"Bubbled In" Aux Etats Unis

(I couldn't think of a better subject.)

Some of y'all know that I am a tutor with the Literacy Council of Wake County (http://www.wakeliteracy.org/). This is a really cool organization that offers free services to adults who want to learn to read and speak English. There are two main categories of adults who seek services at the LCWC: Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language. ABE students are native English speakers who never learned (or have limited education in) English reading and writing. The ESL program is pretty explanatory. :-)

I meet once week for two hours with a lady who moved to the United States five years ago with her family (husband, son, and daughter). Her husband is an international accountant and both of her kids are in school. The three of them are all fluent in English, but my student is not. She works here, but at her job she only speaks Spanish and gets little practice at home. It's very frustrating for her because her kids can speak English to each other and she doesn't know what they're saying. Also, her family members get frustrated with her in English and find it easier just to speak Spanish so that they can communicate more efficiently. It's a neverending cycle.

Anyway, we've been meeting since November and she's really doing fantastic. She was a lawyer in Colombia and she does very well in written English, but struggles with pronunciation and conversation (like many second-language learners). So, anyway, today, all we did was sit and talk for her to get practice. We mainly talked about Colombia and we went to two Colombian news Web sites and she explained to me about the news stories. (As an added bonus, I'm getting pretty good at reading Spanish.)

As I was driving home from the library, it dawned on me how insulated we are in America. I would have had no idea if I hadn't seen it today, but there are horrible floods in parts of Colombia right now. There were pictures of houses covered up to the roof. More than 100,000 people are homeless and there are major problems with disease and clean water. It's really, really sad. (If you're interested, I found a story buried on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/05/28/colombia.floods/).

As an apt juxtaposition to America's insulation, the front page of the Colombian newspaper is a story about Barack Obama locking up the democratic nomination.

I think I'm going to make it a point to check out some more international news sites going forward... I occasionally read some Canadian stuff and Le Monde from France, but I think I'll branch out :-)