I was pleased to hear from Abdulaye the director of the school, that there will be other volunteers taking over for us after we leave. He asked us to fill into a book the lessons we covered off so far so that the new people can continue where we stopped.
It's hard to say how much the kids will really learn in the short class times we were given. Overall when I meet kids in the street, they are excited to share what little French they have learned with me as the foreigner as a means to connect with a stranger. Perhaps the same will go for English. This is especially true since Abdualye feels rather strongly about the kids having as much opportunity to communicate with people from other English speaking countries as possible. Perhaps that means some of the English we teach them will stick with them and even inspire them to want to learn more. For this reason, I really wanted to teach the kids things they could use right away, rather than bogging them down with too much grammar and vocabulary without the payoff of being able to share information about themselves and exchange greetings properly. I have a few of my students as neighbours as well. One little girl was over last week and she made sure to tell me that she went over her notes a few times after class and proceeded to recite what she had learned for me. It was quite endearing to see her so excited!
I think it's also worth mentionting that I am not an English Snob in that I believe everyone needs to learn English because of some mysterious superior qualities it holds. I truly believe that the more means one has to communicate with other people, the better off the whole world really is. At this time in history, it happens to be English that many businesses and so forth communicate in, so it feels good that I can help spread the common ground around.
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