teaching English

Although I am earning my living and paying my way through a PhD as a freelance translator, I am no English teacher.. Yet, in a country where English is seen as foreign and as difficult as Russian or other genuinely hard-to-master western language, I must say that my English is way better than most 'highly-educated' people here. The level of English proficiency in the universities are generally quite appalling too, or at least most of the students and faculty members that I've met.

About two months ago, I was approached by one of my seniors(let's called her E) to be her sons' English reading teacher. All she wants me to do is to read to/with her sons and let them be at ease with English. She realizes the importance of English and is willing to do her utmost to make sure her sons are not handicapped by the lack of its proficiency. And so begin my once a week 2-hour English lessons with an 8- and 10-year-old at E's house, about 40 minutes journey from my little room.

Having heard about my classes with E's sons, a classmate of mine (lets called her A) approached me to do the same for her daughter. After much consideration, I turned A down. Different from E, A came to me with her daughter's English test paper and started to 'bemoan' her daughter's bad results. She kept lamenting  for more than 20 minutes, repeating her same concerns over and over again!! Frankly, I didn't like her approach. From what she said, it was clear that she wanted me to do one very specific task - to improve her daughter's English test results.

The main reason for my two contradicting decisions is that E is understanding and reasonable, while A isn't. E recognizes that I am not a miracle worker nor am I a qualified English teacher, so she doesn't expect me to turn her sons into native English speakers. She just want me to help her sons read more English books and be comfortable using English. She gave me full control as to what materials to use and how I wanna conduct my 'classes'. Conversely, A wanted me to help her daughter get high marks in her English tests. She wanted me to do revisions and explain grammar to her daughter. It may sounded straightforward and simple enough, but it isn't. The last thing I want is to confuse this poor little girl with my 'unorthodox' way of learning English with the proper method her school teacher is teaching her.

As both are upper (middle) class, E and A wants to send their kids to overseas universities, with E looking at Australia and A Singapore. My views are in sync with E (and her husband)'s philosophy towards her sons' education and we are in agreement that academic results shouldn't be the only benchmark for excellence. As long as the kids have done their best, they needn't have to get As all the time.

After being in Taiwan for less than a year, I am happy that I am given a chance to shape (a very small part of) the future of E's two wonderful, though very mischievous, boys. :) :)