WEBVTT - Finally! A Show About a Former Missionary Turned Middle School Teacher 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:00.800 Good morning. 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:08.119 It's Friday, and there's six more days of school. I'm up. 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:14.520 It's about five forty five, and I really don't want 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.800 to wake up because I didn't really sleep. 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:20.320 Really great last night and probably didn't. 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:21.360 Go to bed until one. 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:25.680 I was in bed by like ten, but just couldn't sleep. 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:28.840 And if I don't work out before work, it's just 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:32.159 probably not going to happen. Yeah. If I don't do 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:34.120 it now, I won't do it. 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.120 This is finally a show about a former missionary who 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.320 became a special type of middle school English teacher. 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:57.920 My name is Stephanie Anderson, and I currently live in Indianapolis, 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:00.800 So I'm an E and L teacher, which is English 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:03.800 as a New Language. The school that I work at 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.360 is about twelve hundred kids. The majority of students are 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:12.280 African American. Most of my students are Hispanic, but then 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:17.560 I also have a growing population of students coming from Haiti. 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:23.200 I'll right a couple of announcements this morning. First, this 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:31.160 is we are May eighteenth, or we are celebrating Haitian 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.160 Flag Day today even though it falls on tomorrow. So 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:38.680 at this time, all our Haitian Creole students are welcome 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.520 to come down to the Commons to get a picture 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.840 this morning and celebration of Haitian Flag Day tomorrow, So 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.920 teachers you may release are Haitian creole students to the 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:51.720 Commons at this time. 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.840 ASL is kind of an outdated term. It's not something 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.960 that's not used anymore, but it's something that is really 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.720 kind of pigeonholes because it's English as a second language 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.840 when it's ESL, and a lot of our students that 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:10.280 are coming English is not their second language. For some 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:12.400 of them, it is their second language. But for some 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.720 of them, even if they're Hispanic, some of them are 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.880 coming from places in Guatemala or Nicaragua or Honduras, and 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.640 they have different languages, like more native languages, and for 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:28.120 Haitian kids, English sometimes is their fifth language. So that's 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:32.440 why the term has changed from ESL to English as 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:34.920 a new Language. There's a lot of acronyms that do 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:40.080 very similar things but have different purposes. Essentially, let's go, ladies, 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:42.440 let's go, let's go, let's go. 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:45.440 If you want a flag, I have some extra flags here. 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:50.080 I was born in Indianapolis, and I was actually born 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:52.799 during a tornado. I just had my birthday, not too 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.600 long ago, and my mom reminded me that I was 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.080 born during a tornado, and I haven't stopped since. 0:02:58.760 --> 0:02:59.960 I've never known a strange. 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:01.880 When I was a child, my mom said that I 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.200 would just talk to anybody and everyone, and I also 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.720 got lost a lot. As a child, we went to 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.480 Disney World. I don't know how old I was, maybe seven, 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.399 and I remember looking down and they have all these 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.959 bricks of people who who have donated money, and I'm 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.639 looking and reading these names, and then all of a sudden, 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.280 like at the entrance, and then I look up and 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.520 no one around me is someone I know. And then 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.160 I think I just cried and found some kind of 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.720 an adult, and then I found my parents. When we 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:35.240 went to King's Island and in Ohio, I got lost 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:38.640 there with my cousins. I got lost out a seers once, 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.280 and my family members all had to block off the 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:43.760 seers because they thought maybe I'd gotten kidnapped. But I 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.400 was just hiding in a rack of clothes. 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:49.200 I wander off. 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:50.920 And I look at something, and then all of a sudden, 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.320 I look around and I'm not with my people. 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:55.600 So I'm not. 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:58.360 Always very observant of staying with the people I'm supposed 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:09.840 to stay with. I stayed in Indianapolis for my whole 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:14.840 childhood and high school career. Moved to Munts, Indiana to 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:19.000 winter Baal State did not do education. I actually did 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:23.480 religious studies, and that was more of a I procrastinated 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:27.080 picking a major for so long that once I got 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.240 finished and I looked, you know, I was getting closer 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:31.800 to graduating, I had to look back and be like, well, 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:33.279 what have I taken a lot of courses in? 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:35.880 And I had taken a lot of history, a lot 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:37.320 of geography. 