A Letter A Week - Braving the Cold to Learn

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"Braving the Cold to Learn"

Earlier this month I attended a local class on "English as a Second Language". The class is taught in Cambridge and is open to women only. The teacher is Charlotte Knox, who lives in my condominium. I attended the class as a visitor/volunteer teacher and it was truly an inspiration. Almost all of the students are from low-income, immigrant backgrounds, and they all share an interest in learning the English language. Below is the letter of thanks I sent to the class to show my appreciation for allowing me to spend a day with them.

-----------------------

February 10, 2009

Dear Class,

I would like to thank you for allowing me to come in last week and be part of your class. It was a pleasure to meet all of you and to participate in your learning activities. You are all taking advantage of a great opportunity to learn the English language.

The ability to communicate with those around you in speech and writing can be very powerful. You are all making an effort to improve your communication skills by participating in this class. You don’t have to be here – many of you probably speak your native language in your home or in your neighborhood. If necessary, you could probably get by without learning English, but you are all motivated to enhance your experience in this country by learning our most popular language. By learning English, you will be able to understand and participate in more of the conversations around you, you will be able to read the menu in most restaurants, and you will be able to write a letter – perhaps a letter to your child’s teacher or a letter to your local politician demanding a raise for your great teacher, Charlotte Knox.

You all have very fascinating individual stories about how you came to this class, but the thing you all have in common is your shared motivation to learn the English language. Many of you walked through very cold weather just to attend class on the day I was there. Some of you are a bit ahead of the others in your ability to understand, speak and write English, yet you are never impatient with one another. Instead, I saw a lot of teamwork as you help each other learn. As a football coach (American football, not soccer), I recognize good teamwork when I see it and I know that learning is a much better experience when you are all in it together.

As a future father, I can only hope that my daughter develops the same motivation to become a strong, educated woman as each of you showed me. You are an inspiration.

Sincerely,

Scott Riecke

If you would like to comment on this letter, Scott can be reached at info@aletteraweek.com (please include your name and town).

To see Responses, Results and Reactions to this letter, click here.


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