The Speak English Cafe

Last night was my first 2 hrs volunteering at TWC. I participated in the “Speaking English Café”. Last night, the SEC consisted of two parts.

The first was a "BINGO" type activity where we were given roughly 25 questions, i.e., Are you afraid of heights? We had to circulate the room finding people who could answer "yes" to the questions. When we found those people, they had to sign their name beside the question. Each person could only sign each page once. The goal was to be the first person to complete the task and receive a high five, and more importantly, to start warming up to each other and practice speaking English. This was a great ice breaker. Personally it helped me meet different people and remember them by word associations (which many of you know is the key way that I remember people's names).

The second part of the evening was working through a verbal activity in our table groups. My group consisted of two gentlemen recently from Columbia, an intelligent and worldly man from India, my friend Sebastian, another person from KW and a woman from India. As a group we decided to discuss each question presented on the paper. An example of a question was: If you could write a book what would it be about (i.e., genre, type of characters, etc). After answering these questions we had to look at some Idioms. After reading them aloud, we allowed the recent immigrants to guess on the different meanings. Then we would help describe any idioms that they had difficulties with. These activities were a fun way of getting to know people as individuals and in a small way we helped their understanding of the English language.

Relating this to Friere, this was much more effective than getting the people to attend a lecture on the English language. We all got to engage in a dialect together and to educate each other on our different views, knowledge and experiences. It was very satisfying.

After leaving TWC, I couldn't help but wonder if Bosnia has a program similar for foreigners, like myself, or locals who are seeking to learn foreign languages. In the weeks prior to overseas adventure, I hope to find out if such a program exists.

Moreover, as most of you know, I aspire to become an elementary teacher. What most of you don't know is that that has been my ideal job since I was a little girl teaching my Croatian grandmother, Baka, English on my weekly visits. Being able to not only be involved in these adult’s journey through improving their language skills, but also learn more about their worldly experiences, is such a blessing to me. It was just amazing to interact with such a diverse and positive group of adults. I am so thrilled to have had this opportunity with TWC and I am looking forward to volunteering there in the weeks leading up to my departure to Bosnia.