Asian Fortune Your source for all things Asian American
By Jenny Chen
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY of STEPHANIE WILLIAMS and LCMC
It’s Saturday morning and Quince Orchard Library is bustling. Kids dressed in their karate uniforms are running around, stopping occasionally to look at the pictures in Flora and Ulysses or tapping out a game at the computer section. High school students are studying for SATs in between catching up and going for iced coffee runs at the nearby Dunkin’ Donuts.
But nestled amid all this activity are pairs of adults, talking quietly at the rows of tables next to the cooking and home improvement section and flipping through the reference section dictionaries. Saturday is a popular day for Literacy Council tutor and tutees to meet, and Quince Orchard Library is a popular spot.
The Literacy Council tutoring program has been around for 51 years. It gives adults free one-on-one English instruction, pairing adult students up with adult literacy volunteers who have been trained in the Literacy Council’s programs. The need is great — the current average wait-list time for the tutoring program is three to six months.
Bonnie Richter has been tutoring her student for almost two years now. They meet once a week for two hours and follow the Literacy Council’s Laubach method workbooks. They also end up just chatting about home life. Richter’s student (who did not want to be identified by name) came from South America, where she had received a college education. But she left the workforce when she had her first child and now has been out of the workforce for 10 years.
This story is not uncommon among Literacy Council tutees. While there are quite a few students who are American-born but illiterate, the vast majority of students are immigrants who are learning English as their second language.
Vivian Wang is an ESL teacher who has a student from Bangladesh who was a nurse practitioner in his home country but is working at McDonald’s here in the United States. “He likes it, but he is wistful for the field he wanted to be in,” Wang said “I tried to encourage him. … I think things aren’t as fluid in other countries.”
Wang remembers particularly her student’s unusual way of phrasing his questions. “Instead of saying ‘I’ he would say, ‘What if a man couldn’t do anything about his situation?’” she said.
Indeed, what most tutors recall about their students is their humility and dedication to learning the language.
“They have my full respect,” said Mary-Ellen Friedland who started out as a tutor and is now teaching one of the English classes that the Literacy Council also runs for students who find it difficult to commit to a tutoring arrangement.
Yuan Fang, one of the Friedland’s students who came from China, said that the Literacy Council has given her more confidence in speaking English. “Before, when I talk to people, they talk quickly and I have to ask them to say it again and again and speak slowly and sometimes I feel ashamed,” said Fang. “But our teacher was very nice. When we say something, she would say ‘Beautiful!’ or ‘Excellent!’ and she would kneel down (when we were sitting) to get to our level.”
Different students face different challenges as they learn English, and the tutors come up with different ways to help a student remember words. Barbara Benson, a Literacy Council tutor since 2011, recalled a student who had come from China five years ago and didn’t recognize the word “jelly.” The next week, Benson brought in two different types of jelly and some baby bagels for her student to try. Another time, her student didn’t recognize a photo of coffee, and so the two went to the nearby Starbucks to have a cup of coffee.
On the other hand, Richter’s student, the one from South America, has a broad vocabulary but she “doesn’t know what sounds the letters make,” Richter said. Consequently, in the middle of their conversations, Richter has to ask her student to write down what she is trying to say. The two also like to have fun. For example, Richter’s student often pronounced “school” as “eschool” until Richter started pretending that there was an imaginary piggy bank, and every time her student mispronounced the word “school,” she had to deposit $100 into the piggy bank.
Many of the tutors you will see working at the Quince Orchard Library and other public places around town have been working together for a long time. The average is 24 months. And while the students are learning from the tutors, it is unmistakable the awe and joy that the tutors get from their relationships with them. “When you invest time in something, it’s so much more rewarding,” said Richter. “They are so appreciative of your help.”
At the same time, the Literacy Council is experiencing a severe shortage of tutors. Friedland recalled an ESL class student who had been on the waiting list for a tutor for more than two years, and when she got one, she called Friedland excitedly to tell her the good news. “It was just such a joyful thing to see. … I don’t know why everyone in the entire world doesn’t want to be a tutor,” Friedland said.
For more information on the literacy council or to volunteer to be a tutor, visit http://www.literacycouncilmcmd.org
