Today I had the pleasure of interviewing our lovely facilitator, Pauline. She has been helping our members practice English since 2017. Here is what Pauline has to say about her experience in TLC.
1) When and how did you find out about TLC?
“I first heard about The Language Club when I moved to Abu Dhabi in January 2017. A friend of mine told me about the Language Exchange she attended at Andiamo in Al Zeina. As I had French lessons at school, I decided to go along to the meetings at the 1868 Cafe where this language was being exchanged.”
2) How was your experience at TLC?
“The group was very friendly, welcoming, well organised and informal. The mornings flew past. The acoustics in the room sometimes made it quite tricky to hear the participants speaking because of the amount of chatter and laughter, which was a good indicator that the group was a success.
I found it difficult to learn French and frequently missed classes when I travelled home. I continued to help people learn English when I was in Abu Dhabi, but stopped attempting to learn French.
Involvement in the sessions has made me much more aware of how complicated the language is to learn. It’s not something I had previously thought about.”
3) What is the biggest difficulty for English language learners?
“I am not sure what the biggest difficulty for English language learners is. For me trying to learn French, it is not being able to hear the difference in the way I am pronouncing words and sounds, like the vowels etc, to the way it’s meant to be pronounced!
I think the most difficult thing is being disciplined to learn. I need incentive or a reason to do something, otherwise I am easily distracted and find something else to do instead.”
4) What was the best way to help your students?
“I have found that the way the conversation topics are presented help the students feel relaxed and comfortable. Having fun is important in a language exchange.”
5) Did you see any progress?
“I have definitely seen progress made by people at the face to face meetings and during the online sessions. When people’s confidence increases they learn faster, they start to use additional means of learning like listening to news broadcasts, watching movies, and listening to the lyrics in music. I know someone whose ambition for the future is to be able to teach English to others. She is such a determined lady I am sure she will.”
6) What are your best memories about TLC?
“Taking along a friend for the first time to the sessions. She is qualified to teach English as a foreign language and also speaks French. On that day it was the founder, Marisol’s birthday. The room was decorated with balloons and bunting; there were gifts of flowers and cake. It was a lovely first impression of the group for my friend. It showed the appreciation people had for the time and effort made by Marisol.
I think during every class I have learnt something new about another culture or country. For example, one week the topic was to discuss what Valentine’s day meant in your home country. It was interesting to hear there were differences across the world as I had wrongly assumed it would be the same in all countries.”