My volunteer placement in Rabat, Morocco was at Le Feminin Pluriel, a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1999. This organization has a small center that focuses on women’s empowerment and educational programs. They host conferences such as the one of the Mediterranean women’s writers every year and bring in guest speakers on various topics to their center on every Thursday. Last week someone came and spoke on “Technology.” The programs are mainly in French. There is also a library and a computer lab for the members to use.
Leslie and I were asked to teach English for two hours each day to the women and occasional men who are interested in learning. They have ongoing classes in the daytime and evenings, taught by volunteers from other organizations. I had assumed that these men and women would be learning English through more reliable sources such as AJ’s website, but I was just happy to be able to teach others something.
The biggest challenge here was that we didn’t know the competency levels of the students who would be coming, what the past classes had been about and not having a lesson plan outlined. The students don’t necessarily sign up for a class. They come in on any day randomly so we never know who or how many to expect each day.
The first day, we had 4 women and 2 men, of ages 20-51. For introductions, we talked about our backgrounds, families, where we come from, etc. and showed them pictures. I had a 15 slide presentation and Leslie got a photo album which was mostly photos of her dogs in different outfits. They enjoyed it and felt quite comfortable with us. We also asked them to tell us their names, where they were from, about their families and why did they want to learn English. Their motivations included wanting to help their kids study, converse with English speakers when travelling to the US, work in the travel industry, etc.
Then we started gauging their skills by giving them simple reading and writing exercise. We decided that we should divide them into two groups- Advanced Beginners and Basic Beginners. This would make it easier for us to give them individual attention and tailor the lessons to meet their needs.
Over the next couple of days, Leslie decided teaching wasn’t for her another volunteer, Stephanie took over. The same groups showed up each day, while a few more students dropped in and out. Apparently, the word spreads if a new good teacher shows up and then more students pour in.
Each day, we would start the class together by doing a conversation exchange or grammar exercise, and ten take our respective students through the rest of the lessons. I taught my Advanced Beginners class how to order food in a restaurant, shop for clothes in a mall, festivals and holidays we celebrate in the US, describing people and personalities, cooking and the grocery store, amongst many other things.
The students were very appreciative and seemed to like me a lot. They would say at the end of each class “Thank you for you” which I found very sweet. They said my name “Sucheta” rhymed with “Usteda” which means “teacher” in Moroccan Arabic or Berber (I am not sure). On my last day, one of the students got me a recipe for a meat with potatoes tagine that she managed to write herself in English. They also surprised me by throwing a farewell party. One of the ladies walked out and made fresh green tea and served it with assorted Moroccan cookies that were delicious! Everyone took pictures with their cell phones to keep as memories. I wish that I have made some impact on their lives and that I had more time to teach them. One thing I did learn from this experience is that teaching comes quite naturally to me. I really enjoy the interaction with people and they seem to respond well to my personality too. (I got positive feedback from the students). Perhaps taking the ESL certification and teaching English to non native speakers may be in my near future!
