So What Exactly Are You Doing?

Exact is exactly what we are NOT doing, but here's the plan. 

                            Learning Center Hours

El Centro de Aprender Ingles

HORARIO / HOURS

Monday    (Lunes)        Learning Center  11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Tuesday    (Martes)       Learning Center          11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

                                                   Comedor Norte             12:30 p.m. –  1:15 p.m.                         

Wednesday (Miercoles)    Learning Center   11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Thursday    (Jueves)           Learning Center    11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

                                                   Comedor Norte            12:30 p.m. –  1:15 p.m

Friday    (Viernes)   Learning Center              11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Saturday    (Sabado)  Capilla Melipilla            3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Sunday    (Domingo)  Capilla Melipilla             2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.   

Other Hours by Arrangement / Otras Horas de acuerdo con Misioneros

Home Visits Evenings / Visitas a su casa por la tarde de cita con Misioneros                  Fono 56.9 61248896

We try to be available at noon here at the Center three days, and in the field two days. The workers get an hour lunch, with whatever time isn't taken up by eating to do whatever they would like. We have a ping-pong table we take out every morning and it is getting more and more use. 

I wish I could say this is one of our classes--no, it's payday, but this is where we do some teaching, and some of the people we teach.

There is strong encouragement to learn English. Various people come in for lessons-- we have several "regulars," and some who seem interested but haven't stepped in, as yet. I decided to bring school to them and came up with, "Words for the Week." I write words and phrases on a window right by where some of the workers eat and we circulate among them and have them say the words. We give them a small piece of paper with the same words, so they can take them home, or have them in their pockets to refer to. We act things out and tease -they love it when Jay and I tease each other, so we make a game of it. Last week's sentence was, "I need__________" so we made cookies and made them say, "I need a cookie," before they could take one. There are certain sounds that are just practically tongue-twisters for native Spanish speakers. Words like, "could," "would" and "should" come out, "couth, wouth, shouth," with a soft 'th.' I'm sure I don't even hear the way I slaughter sounds from Spanish. 

We are here for drop-ins, but use the time for lesson preparation, studying Spanish, (and updating my blog!) but often have workers come in for lessons or to use the various language programs on the computers. 

A number of the managers who have pretty good English skills come in because they are working toward advanced certification or degrees. One young man is getting ready to go to BYU-Idaho, but was admitted provisionally because of his language deficits. He just started speaking English a year ago and has two years of college here in Chile. He is a returned missionary, as are many of the administrative staff. We are assigning him daily writing assignments and he is doing Kahn Academy chemistry courses on line. I'm having a great time refreshing my knowledge of the Periodic Table. (The president of the company says the periodic table is like scripture. To which I say, "Yeah, Leviticus.") Nontheless, I am learning and so is he.

Another of our students is an IT guy, prepping for  Cisco network certification. The study manual is full of idiomatic expressions like "dive right in" that are completely obscure to an English second-language learner. We press on, but wish technical writing could not try to be user-friendly in that way!

One of the farm administrators is Brazilian, doing well in Spanish, and doing pretty well in English, too, but he wants help with his writing. Mostly, it's been proof-reading. Another college-graduate young man is preparing to take the GRE hoping to attend a university in the States.

In the evenings, we have appointments to teach in people's homes. We have little kids and bigger kids, adults, dogs and cats and chickens. These are some of our favorite times. We do everything from workbook pages to songs, reading preschool board-books and playing with plastic animals and dice. One couple selected an English book about pirates to read together.

On Saturdays we are at the church building for anyone who wants to show up. We help kids with homework--although since school isn't in session yet, I'm wondering if it's last year's homework. 

We haven't figured out when our P-Day is, yet.