You Can’t Spell “Essential” Without ESL
Written by Dan Taylor, Partner Engagement Volunteer.
My wife and I moved to Kansas almost 40 years ago. We came from Illinois, and we immediately noticed some things…
1. People call it “69 Highway” and not “Highway 69.”
2. 69 Highway is one of the ways you can get to a town called “Olathe,” which is pronounced, “Oh-lay-thuh.”
3. While you’re there, you can get an entrée or a sandwich called, “Burnt Ends” which doesn’t mean something bad happened to the ends, it means you’re about to have something delicious!
It’s a lot easier to live in Olathe if you know these things. In a short time, we sounded like natives, not people who had moved from two states over. And once our kids were born here, it was like we’d been here forever.
Those are just three quick examples of challenges you might face if you haven’t been here forever. If you’ve been here 3 weeks and you came from a place where almost every single thing was different, you can imagine how intimidating that could be.
Now imagine your child is sick and you want to take them to a doctor. How do you find one? Will you be able to communicate? And if you want to imagine even more, what about insurance?
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see that a working knowledge of English is the key that unlocks just about every good thing about living in America.
This is just one of the ways that a place like Mission Adelante provides a vital link to immigrants. ESL classes help make the experience of living in a new place a little less overwhelming, a little less intimidating, and, frankly, a little less scary.
You don’t have to know the students’ native language to be a volunteer, and you don’t have to be an English major. I was anxious about this at first, but then I learned that the students are there to learn English, and if you only speak to them in English, that’s ideal!
You’ll be provided with materials and instructions that make it easy to help someone feel more at home here. You volunteer your time, and Mission Adelante does the rest.
My wife and I felt like this was home shortly after we arrived. The opportunity to help others overcome hurdles much larger than figuring out a BBQ menu and begin to think of this as their home too is as much a blessing for the volunteer as it is for the student.
Drop by soon and see for yourself!
Be part of our programs!
We are so excited to start the summer trimester and we are grateful for all our volunteers who make everything possible. Would you consider partnering with us this trimester?
How can you help?
Pray for our program participants would create an impact in our community and grow with their walk with the Lord.
Volunteer – Come to one of our obseveration nights the second week of July. For more information visit: https://www.missionadelante.org/observe
Donate to join us in building a multicultural community of disciples making disciples.