I volunteered for two different programs, English Opens Doors (Ingles Abre Puertas) and American Corner. Both of these programs are worldwide. EOD is a program for exchange students to help out in the high schools or elementary English classes. I spent every Tuesday and Friday in a high school helping students with their English. I was so pumped at the beginning of the program, but it didn't initially turn out to be what I was hoping. Most of the students had no interest in even learning English. It is a subject here that every student is subjected to.
I found the school system a bit dysfunctional. I just want to warn that this is completely my opinion and my critique of the school system here. Many of the students horse around in classes and talk while the teachers talk, and this is with out an end. It is always occurring. I know it happens in the states as well, but the students eventually shut up and show respect to the teachers. To make matters worse, in my opinion the students have little to no responsibility.
The thing about chilean students is that they are not required to grow up until later in life. Down here I am considered a child still that must have things done for her. If I hadn't insisted I would never have done a single dish or ever made my bed once in Chile. It's completely normal to have your mother do everything for you until you move out and get married. The chilean children for the most part live with their parents until they are married. I've noticed that many men are not required to do anything. Women are a different story. Their culture is very machismo. My host mom has a daughter who lives with her still, but she helps her mom out a lot with laundry and dish washing. I don't know any male students who live with their parents still, but I have heard that they tend not to do anything. I believe that it's part of the culture and the machismo presence in the culture.
Anyway, back to the school system. I was saying that the students have little responsibility and the classes are set up for them to have little responsibility. The students are grouped with the same group of students for the entire year. They stay and sit in the same room all day and the professors come to them. It's as if the culture enables them to live with out responsibility. It's different, but eventually the students clean up their behavior for college. So even though I disagree with their system, it seems to be working for them.
One other thing I've noticed in the classes and among the students is that they don't believe in themselves. The professor when I first met her explained to me the characteristics of each class. She said that 2 class had little to no motivation and that one class had more motivation and that I'd have fun with them. She went so far to say that the students know very little. I think this was completely her opinion. I worked with these students for about 3 months and they knew more than they let on. I was pleasantly surprised how much they did know. A funny thing about the English classes here is that they learn how to speak British English and many of them have British accents. Just as an fyi, British/Spanish accents are one of the best accents I have ever heard in my life.
Nearing the end of my trip, I am so glad that I participated in this program. The students were so fun to work with and I will not be forgetting them any time soon.
The other program I participated in is called American Corner. I had a lot of fun with my students in this group. It was basically a small group of college students and/or teachers who wanted to practice their English. That was the main difference between the two groups of students. The students in American Corner are highly motivated and always come to learn. We basically just bullshit the entire time about culture differences and share stories. Today we played card games the entire time. The pictures on the side are us playing BS and spoons(with pencils). The games got intense and were full of smack talk. I just hope they enjoyed their time with us as much as I did with them!Thank you to all who made my volunteering experience possible! :D
(Also these are the first pictures I've posted b/c I just learned how...opps on my part!)
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