language group but also leaders and helpers for health, finances, housing, transportation and the children’s school entry and transition. All of these needs are going onto the calendar and it seems to me that the concentration of things to do must be daunting for them on a daily if not hourly basis. I know that English is a top priority and should be on the calendar so as to be sacrosanct. And it went on. And it is a mess.

Three of our people have enough English to understand a lot of what is going on. Two of them have an excellent accent, giving the impression that they are right with the narrative. These three are proud, intelligent young men and women who hate to admit they didn’t get it. So they don’t. Admit it. When I am coaching, I have to watch their faces and body language to pick up cues when they lose the thread of what is going on. We all need to slow down the stream of comment and information to a pace that the Afghan lot can follow. That is one problem. A second is that all of my team have not bought into the reporting method that I have asked for; that being an email account of the lesson passed on to the next coach. I have, at the moment, chaos.

That being said, I do have teaching in place for all four of them, all with competent people whom, mostly, I have worked with before. And the families have been here long enough that the initial spate of appointments and arrangements ought to taper off and/or become predictable. Aids like computer access are going into place. I think we will get there, maybe with one more week of semi-chaos to come. But I feel overwhelmed, frankly, and as if I have not done my job as leader well enough. They are such fine and deserving young men and women, and I want to do my best.

 I sent the report above to my bosses, and received words of encouragement and cheer in return. And that is good. But I still wish I had a better handle on things.

And two more coaches.

Happy to report that the kids knew exactly what to do with the Playdoh.

Hey, local friends and readers ... want to have a rewarding and sort-of-fun experience?  One of my needs is for people to talk with and make friends with these four newcomers. Not hard. No irregular verbs included. No need to translate underpants. Drop me an email.