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:41.520 And then a lot of religion classes, and because it 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:49.360 was interesting to me, well, religion in general. Like at 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:52.880 that time, at late high school early college, was just 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:54.760 trying to figure out who I was as a person 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:56.880 and trying to figure out, like how do I fit 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:00.000 in this whole world. I wasn't a Christian. We didn't 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.680 go to church. That was something that I did on 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.200 my own. And I had a cousin that an older 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:06.680 cousin that asked me to go to church, and I was. 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:07.919 Like, yeah, yeah, I'll go. You're cool. 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.000 I was a freshman in high school when nine to 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:18.440 eleven happened, and I remember just being baffled by, you know, 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:25.000 that happening, not knowing anything about Islam, not knowing anything 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.800 about that part of the world, but being very intrigued 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:33.479 by what had happened, and thinking, I think I'm also 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.680 very an optimistic person, and thinking, there's no way that 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:38.839 there's a group of people like that, there's a giant 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:40.960 group of people in the world to just like hate 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:43.200 Americans so much that they would do something like this. 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:46.560 And at the time, I was a very strong Christian 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.120 and so I was just trying to think, how, like, 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:51.880 what did they believe? Well, how is it so different 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:53.880 than the way that I believe? And so I think 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.599 that's what kind of drew me to religion to begin with. 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:02.240 And Islam always was a focal point when I was studying. 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:06.200 I always was intrigued by Islam over everything else. When 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:10.000 I had to do I took a religious studies clash 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.880 that studied it was like an anthropological study of a 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:16.120 group in Muncie, and you've got to choose any religious 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:20.080 group you wanted, and I chose our local mosque and 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.840 I loved going. I went every Friday. I met these 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:29.560 amazing women. Because I stayed on the women's side, I 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.560 met these amazing women from Itran in Afghanistan and got 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.920 to know them. They invited me over to their house. 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.080 I never felt like they were pushing me to try 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.280 to believe in Hamm it is their profit. Like they 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.920 never tried to convert me, and they made me feel 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:49.719 I mean, they knew that I was doing this for school. 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:53.160 They knew that it wasn't now I think would they 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:54.800 have been happy to share with me if I would 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:58.279 have asked in an interest that I wanted to become Muslim, Yeah, 0:06:58.279 --> 0:06:58.640 of course. 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:00.840 But they were really respect that. 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.840 Boundary, which I appreciated as if do you want to 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:04.400 read it with me? 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:05.479 That's okay. 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.719 So this blue box at sixty two, Okay, more good 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:15.520 news was brought. More good news news was brought by 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:19.120 young Jock. By Young j There was a time in 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.520 my life that I wanted to be a missionary, and 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.000 I think that was the other interest that came into 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.640 trying to understand about other people. I wanted to see 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:32.040 what do other people do and how do they live? 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:36.120 And I fully and wholeheartedly believed that it was my 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:40.040 job as a Christian at that time to proselytize and 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.920 to convert people to Christianity, because I felt it was 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:47.080 partly my duty because it was asked of me of 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.400 the Bible, and I believed at that point that the 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:55.880 Bible was the true and accurate word. I think that 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:57.960 was kind of the like there was little sparks here 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:01.040 and there of just peaking interest of just something different, 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.240 something new than what I had known in Indiana. I 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:04.960 never thought that. 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:06.240 I would stay in Indiana forever. 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.040 I guess I never really saw that as a long 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:12.880 term plan. I always saw that there was other places 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.160 out in the world and thought, man, it would be 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.520 really cool to see what it's like to be there. 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.800 My mom had a friend that she hooked me up 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.680 with their church was going to Honduras for a week, 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.840 and so I went with them. I didn't know anybody 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:39.640 really in this group. I mean, they were really friendly, 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:44.640 and we went to compound that had a school, and 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.400 they had like a communal area for all the families 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.959 to cook, and then all of the families had individual houses, 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:55.840 but all of the parents were like foster parents or 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.840 like adoptive parents, they were not the parents of the children, 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:04.120 and so they all lived there and then they went 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.559 to school there, and then while we were there, they 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.880 were also working on a college, like a small university 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:13.760 up on the mountain. I ended up helping this guy 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.200 do pipework every day. I didn't know what I was doing, 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:18.600 but I hung out with the kids and kept them 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:24.560 occupied while other people were doing real work. So that 