april 29, 2004 - meet the english teachers - wordmaster - voa english learning

broadcast on coast to coast: april 29, 2004 aa: i'm avi arditti, and this week on wordmaster -- meet some of the teacher s i met at the annual convention of tesol. that's short for the group, teachers of english to speakers of other languages. (music) the convention was in long beach, california -- complete with mexican mariachi music -- and i was there to promote special english, the voa service for englis h learners. but i was sharing a booth with the fulbright teacher and administra tor exchange program. it's one of the various fulbright programs that send amer icans abroad and bring people to spend time in the united states. so it was a g ood spot to meet a mix of fulbright and non-fulbright alumni. people like ... vvedenska: "my name is tetyana vvedenska. i'm from ukraine, the city of dnipr opetrovsk, and i'm affiliated with dnipropetrovsk national university where i wo rk as an associate professor at the department of educational psychology and eng lish." aa: "and if you had any tips for people who are starting out as english teache rs, or have already been teaching for a number of years -- if you had any advice , what would that be?" vvdenska: "advice? [laughs] stay there, in spite of the fact that sometime s it will seem like hell to you. because, you know, for me it means a lot, beca use my fulbright experience changed my personal and professional life completely . it was in nineteen-ninety-eight, and i came here for a half-a-year research p rogram, when i was affiliated with suny [state university of new york] universit y in albany, new york. and i've got so many amazing friends and colleagues, so that heightened my self-esteem. they charged me with energy for the rest of my life, i think!" ballard: "i'm beverly ballard and last year i taught in bulgaria through the f ulbright program. i was in a small town on the danube river and i taught every week two-hundred-twenty-five students. well i'd never been in eastern europe be fore, so there were a lot of things that were a shock to me. one of the things is that they can boycott classes. and so if you give a test, sometimes they don' t show up. this was a surprising thing. and, of course, that can't happen very much, at least not in california. if they boycott a class, there are certain r epercussions for that." park: "i'm shin-young park. i go to nyu." aa: "so new york university. and where are you from?" park: "i'm from korea. i'm going to graduate this summer, in july. i want to work in e.s.l. school here in u.s. just for one year, as an internship." aa: "you're here studying english as a second language, but you've also had to learn american idioms and culture along with it, for yourself, to survive. wha t's been the hardest part of that?" park: "um ... like every e.f.l. student or e.s.l. student, as a second languag e learner, there are so many things, especially when you watch a sitcom -- " aa: "a situation comedy on television." park: "i know the meanings, but sometimes i don't get it why that expression i s so funny. so, you know, everybody's laughing, but ... " garlow: "my name is todd garlow, i'm a high school e.s.l. teacher in maryland.

i worked in turkey from [nineteen-] ninety-nine to two-thousand in a private t urkish school, teaching seventh and eighth grade students. i was there the year of the two big earthquakes. i actually left here the day the first big earthqu ake happened. "as the day went on even, i flew through new york in the airport, hearing that the death toll was rising and the extent of the devastation was increasing. an d then in the days following, when i first arrived there, looking back on it now , it reminds me very much of the days following 9/11. people were in complete s hock, disbelief, just glued to their tv, wanting information, wanting to know wh at was going on." aa: "and while your students learned english from you, what did you learn abou t turkey?" garlow: "in many ways, turkey is regarded as the model muslim country. people are muslim but they have a secular government. they're in a unique position in terms of fostering democracy but still struggling with it. but they're also ve ry proud of their own history and accomplishments, and there are many modern asp ects." aa: "do you keep in touch with any of your students?" garlow: "i do keep in touch with some of my students via e-mail about what's g oing on, which is a very nice connection." aa: todd garlow and some of the other teachers at this year's tesol conventi on, held this month in california. and that's wordmaster for this week. our email address is word@voanews.com and our web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. i' m avi arditti.