Absorbing a language...

When I was 18, I participated in a sort of student exchange through an organization designed to promote cooperation with cities around the world. I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of 7 French speaking Chicago students sent to live with a Moroccan family in Casablanca and do volunteer work in an orphanage there. After the 3 weeks, we returned home and the students we lived with came to Chicago with us and we then worked in a women’s and children’s shelter in the inner city.
My family was a lovely probably upper-middle class family who owned a restaurant. The daughter, who was my age, spoke French and a little bit of English. The rest of the family only spoke Moroccan, which is a combination of Arabic and French. I was timid and shy and alone in a foreign country, with a family that I could barely communicate with. But, I was able to get by, and even have some meaningful conversations with the parents. We learned to communicate in different ways, through gestures, through actions, through meaningful glances. We were able to find a few words we could each understand, and of course we also used some translators, such as their daughter and also their grandchildren from their other daughter.
I think that teaching is very similar to my experience living with this foreign family. Certainly teaching language is, but I think it is applicable for any subject. As a teacher, we have to find the common ground. We have to experiment with ways to get our points across to our students. Sometimes just talking isn’t enough, we have to show our students, through gestures, through actions, through pictures and songs, and even just meaningful glances. I want my students to absorb my language.
Without this experience, I would never be able to speak French as well as I do. I don’t think that every student necessarily has to be plunged alone into a foreign country in order to learn a language. However, by speaking it, hearing it, writing it, singing it, watching it, that’s beneficial to everyone.