Friday, April 17, 2020 – Teaching English as a Second Language

When I first moved to Dallas from East Texas at the end of 2006, I became keenly aware of the strong Hispanic influence. In Longview, Texas, (a town of 77,291) the number of African Americans (22%) far outnumbered the number of those of Hispanic descent (12%). It was often easier to find a restaurant that sold soul food than Mexican food. I had African American co-workers, but no Hispanic ones.

Dallas (with a population of 1.2 million) was different. It was 27% Latino and 15% African American. There were Latino restaurants everywhere. They had Tex-Mex, true Mexican, Cuban, Colombian, Peruvian and Guatemalan food. They competed to see who could make the best margarita. My favorite was one flavored with tamarind, a popular fruit flavor in Mexico used in food and candies. It was not uncommon to hear Spanish spoken in public places. The influence was so great that I walked into a CVS drugstore in a Hispanic part of Dallas where all the signs over the aisles were only in Spanish.

In order to better fit into my newly adopted home city, I enrolled in a Spanish class at Brookhaven Community College, a 10-minute walk from my townhome. There I found a very patient teacher who in every class made his students ask and answer in Spanish “What is the date?” and “What time is it?” Over the years, I progressed through various levels of Spanish, finally settling in a class for senior citizens who were at my same level. I am still not fluent, but I know a lot more Spanish than I did in 2007.

A monthlong trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with some new friends who had connections there increased my exposure to the Spanish language. In addition, three years of French classes in high school gave me an appreciation for the intricacies of other languages. So, when one of my friends from the trip asked if I wanted to join her in teaching English as a Second Language classes as a volunteer at the Farmers Branch Library, I jumped at the chance. I have also taught at North Dallas Shared Ministries. In both places, most of my students were Spanish speakers, but I also had students from China, Russia, Jordan, Romania, and Germany.

Last year, I had the pleasure of meeting Suheyla Topuz, a Turkish woman at an interfaith meeting. I even went to her Plano home for a fabulous Ramadan dinner. She texted me recently, and we have begun weekly ESL classes on FaceTime. Her English level is very advanced, so she is keeping me busy.

You really don’t notice the intricacies of the English language until you have to teach it. For instance, do you know what a homophone is? It is each of two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling. Here are 20 common homophone pairs:

· brake/break: When teaching my daughter how to drive, I told her if she didn't hit the brake in time she would break the car's side mirror.

· cell/sell: If you sell drugs, you will get arrested and end up in a prison cell.

· cent/scent: I won't spend one cent on a bottle of perfume until I know that I love the scent.

· die/dye: If you accidentally drank a bottle of fabric dye, you might die.

· flour/flower: To bake a flower-shaped cake, you'll need some flour.

· for/four: I purchased four new pairs of shoes for my upcoming vacation.

· heal/heel: If the heel breaks on your shoe, you might fall. However, your injuries will heal over time.

· hear/here: I wanted to sit here so I could hear the singer performing without any distractions.

· hour/our: We have one hour before our appointment with the real estate agent.

· idle/idol: Being idle makes me unhappy but listening to my idol Taylor Swift makes me happy.

· knight/night: The knight is on his way to the castle but traveling at night is very dangerous.

· knot/not: I do not know how she learned to tie the knot to make that necklace.

· poor/pour: I pour drinks at a bar every night. I am poor because I have too many bills and not enough money.

· right/write: There is no right way to write a great novel.

· sea/see: At my beach house, I love to wake up and see the sea.

· sole/soul: I need to get a new sole put on my favorite pair of running shoes. Jogging is good for my soul.

· son/sun: My son is 13 years old. He likes to spend time outside in the sun.

· steal/steel: Someone who decides to steal a car has committed a crime, but auto parts are made of steel.

· tail/tale: My cat was crazily chasing his tail while I read a fairy tale to my children.

· weather/whether: I don't know whether to bring a jacket or not. The weather looks unpredictable today.

Can you imagine how confusing these are to someone learning English? I am glad I grew up learning it.