While I was traveling in Romania, I met a man (a friend of a friend) who spoke excellant English. I asked him where he learned to speak so well and he said that when he was a teenager in Moldova, there was a Peace Corps Volunteer that taught English at his school! I mentioned I was going to be teaching in Ukraine and he told me the story of "Miss Ruth" who came from Hawaii with her big American smile (no one had ever seen such white teeth!). He talked about how wonderful she was...that his entire class could speak excellant English by the end of the year because of her. They had been leaning it right up until then, but he said her method of a "student centered" classroom make a big difference in how the class progressed.
He said she was a big influence on his life, and I must tell you that today, Radu is an intelligent, successful Graphic Designer who owns one half of small advertising firm in Bucharest. How about that, huh?
I love this! Thank you for sharing and I am glad you had that reinforcing experience.
ReplyDelete-Heidi