Tutoring

After a few weeks of shuffling and scheduling issues, I've finally met with my learner. He's a native Mexican settling in the United States and I've volunteered to teach him English.
This volunteer opportunity is arranged by the Madison Area Literary Council. They are an incredible organization, if you happen to live in Madison, Wisconsin, and have the time, I highly recommend them.
So I volunteered and this morning I met with Juan (not his real name). Juan's a pretty advanced learner. His conversational skills are quite good. He's got some understanding of basic grammar and a decent vocabulary. We went over the verb to be. We did contractions. We talked about question words. It was basic stuff, and he obviously had seen most of it.

The best part, however, was our conversations. Two or three times we stopped the formal learning and just talked. He told me about walking 11 hours with his father to go to an Easter mass. I told him (very briefly) about being Jewish. We talked about language and how it changes. He mentioned that someone from Spain told him that Spanish from Spain was superior to New World Spanish. I told him I heard the same thing from the Brits, and that it was crap.

When we first met, however, he asked me the most jarring question. He asked "Why was I volunteering?" I had all the token answers about "giving something back" and "trying to make Madison a better place", but facing Juan, those responses seemed also dishonest, if not patronizing.

So why did I do it? Well, partially, those token responses are true. I've been pretty lucky. I had a comfortable upbringing, a good education and right now have a decent job. I also feel that you need to do something to try and make your community better.

I think volunteering is also partially selfish. I've learned quite a bit doing this, even in just a few short meetings. I also am getting to know someone that I probably wouldn't ordinarily know. I suppose it also relives a bit of guilt; I'm doing something to "justify" my relatively cushy life, even if it isn't much.
So, I hope it continues to go well. I also hope that Juan learns half as much as I will.