Being able to teach the English language online with 2 kids from South Korea was somehow fulfilling. I may not
have the degree in teaching nor I had experience in online teaching at that
time, but somehow, I was able to provide the necessary steps in mentoring these
2 kids who were learning English assecond language.
Joy was only 9 years old and Kim
was 13, way back almost 3 years ago when I was asked by my Russian boss to
teach ESL online. I never had the chance to decline because these 2 kids were
already ready to study English online
and there were no available ESL teachers yet. I was challenged because it was
my first time to teach online with foreign students yet I was excited.
Our 30 minutes online classes were
scheduled every 7:30 in the evening for Joy and every 8:30 in the evening for
Kim in Philippine time. I can’t exactly remember but our classes were mostly
held between Mondays and Fridays only. It went for only a couple of months I
guess. I can’t also forget Ann who was my amiable and very sexy assistant.
Joy was such a very sweet girl
and a very diligent student. She doesn’t want to miss our session every night unless
she has a very important occasion to attend to, or if she has major exams in
her school. I admired her for aiming high with her dream that she would be a
proficient English speaker someday. She was eager to learn many things in our English
class but she was also worried at the same time because she thought her parents
might have high expectations on her and she doesn’t want to fail them. I gave
her encouraging words. Surprisingly, Joy is currently enjoying her life now in
Chicago, USA, still studying English language course.
Kim was the exact opposite of
Joy. He hated to study English and he wasn’t attentive to our online class. It was
his parents who forced him to study English. He was really a pain-in-the-neck
and almost always kept my temper on fire. When his parents were around behind
the webcam, he would pay attention to me. But when they were gone out to bed or
somewhere, he would turn the webcam either towards their ceiling or to the wall
so I won’t be able to see what he was doing. I didn’t want to waste his time
nor end up our session earlier than the usual time because I was being paid. Two
days before our session would end, he didn’t show up anymore.
Despite his attitude, I was able
to impart a little knowledge and made him speak clearly. Koreans find it difficult
to pronounce the letter L, so I made him speak words with letter L and I let
him practice tongue twisting all the time. Kim can already read and writeEnglish before I was his online teacher. So I was just there to let him improve
his English speaking skills.
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