Field Service Notes

Service Learning Project

Comm 2150

2/7-
I was with Pierre today. He is 34 years old and is from Tanzania. He has lived here for 8 years
and has two kids. He is recently divorced and he has joined a church here. As I was trying to
help Pierre I would ask him a few questions and he would just sit there and not respond. As we
continued to talk he warmed up and asked me a lot of questions and was very talkative.

2/14-
Today I worked with Pierre again for a little while. I mostly participated in the class lecture.
Pierre has a lot of respect for the U.S. He really wants to learn English in order to get a better
job and help his children. He is very driven.

2/21-
Today in class I did not work with anyone in particular. However, we talked about food in the
U.S and eating. The students thought the term binge eating was so funny and also commented
on how in the U.S everyone is eating all the time and how in their culture they eat at the table
and not on the couch or in their cars. Pierre also expressed his desire to work more and have
longer hours in order to provide his family with a better life.

2/28-
Today the topic in class was human rights. Multiple students claimed in America that people are
constantly searching for something that is inhumane such as dogs in cars in the summer. They
also said in their country they would never do this and they would stay out of others business.

3/7-
Today I helped an older lady from Brazil create sentences using certain words. It was very
difficult because she did not understand the words and I was not explaining them very clearly.
Once we were able to use a translator and she understood the words it was still difficult to
explain how to use them in a sentence but it got a little easier.

3/21-
Today I helped correct vocab words. Julian who is from Peru had a hard time understanding the
words that have similar meanings but are different words. I had a hard time describing to him
what they meant. He then wanted to teach me some Spanish which went right over my head.

3/28-
Today I helped a Muslim student. She has lived here for five years. She started asking me
about my religion which gave me the chance to ask about hers. She wears cloth around her
head but she said that she doesnt do it everyday and I can not judge her if I see her not
wearing it. She also explained to me that her religion means a lot to her but she wants to fit into
the American lifestyle.

4/4-
Today I was talking to Julian who is from Columbia. He was telling me how he works at Iceberg
and that his boss is very rude to him and once asked him Why do people who dont know
English want jobs? Julian is 18 years old and wants to speak English as well. He expressed a
great amount of frustration and wants to quit his job but he needs the money.

4/6-
Today I showed up early and just spoke to students as class was beginning. We were having a
fun time talking about our weekends and once girl was telling me about her Las Vegas trip and
how she has always wanted to go there. Then the teacher came and we were able to get
started and I helped with some grammar. Teaching grammar is so hard because I struggle with
the correct way to write things and teach things because I just say what sounds right.

4/11-
Today in class I helped a student from cambodia. She was having trouble with placing
vocabulary words in sentence structure. This was one of the easier days of the service honestly
the words were really simple and the student was very smart and very nice.

4/18-
Today we spoke about placing words into a reading and then making sense of the reading. The
teacher would first ask the students if they knew what word should go where and then she
would ask me if they did not know and have me explain it to them. It was very hard to explain it
to them because I just know how to speak English I do not know why the rules are what they
are. We shared some really good laughs.

4/18- Today I was there before class started and I helped a student with some of her homework
again. We had to write some sentences about a story they were supposed to read. I helped her
conjugate some verbs correctly. We put them in the correct tenses and she was very grateful
and shared some nuts with me afterwards. She is from the Middle East.

4/20-
Today I helped a student not with English homework but with math homework. Luckily it was an
easy subject. I had to teach her about different angles and it was very funny because she kept
forgetting the words and laughing at herself and apologizing to me.

4/20-
There were two older ladies who got in an argument one was from Sudan and the other from
Brazil. It was very interesting as the lady from Brazil kept egging it on and egging it on and the
lady from Sudan was just telling her to leave her alone until the teacher finally got involved and
told them to split up or move seats.
4/27-
Today was my last day. The students were taking their end of semester tests and so I just
helped them set up their computers and log on. They really struggled with typing and working
the computer. I realized this is probably because many of them had not seen a computer until
they got here or until they were older. I shared some last good laughs with them and said
goodbye to them. It was sad to leave but I am very grateful for the experiences that I had.