'English Opens Doors'

So a few weeks ago I started working with a volunteer program called "English Opens Doors," which is a program run by the Chilean Ministry of Education. It recruits native English speaking students studying abroad and puts them in public high school as assistant English teachers. As I've touched on in earlier posts, the public education system isn't great - the classes have 30+ students, and most of the English teachers are Chileans who have never been to an English speaking country, so while their understanding of grammar is pretty solid, their speech is heavily accented and sometimes difficult for me to understand.

For my work, I go to the school (Colegio San Luis) Tuesday afternoons for "English Club" and Wednesday mornings to be in the classroom. In both contexts, the goal is similar - speak English to and with the students and have them listen and practice speaking back to me. Additionally, for most students this is the first time they've met and had a chance to interact with someone from the US, so it's a cultural exchange too. They ask me all kinds of questions about my experience here, what I think of Chile, my life in the US, various pop culture things, etc. Additionally, I work with 2 different English teachers and answer lots of questions from them about nuances of the English language.

Suffice to say, I really love it. This is something I might want to do with my life after graduation, so I'm glad to find that it's something I enjoy. I'm getting to know the school and the students, and they already talk about how they don't want me to leave. It's tough, because it's kind of overwhelming when the students chatter in incomprehensible Spanish and there's a lot of them, but even after just 3 weeks I feel like I'm starting to make a difference.