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:26.880 was my first time leaving the country really feeling like 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.480 I was leaving the country by myself. And then when 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.400 I was in college, I got connected with a Christian 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:36.800 organization and I did mission work in the summers. I 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.079 went to India first summer and that was my first 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:42.720 like really really big trip. The next summer I went 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.880 to Thailand. And then I graduated college and somehow got 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:52.560 connected with a friend of a friend who ran a 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:57.120 Christian school in Nigeria and they said, hey, we have 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:02.080 this library that the school that needs someone to run 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.640 it for three months. Would you be interested? I said, yeah, 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:07.640 I could go. I'll go to Nigeria for three months. 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:09.840 I don't have anything to do. And so I talked 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:12.400 to the principal and she's like, actually, we would want 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:14.360 you for a year, a whole school year. 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:17.520 And that was a huge culture shock. 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.079 That was that was probably the best thing to do first, 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:25.840 like a first big experience living abroad because it just 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.920 taught me so much. It taught me how to live 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:33.000 on less than I've ever been used to. I don't 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:35.600 want to say a little, because we were very blessed 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.839 compared to a lot of people that lived there. I mean, 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:41.760 we had a generator in our property so at night, 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.439 like we would have a generator for our air conditioning. 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:46.720 But the electricity was very unstable. 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.040 It was never you know, it was always on and off, 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:52.839 and you just got used to it. Our water would 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.440 be the well liked would run dry and we just 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:59.400 wouldn't have water to wash dishes and things. Yeah, when 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:01.120 you don't have water, you don't electricity, You've got to 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:03.400 figure out how to make all of your food. There's 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:10.120 definitely perspective in that. When I was working with people 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:15.000 and trying to proselytize them and get to them to to, 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.440 you know, believe in Jesus and become saved. I think 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.040 at that time I really felt like I was doing 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.600 something that was going to make a. 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:25.200 Forever impact on their life. 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:29.280 And I was sad for people, I think, thinking that 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:33.600 they didn't they didn't have Jesus the same way that 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.520 I had them, and they didn't have that same security, 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.040 because that's what you're taught, and that's what you know, 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.680 preachers say every Sunday, and that's what you read about 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:47.320 in the Bible, is that you don't have that they 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.560 don't have that security, and that they are going to 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:55.600 live forever in you know, in hell or just in 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.400 you know, in this discomfort, and you don't want that 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.520 for anybody. And so I think I felt secure for 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.240 a while, but I think still deep down I had 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.439 this feeling of do I actually believe enough? 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.920 Am I doing this right? Is it enough? 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:16.240 And I think that in Christianity, I think everyone, I 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.080 think in any faith, people are going to doubt their faith, 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:20.160 and everyone's going to. 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:22.720 Go back and forth. 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.760 And I doubt there's anybody in their life that's ever said, oh, 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:27.640 I believed in this once and I believed it forever 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.959 and I never doubted. But I think traveling and seeing 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:35.840 more people and different people and meeting again people that 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.120 were some of the nicest people, like, the longer that 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:42.040 I saw this, the more that I saw this, the 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.679 more that I lived, I just thought, I just can't 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:50.000 imagine that they are living their life and they just 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.240 happened to be born somewhere that Christianity is not prevalent, 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.040 and I just can't imagine that that's going to be 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.920 the end of them because they don't believe because of this, 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.200 because they're just not born in the right place. And 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.319 so you know, quickly when you start to meet more 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:09.079 people of different religions and different faiths and see how 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:15.680 they express their faiths, and you just it becomes harder 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.240 to believe that there's only one way. It's harder to 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.400 believe that there's only one route. I don't know, even 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.560 after all of this, after studying many religions and seeing 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.160 many religions in practice, I don't really know if I 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:39.640 believe really anything anymore. After I'd worked in Nigeria and 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.439 worked at a school, I realized, Okay, if I'm going 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:47.200 to go back overseas and work overseas again, teaching English 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:49.400 is probably my best bet. 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:50.000 Like I'm not. 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:56.600 Nobody needs a religious studies major there in their workforce. 