Sunday, March 3, 2013

Couldn't have said it better myself

Teaching English can be both fun and frustrating. It's exciting to hear my students use new vocabulary or be able to incorporate the verb tense we've been working on forever into conversations. Trying to explain Rhianna lyrics, not so much fun. 


Another missionary in Haiti recently wrote about the intricacies of teaching and translating English on this island. After every paragraph I was shouting things like, "YES! Someone else gets it!" Here's just one caveat of teaching English in Haiti that this Canadian highlights:
Even seemingly familiar things present difficulties.  It is difficult to translate farm into Creole and have a Haitian visualize the immense agribusiness operations of the Prairies.  Here, those who till the land work a one- or two-acre jadin, which translates as garden, but is more like small market gardens than the plots in Canadian backyards.  And mosquitoes?  To Haitians that means dinky little insects that one can barely see, not the critters with landing lights that frequent Manitoba and northwestern Ontario.
Check out the whole post and let me know what you think the most difficult part of teaching English would be.

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