I like to think that everything happens for a reason and sometimes I marvel at the coincidences that destiny throws my way. I met a volunteer who knew a friend from YSU, a speech pathologist named Katie who is taking classes through the same university as me, and a group of chilenos who lived in my region and happened to be staying at the same hostel in Santiago. Each person left me with something: contagious enthusiasm, a feeling of not being alone in uncertainty, hopeful idealism...I hope I left the other volunteers with something, however small, as well.
Why?
Listening to the other volunteers made me really think about why I'm doing the program. While there seem to be a lot of 'push' factors for many volunteers (a bad breakup, stuck in a dead-end job, a quarter-life crisis), there are also many 'pull' factors, such as a desire to teach and work with youth. I have to admit that during the summer, my focus became cloudy as I got a mixture of positive and negative comments about my decision to teach in Chile. However, during our orientation, I started to realize again why I had signed on for the program, and I re-read my application essays to jog my memory. I learned that the volunteer program is just a small part of the many initiatives that the Chilean government is imposing to improve English education across the country. The government's focus on English Education has lead to the creation of immersion camps, debates, public speaking competitions, teacher training, and much more!
I admire how progressive Chile is in tackling English Education. I see how the US compares, and while our foreign-language teaching has moved to more of a communicative-competence based model, many students are still indifferent or intimidated by Spanish, or they don't know Spanish outside of grammar drills. And while these sentiments exist in Chile about English, students genuinely get excited about speaking to a native teacher, or going to one of the government-sponsored English camps. My head teacher tells me that the students keep asking when the voluntaria is coming to teach English! Being able to give these students the tools necessary to communicate in another language in a fun environment is rewarding, and I really wish a program like this existed in the U.S. I remember that feeling of excitement when I first used Spanish to communicate with people across the globe through Skype, and I hope that I can instill that same excitement and passion in my students.
Language learning is all about the new people you'll meet, so hopefully my students will enjoy meeting me. I realize that I really can be a positive influence in these students' lives, and I can inspire them to learn English...that's a powerful feeling!
“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”
Getting there
Just getting to Chile was an adventure in itself. My plane got delayed twelve- yes, twelve- hours, but luckily I had met up with another volunteer in the airport. We decided to be spontaneous (okay, more him than me!) and rent a car to explore downtown Dallas, the city of our layover. We didn't have much time to sleep before our next flight (American Airlines set us up with hotels, so good for them!), so we just drove around, gazing at the city lights illuminating the night sky. We also passed by the place where JFK got assassinated, aka the 'grassy null'. My volunteer friend was quite excited, "Wait! Did we pass it? No....there it is! THE GRASSY NULL!!!!" I haven't seen the video of JFK's assassination, but the experience will probably mean more to me get around to searching for it on Youtube.
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| I guess this is it? |
My Dallas outing set a good precedent for my semester in Chile. While I'm usually plagued by indecision and end up opting out of things, I learned the value of saying yes. I had a lot of fun by turning the airplane fiasco into an adventure, and it made me wonder what things I'd missed in life by staying on the sidelines. Therefore I've made it a personal goal to say yes more often and to become more confident and decisive. When I feel myself getting paralyzed by doubt, I want to be able to trust myself, say 'yes', and take the jump. :-) I don't have every detail planned and figured out, but I want to have faith in myself that everything will be okay despite that.
And in a new country, there are so many opportunities that I would be cheating myself if I constantly turned them down!
Orientation
Orientation was great and well-organized. It was jam-packed full of information: Chilean customs, TEFL training, a German lesson to show us that our students could understand 100% of the target language in a lesson even if they don't speak it.... I think I'll have fond memories of orientation and the people at the National Volunteer Center who show such great passion for what they do.
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| Learning to read in our teacher voices |
Off to Antofagasta
The bus ride to Antofagasta took around 19 hours, and I passed it alongside my a witty volunteer from Australia, whom I understood about 85% of the time. (Australian accents can be hard to understand, mate!). We passed through interesting landscapes, such as the Atacama dessert, to reach our destination. My camera battery died but I will have to snag some photos from him! He will be teaching at a school close by, so it will be nice to be able to reach out to another volunteer.
My host family
Not to jinx anything, but my host family is so sweet! My regional representative and my head teacher both talked about what a great family I have. One thing that struck me is that the families that host volunteers usually aren't doing it for money. When I studied abroad, there were quite a few families that turned hosting students into a full-time job. Even though I can't judge that decision, some of my acquaintance's families during study abroad weren't really interested in their country of origin, their culture, etc. But the families here don't gain much economically from hosting volunteers; they do it more because they want to support the school and their community. From what I understand, the school also has to recommend a family before they can host a volunteer, so it's a collaborative effort to provide a multicultural experience for both parties. Jeremy, one of the leaders of the National Volunteer Center, told us that families have been excited for our arrival and that they've spent months preparing everything!
I was surprised at how welcomed I felt. One can really feel the emphasis that people place on family here, which is endearing but a bit hard to adjust to at the same time. For example, I'm not accustomed to family volunteering to help me with chores (like getting my legal documents!). I always thought it was rude to hull someone around when you ran errands, but it's kind of rude to break off and do your own thing here. Family is very united and you can see them together almost anywhere. It just takes some adjustment to move away from the "Oh, don't worry about me! I'll do my own thing." mentality, which can come across as quite rude here!
As for my family, I have a mom and dad: Eliana and Hector. They have two beautiful daughters who are 13 and 16 years old. They seem sweet and studious. I'll have to post a picture later!
And now...?
For a week, I'll be observing my head teacher and decorating my classroom. I'm pumped! Most Chilean teachers don't get their own classroom (the students have their own classrooms and the teachers rotate), so having our own space is a huge privilege for the volunteers. In my school, the teachers actually get their own classrooms, which is unusual! The school also seems to have lots of resources that I didn't even have in the U.S., such as a projector, speakers, etc. I got to meet the staff as well, and everyone seemed so friendly and warm. My head teacher seems great and excited to collaborate with me, and I also met another teacher from the United States.
Starting next Friday, I'll be teaching my own conversational class. I'm a ball of conflicting emotions but I'm overall excited -albeit a bit nervous - to make learning English something special for my Chilean students. I feel like there's so much left to talk about but I've already written a novel!
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| I guess Tsunamis are a thing here....No worries! |
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| A building painted as another building! |
