Until this week, I had never taught English to adults, working exclusively with middle or high school students because... well, because no adult had never asked me. I help out Solofo on Thursdays and Noro on Wednesday, but these are more conversational and not instruction. Most people, I think, assume that I charge money for lessons and don't bother asking. However, it'd be exceedingly difficult to announce that I teach English for free and not have dozens of people lined at my door the next day. Most would stop after two or three lessons, but I don't need that kind of work.
A lady down the street, though, was tutored by a Peace Corps volunteer roughly 3 years ago, and after 1 1/2 years living in my town, she finally thought to ask me to start lessons with her again. I don't know why she waited so long (I go in her store at least once a week) but when she did, she showed me her revered lesson notebook and a picture of the volunteer (the first I had ever seen of her). So now, sitting at a table in her corner store/bike repair shop/lothing emporium/veterinary medicine warehouse/bar (it's kind of a schizophrenic place), Pierette and I study English starting from square one.
This is, in fact, also new to me. I've started at the bare essentials with my classes, but I still assume some level of familiarity with the language. So we're going over numbers, the alphabet, and introducing the verb "to be." In Malagasy, the word exists but in 99% of cases is not used. So, it takes some getting used to for them. It's been interesting enough so far, and it's nice to kill time somewhere other than my house, though teaching pronunciation has been tricky. "Eight" always comes out as et, ent, hoent, and 'ho entana', which actually means "I want to take this to go" in a restaurant, in typical the typical concise Malagasy style.
Distractions are plentiful while we study, with 2 young boys literally crawling all over her (she's 35), shoppers coming in to the store every few minutes, and chickens and roosters sauntering through the room. I'm not totally sure why she wants to know English, and but she always makes an appointment for the next lesson when our hour or two is up, and when I walk in the store she's usually studying. Erin has had pretty amazing successes teaching adults in her town, so I hope to find the same. (Yes, all of my 'altruistic' activities are really attempts to validate my existence here. So sue me.)
