MNIC: Week 1 - February 8
Friday, I went to volunteer at MNIC my first time this semester. I had talked to Amy Libman about coming at the same time I did last semester because I had really enjoyed working with Hassan in his math class. Math is one of my favorite subjects, and I am not required to take it anymore, so I miss it a lot. I had fun being able to help others in a subject where I feel comfortable, and Hassan was a great person to work with. This combination made for a wonderful experience. By continuing in the same class this semester, I am hoping to have an equally great time. However, I got an email from Amy saying I may not be in the his math class, but rather his science class. Thankfully though, it was his math class. But it did end up being a different group of students. It was fun last year as I got to know the students. I began to feel more comfortable with them and had fun working with them. At the beginning of class, as people filed in, I felt slightly uncomfortable because I did not know anybody. It was also a different experience because I am the only white person there. (This was the same last semester too, but as I got to know the students, our differences began to fade). It was interesting to be the only white person in the midst of Somali and Ethiopian immigrants who were speaking in a language I could not understand. I have always enjoyed listening to them speak, wishing I could learn their language so I could somehow join in with them. Although this has not been as easy as I would like it to be, I have sort of learned to sense emotions in their voices, and it has been fun to observe them interact with each other.
As the class started, I began to get intimidated and worried that the students might be difficult to work with or that they wouldn’t want my help or that they might be harder to work with than the other classes that I helped last semester. This was NOT at all the case!! As soon as class started, the students began asking for my help with their assignment. Lucky for me, it was on a topic that was fairly easy and I was able to help them quite a bit. A few of them asked my name, and I obviously said “Michelle”. One of them said it was like the Hindu name “Misha” (I think that’s what she said). They apparently thought my name was pretty unique because they kept saying it over and over again. I had a great time working with them, but it was really tiring. The students are sometimes hard to understand because English is a second language for them. They have really distinct accents that sometimes make it hard to understand what they are saying. I think I have gotten pretty good at deciphering most of their words, but occasionally I get a little confused. It is also difficult to work with some of them because they are pretty low level math students. It is hard to explain some of the concepts to them when they can’t even understand the most basic ones. Last semester I was talking to a girl, and she gave this illustration: She told me to imagine going to France (I took 2 years of French in high school) and going to school there. She had me imagine what it would be like to learn about science or math in a different language, French. That is what it was like for her. She was trying to learn all these subjects in a language she barely knew. (Although the word barely doesn’t accurately explain how well she did know English. She was actually pretty fluent.) Anyways, that really helped me to put all of this into perspective, and it has helped me when I become impatient with the students. I had fun working with them, and I was glad that they really took advantage of my help. It made the time fly by, and before I knew it, the hour was over. As a few of them were leaving, they asked me where I was going to school, and what I was studying. (These are questions I seem to get asked a lot there. I think many of them are looking into colleges right now and trying to decide what to do with their lives.) They always seem intrigued when I tell them I go to the U of M. One of the asked how old I was and when I said 18, a few of them said that is younger than they are. (The students there are anywhere from 16 to 20 years old.) Sometimes this makes it even more intimidating knowing that I am trying to help people that are older than me. Also, it is hard to relate to them because I know quite a few of them have been through difficult situations in their immigration to America. But I have really enjoyed seeing life from a different perspective and look forward to learning more from the students this semester!