Student and Teacher

In recent months I have had a lot of nostalgia for my brief time teaching. I assisted a former student with a literature paper (see Blog Entry “Prince of Denmark”) and one of my students came to New York for the first time in 6 years. He sent me an email on facebook asking if I remembered him, which I thought was very sweet.


I replied saying that, of course, I remembered him (I had friended him on facebook after all which meant I liked him). He told me of his plans to come to New York and that he wanted to see if we could meet up. I was thrilled because he was my favorite student in one class. He told me the dates he would be in the city and we put out tentative plans to meet for lunch.

As the days to his visit got closer, we put together a date and time to meet up. We decided lunch was still easier to do because he wanted to be a tourist and was planning to see downtown. I told him he could do that in between meeting me for lunch.

We decided to meet in front of the NY Stock Exchange. However, I didn’t know if he looked any different because it had been 6 years and he was 18 the last time I saw him. He did in fact look different but I still recognized him. We went to lunch and he told me that he’s now working for a company after getting his Master’s in Sociology. He told me about his thesis and what he had been up to in the past 6 years. I told him that shortly after teaching him I returned to work in the bank. I explained what I do and that I had recently had a baby.

He then told me that he was always very thankful that I forced him to stay in my class. I was teaching advanced conversation and he was very quiet but I could see from his expressions that he understood everything I was saying. His homework was the best of everyone in his class – always showing me that he grasped grammar than even native speakers didn’t always understand. The only problem was that he didn’t talk very much – a problem that I completely understood because I often found myself in the same situation. One day he approached me after class and asked me if he should go to a level lower. In order to do so, he would need my permission. I spoke frankly with him and said that he demonstrated excellent understanding of English grammar in his writing. He had no problem keeping up with my normally fast pace of speaking and seemed to understand the meaning of vocabulary I was using based on the context. I said that he seemed to me one of the best students in the class. I said I wouldn’t allow him to move to a lower level. I thought it best for him to stick with the class. I insisted that he had to make an effort to talk because it was in fact advanced conversation. I told him that I would call on him at least once in class if he didn’t volunteer to speak. I think this scared him so the next day he offered to give his opinion to a topic we were discussing.

The next few weeks he made even bigger leaps and bounds in his English because he became far more comfortable speaking. Aside from his slight accent and his natural tendency to speak in a quiet manner, he gave great presentations on topics assigned. He eased up when we played quick thinking games and generally seemed more relaxed in class. When he left the class, I was sad because he was such a thoughtful and respectful student. But I was happy he stayed in touch and it was very nice to see him, especially since he made the effort to see me. It was touching. I miss those connections and knowing that you are making a difference in another person’s life. I can’t say that I feel that influence in what I do now-a-days.