Last night at volleyball I congratulated a woman on her two daughters' completion of my English Passport program. She said 'thank you' and warmly noted that she'd already seen the certificates I'd presented to her daughters earlier that morning. She seemed quite pleased and even explained the program (as summarized by her daughters) to another mother.
One of my more selfish hopes when I leave here is that most people in the community will have been directly touched by me at some point. I have solid friendships with many of the young people and even quite a few parents, but there are still many who only know me in a passing sense. Everybody knows I'm the English teacher but I'm not sure what that means to them.
An accidental result of the English Passport program is that students who pass get nice certificates to take home. Then their parents ask questions and hopefully the students say what was required to pass their level. I envision the parents thinking 'ahh, yeah, the English program.. good, my student is learning something!' And 'Wow, my six-year-old can count to 30 and say the days of the week in English?!!' (and 'That teacher should get a raise!')
It's really fun to show the relevance of my being here by asking kids English questions in front of their parents, but in reality this is a rare occurrence. The chances I have to reach the parents through the English Passport program are much greater. Not to mention all the kids I'm reaching..