0:13:58.120 --> 0:13:59.920 I could have went anywhere, but I was very drawn 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:04.360 to going back to Africa and to an Arab you know, 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:05.480 an Arab country there where. 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:06.040 They spoke Arabic. 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.880 I decided Egypt because one I found a job and 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.120 two I was like, well, this fits both criterias. It's 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:16.679 in Africa and it's an Arabic speaking country and their 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:20.480 Muslim like let's go. Because I had read stories about 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:22.720 women being in Saudi Arabia and I had, you know, 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:25.480 heard all of these things, and I'm thinking it, can't 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.560 you hear about these stereotypes about women being oppressed And 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.600 I'm like, it can't be as bad as you're hearing, 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:37.320 And so I wanted to see for myself and it 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.480 wasn't what you know, we and the West had kind 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:45.800 of exacerbated. So then I found I found a job 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:50.680 online for a school in Egypt. I didn't know much 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:54.000 about Egypt, I'll be really honest, and the website, like 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.280 even every part of it seemed a little sketchy. My 0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:59.000 mom doesn't know a lot of this that it was 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:03.360 the sketchy. I did communicate with people that had worked 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:07.400 at the school, other English teachers, but I still was 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:09.680 like there was just weird things where they were like 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:14.040 telling me about like how you should get your alcohol 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.040 from duty free because it's way more expensive, you know, 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:18.840 when you buy it outside of duty free. And I 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.880 start like thinking and I'm like, am I getting kidnapped, 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.560 but then I'm also bringing the alcohol for everyone, like, 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:34.600 what's what's happening? So it ended up being fine, and 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.120 I ended up, you know, meeting and working with people 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:42.200 that I from all over the United States, Canada, Australia, 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.680 New Zealand and the UK, and people that I would 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:47.920 have never met or you know, probably been friends with 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:49.760 it and became really good friends with them. 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:51.920 So and then I got in a. 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:55.880 Relationship with a guy and we had talked about getting married, 0:15:56.040 --> 0:16:00.280 but he was Muslim, and I think it was I 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.040 think I knew deep down it was never really going 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.840 to happen because his family was never going to agree. 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.600 They never were going to be okay with it was 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.480 too different than what they had ever experienced. That I 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.560 was one American that I was. I too didn't speak 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:15.840 Arabic and you know, I was working on it, but 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.800 I wasn't anywhere close to fluent and I wasn't Muslim. 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:21.280 But I think we both hoped. 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.280 So that was that was at That was a hard 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:29.000 blow when that ended, when he and I broke up. 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:31.800 We ended in twenty seventeen. 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:36.520 It feels it feels really close sometimes, but then it 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.280 feels really far when I when I say the date 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:41.600 out loud and I think about the time that has passed, 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:43.960 and I think about the things I've done since, then 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:48.480 I think, oh, no, that's that's actually kind of not 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:58.480 that close, but it still feels fresh sometimes. Yeah, I 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.160 my mental health went downhill, well partially because of that. 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:05.800 Partially I rushed into another relationship with someone who was 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.200 wrong for me. But you know, you tried to fill 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.320 I tried to fill avoid quickly and that was wrong 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.600 for me. And then when that didn't pan out, I 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:25.360 just was crushed. I came back to the United States 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.359 essentially because my mental health was trash and needed to 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:30.240 be around my family. 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:32.240 And then when I. 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.320 Was looking for a job, I had found this job 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:37.679 for E and L, but I didn't really know what 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:40.879 EnL was and didn't even realize that I had to 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:43.040 do a whole nother certification for it, so I kind 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.359 of fell into the job. But when I looked at 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:48.520 the description and you're teaching students English, and I'm like, well, 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.840 I've been teaching kids English forever, like for seven years, 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.399 and all my kids that I taught abroad didn't know 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:57.720 English as their first language. 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:05.840 I was like, I can do that, and when I. 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:10.720 Got interviewed here in Indiana, I think my principal had reservations, 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:12.720 but I told them, and this was kind of my 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:15.000 motto through and through is that like kids are kids 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.800 are kids. At the end of the day, I don't 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:20.760 care what kid in the world you're talking to, Like 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.320 they like candy. Any kid in the world likes candy. 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:26.840 Any kid in the world wants to play and do 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.399 silly things and have fun. Like at the end of 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:32.400 the day, kids are kids are kids, and they have 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.440 basic needs, which are they want to have fun, they 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:40.520 want to feel safe, they want candy, and they grow fast. 