What surprised me about English courses in New York?

In my native country, Ukraine, I studied a lot. I heard different opinions about the system of education in the USA, and often contradictory, therefore, when I arrived in New York, I almost immediately signed up for English courses at a local college. I was interested in everything: how the curriculum is built, how strict and professional the teachers are, what contingent of students, what the educational institution looks like inside and outside, which desks, which restrooms, which dining room ...

Фото: Depositphotos

As it turned out, English courses here are not called “English courses”, i.e. not “English courses”, but “ESL”, which stands for “English as a second language”. As for me, such a name may not always reflect objective reality, as, for example, in my case, since for me English is the fourth language (after Russian, Ukrainian and French).

The interior of the educational institution immediately caught my eye - everything was so strong, “clear”, metal that, probably, if I had been taken into college with my eyes closed and asked to guess where I ended up, I would have thought that it was a penal colony. We were also surprised by the desks - so small, like for first-graders, that they were a single whole - a table, a chair and a place to store a briefcase. I also appreciated the “board” - modern, with a projector, the text on which was printed and deleted by the teacher, who did not even need to get up from his workplace for this. With nostalgia, I remembered my board in elementary school, wooden, with traces of chalk from a wet rag, noting to myself that modern American children may not imagine such a “miracle.”

The teacher was a native and real American - white-toothed, with a wide smile that never descended during a conversation.

He taught .. well, so-so .. on the 4 with a stretch, if on a five-point system. A lot of time was wasted, I didn’t always check what I was asking at home, it could crackle with chips during a class, while we read the text to ourselves.

But personally, a surprise was waiting for me under the curtain.

Our group was multinational, but still about half were Russian speakers. At the predpredpolnenny last lesson, one of our classmates of post-Balzak age, always complaining that 17 has been in America for years and cannot move beyond the level of English she is learning, told everyone that you need to collect money from everyone and give the envelope to the teacher on test lesson

Фото: Depositphotos

This idea seemed strange and unacceptable to me:

- firstly, why would you be scared to collect and give money to a teacher after 2-odd month courses;

- secondly, as I believed, the course administration cut the course by 2 lessons without good reason. For the first time, it was due to the fact that weather forecasters promised heavy snowfall, although, in fact, not a single snowflake landed in Brooklyn on the day of the canceled class. The second time was because of President’s Day (although this day did not fall on the day of the scheduled classes). Considering that one lesson lasted 5 hours, the amount of debt the college owed to me, according to my calculations, was about $32.

Well, I could still understand and chip in for a standard set in a “Box + Bottle” bag if I were satisfied with other aspects, but just like that... cash... in an envelope... on the day of the exam... Well, that’s too much. I completed a dozen two-month courses on various topics in my home country, and there was no smell of such “convertible undertakings” here.

I was the youngest of the group in terms of time spent in America, and, probably, my concepts did not fit into the local ones at all, because they gladly agreed to give absolutely everything, and some began to look askance at me, as if I were a black sheep. Moreover, the amount initially proposed by the initiator of the “envelope” gift of 10 dollars per person, due to the small number of students, almost grew to 30 dollars, since some enthusiasts, like those brokers who in the old days shouted bets on the stock exchange, began to raise "contribution" denomination. In general, we settled on 20 green arguments (although it is not clear in favor of what).

Circumstances so happened that the classmate who led this action had to be given the envelope in my presence, and what struck me most was the reaction of the teacher taking it: “Ohh, this is my favorite thing!” he exclaimed, stretching his smile twice as wide as usual. “How about if a teacher’s favorite thing is to improve the English language skills of his graduates?” I thought.

To my question to my giving classmates, “Why?” They answered me one thing - there is such a tradition here!

Such a strange tradition ...

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