Don't come to America to study English ...

... unless you really want to study!

I live near San Francisco and many people come there to from other countries and enroll in language schools. I am very good at helping people learn English and it takes up much of my time. I don't usually accept payment for helping them since it is something I really enjoy doing. More people come to San Francisco to enjoy the city than come here with the real purpose of learning English. You cannot learn the language by osmosis! Just living here does not mean English will soak into your bones. Language schools usually require students to attend 5 hours a day, that is how they get their accreditation.

Students from other countries will come to class every day and then when they leave the only friends they have are other students at that school. Those other students don't speak English! So they hang around with people from their own country or another foreign country and don't speak English, or don't have anyone that speaks English around them and their English doesn't improve. It is kind of funny, and kind of sad. It isn't realistic to come to America and think you can study better than in their home country. If they really were interested in learning English they would live in a small town or small city that has no one that speaks their native language. But, Koreans live in Korea Town, Japanese live in Japan Town, and Chinese live in China Town.

And then they wonder why they can't learn English in their school. When someone asks me if I will help them I ask the question of why they came to a big city to learn English. I ask them if they came to learn English or to sight see. I have run across some people that sincerely came here to learn English. Last month I had a Korean girl in my class that teaches teachers how to teach English as a Second Language and I asked her why she took my class. She looked me in the eye and told me she took the class because she thought it would help her improve her English. I was happy to have her in my class and I will help her in any way I can while she is in America because I know she will do anything to learn English.

 She attended my class a few times this month to help me and to improve her English even more. She will improve her English and go back to Korea with a fluency in English because that is really her goal. Don't get me wrong, she is enjoying herself while she is here and she has friends from many countries, but she has a goal and will accomplish it. This month I have a girl from Japan in my class that met the girl from last month. The girl from Japan is an English major and would like to teach when she goes back to Japan. She did a practice lesson this weekend and was very very good. She showed she has passion about teaching and everyone in the class was impressed.

The girl from Japan is taking some tips from the Korean girl. She is making good friends with the other people in the class and will start to network from there. She will start hanging out more will Americans and less with foreigners. She will see a big improvement in her English just by getting confidence in her ability. I am very proud of these two girls and I look forward to hearing about how their English improved before they go back to their countries.

I have a silent dream that I don't often share with people. I would love to buy a house in a small town that has 5 - 6 bedrooms and put a couple of beds in each room. Have people from a variety of different countries come stay in the house and have it as a boarding school. In the morning I would teach classes then in the afternoon I would have them do "treasure hunts" around town. If I could get one or two places for them to do volunteer work I would have a few do that. I would have a couple do shopping every day. I would have a couple follow a map and have to ask certain people questions. Every day different people would be doing different things. I wouldn't allow them to speak their own languages or watch tv shows in their languages.

If I could limit their time on skype with their friends and family back home I would. It would be hard on the students, but they would see real improvement in their English. The longer they stayed the more difficult the daily assignments would get. This would be great if I was able to do it, and it is my secret dream, so don't tell anyone!!