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.720 I mean, those are those are kind of the universal 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:49.520 truths for children. So during my day, I have a 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:51.399 little period in the beginning of the class, like at 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:53.320 the beginning of the day that I don't have students, 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:54.600 So that's the first period, and then I have the 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.720 second period. I have my Reading Intervention class, which is 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:01.119 seven to eighth graders that are proficient in English but 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:05.199 just need some help with some reading. And then I 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:08.959 have my eighth grade New Learner class, and then I 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.040 have a seventh grade new learner class. Then I have lunch, 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.600 and then after that I work with a student that 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.600 is new to the United States who is not literate 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.000 at all, and she's a fifth grader. So we work 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:24.720 on a lot of basic skills, and then I work 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.480 with my sixth grade new learners then and they've all 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.160 just gotten here this year. Those students that I work 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:37.800 with from Haiti that I support in that class Wahn. 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.960 I use Google Translate a lot, especially with my Haitian students. 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.080 Spanish I can kind of fumble through here and there, 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:50.720 but with my Haitian students, I'm also trying to learn 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:54.520 Haitian creole on Duelingo and it's not I started French 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:56.800 and then I started Haitian Creole, and there was weird 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:00.679 overlaps that didn't make sense because like God song was 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:02.800 like boy in French, but then it was Man and 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:06.199 Haitian creole on due Lingo at least, and so then 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:08.720 I was like, I don't know which is which. Now 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:11.080 you have to understand the crossover. I think that's the 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:13.840 biggest thing in linguistics and in the job that I have, 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:18.000 the crossover meaning one language to another. So how does 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:23.359 English compare to this other language? So like Hungarian, for example, 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:26.080 is very different than English, and a lot of other 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:32.280 languages because the structure is not a subject verb pattern, 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:36.760 it's actually a verb subject. So like Yoda actually speaks 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:41.560 more like he's Hungarian. They actually copied the Hungarian structure, 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.159 like sentence structure, and so that's why he talks the 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:49.320 way he does. Talented him I And so you have 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.080 to understand that crossover so that you can understand what 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:54.800 are they going to make mistakes in Spanish and englisher 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:58.480 are nice? Are nice like accompaniment because we have so 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:02.439 many similarities. But like they have to understand, phonics is different, 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:05.000 so like the J is going to be different. Arabic 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.120 is like that Arabic there's no P sound, so pepsi 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.520 is bibsi. They don't have a V sound, so everything 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:15.560 goes to like a puugh. They have the i'm sound 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:18.640 that we don't have. They have the so like uh 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.120 like DJ Colled like DJ Colled. I don't know why 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:23.520 this drives me crazy, Maybe just because you get used 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:25.800 to it after a while. Like I had a friend, 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:28.840 I have a friend named Khalid in Quit and then 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:30.600 I asked him one day, I said, why does DJ 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.520 Colled go by DJ Collid and not DJ Khalid? 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:36.520 Because it should be like A like. 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:40.359 A and and and I think realistically it's just because 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:42.919 English speakers are never going to say it correctly, so 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:44.720 I think at some point he's just like, forget it. 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:48.440 I'm DJ Colled, DJ Chali. So the highs of being 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:51.600 an an L teacher is just watching them develop and 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:54.399 you see them and this was the same even when 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.960 I taught abroad and watching them just grow. And the 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:00.520 funniest thing is you start to realize that you've really 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:03.040 taught them and that they're really paying attention and they're 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.639 learning something when they start picking up your mannerisms and 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:08.879 the way that you talk or the things that you say, 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:12.879 and then you go, oh, you have been listening to me. 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:17.000 This is from me, Like I call them honey a lot, 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:19.560 and then I have to quickly tell them once like 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.399 what this means, and they just look at me funny, 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:24.080 and then I have to be like, yeah, it's just 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:26.000 like a like it's like a more, it's like a 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:29.040 sweet thing. It's endearment. But then they'll start saying it 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:33.600 back to me sometimes and sometimes it's sarcastic. It's like okay, honey, 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:38.080 and then you're like, oh, okay, yeah, you guys are 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:44.159 are actually learning things. The lows are the stories. I 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:46.840 don't hear a ton of them one because of a 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:47.880 language barrier too. 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:48.880 I try not to. 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:53.880 Put my kids in positions where they talk about things 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:55.040