Of all the travel-instincts I’ve built up over the years, few compare to the hard-won skills I learned during my two-year stint as an English-conversation teacher in South Korea.
As exhausting at that job could at times be, it taught me how to interact with people who have yet to master spoken English. It made me a better listener – attuning my ear to how often language-learners stress the wrong syllables (rather than mistranslate or even mispronounce) their words. It made me more attuned to the ways other languages’ consonants, vowels, and diphthongs don’t have an identical English equivalent. It taught me that speaking slowly and simply and clearly is better than speaking loudly when one aims to be understood.
And, best of all, my experience of teaching English taught me that language learners can be lots of fun. During my two years in Korea I learned how to work the classroom: how to identify the sharpest student (inevitably a girl) and use her as a sidekick in cajoling other students to ramp up their skills; how to identify the surliest student (inevitably a boy), flatter him with an easy question, then subtly throw him shade until he can’t help but join in on the learning process.
I met these kids on the streets of Bukittinggi, Sumatra, when I was on my way to pick up my laundry. Their Indonesian classroom teacher had apparently instructed them to accost foreigners on the street and make English small-talk with them. I was all too happy to oblige.
Channeling my old classroom chops, I turned their questions back on them, waited as they searched for the right phrases, called on shy students in the back of the group, and playfully demonstrated how an aspirated “p” differs from the subtle tooth-to-lip mechanics of an “f.”
In our exuberance we managed to block the street-corner sidewalk from pedestrian foot-traffic for 15 minutes, and when I told the students I hailed from America, they spontaneously (and for reasons no doubt connected to some YouTube or pop star I’m too old to know about) let out a cheer.
We ended the lesson with five minutes of assorted smartphone selfies (a ritual I didn’t have at my disposal in Korea 22 years ago). The above photo was my result.
Note: “Dispatches” are short vignettes, profiles, and mini-essays written and posted from the road, often in tandem with my Instagram account. For more full-formed writing, check out my book Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, or the Essays or Stories archives on this site. I don’t host a “comments” section, but I’m happy to hear your thoughts via my Contact page.
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