Student Journals: AIFS in Rome, Italy

Kathy Miles
University of Florida
Richmond in Rome, Italy

My Return to Middle School

Middle school for me was an awkward few years through which I struggled to survive. But this semester, at the age of 20, I got the opportunity to go back and experience it all over again. Fortunately for me, the conditions were quite different this second time around; rather than attend middle school as an awkward tween again, I worked as a volunteer at an Italian middle school helping the students learn English.

To be perfectly honest, I was skeptical about the gig at first. As much as I absolutely adore kids, I wasn’t sure how much of my Build-A-Bear Workshop experiences would help me with Italian students. My Italian is only “cosi-cosi” and I wasn’t even sure my English would be up to par. I mean, sure it’s my native language, but I didn’t know if I had enough of a grasp on the grammar and little technicalities to actually teach it. But as a Linguistics major, this opportunity put me perfectly into my element. I was able to experience in-person the difficulties of learning (and teaching) English as a second language. English is not as simple as we native-speakers assume. I personally am glad that it is my first language because acquiring it as a secondary proves to be a tedious task of memorizing all kinds of irregularities.

But fortunately for me, all four of my classes had wonderful teachers and very bright students who took to English well. At first, things were a little shaky because their textbooks are actually British English, but once I adjusted to the question form “have you got” rather than our American version “do you have” things ran a little more smoothly. And of course it helped that the kids absolutely loved the days I came to help out. Most of them already had a little bit of a background in English. Their bright-eyed curiosity and eagerness to learn honestly touched me and gave me a new perspective on language-learning.

More than just the language, I also taught them about American culture. My sixth-graders learned “If You’re Happy and You Know it, Clap Your Hands” in an effort to introduce parts of the body. My eighth-graders, a few years beyond “eyes and ears and mouth and nose,” learned about the discovery of America and the celebration of Thanksgiving. ; They were thrilled to hear about our nation-wide shopping extravaganza on “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving, and spent a good while discussing with the teacher how they could bring this concept into Italian stores. I would interject with little anecdotes like this about interesting differences between Italy and America. The students were awed that the driving age is only 16 for us, rather than 18 for them. They were delighted at the concept of free soda fountain refills and large, 24-hour, everything-you-could-ever-want stores like Wal-Mart. I explained the American school system and they thoroughly enjoyed contributing to my explanation with their knowledge of “High School Musical.”

But as much of a contribution as I may have been to their studies of the English language, I feel I learned even more from them than they did from me. I got to experience the language-learning process from the opposite point of view. I have always been the student, teetering on the edge of my seat with questions about prepositions and verb conjugations. Being the teacher in this situation was entirely new and refreshing for me. I even learned things about English that, as a speaker, I understood but had never really stopped to contemplate. For example, the different pronunciations of “the” depending on whether the following word begins with a vowel or consonant like “the apple” versus “the banana.”

But my favorite part of the entire experience was being able to relate to the students in their effort to learn a second language. Seeing them struggle with verb conjugations would send me back to my Italian lesson the day before as I had done the very same thing. Even more, their English level is about comparable to my level of Italian so when the students had trouble with a certain topic in English, I could understand when another student explained it to them in Italian. I can’t even begin to explain how much my Italian has improved from simply listening to the kids, and even the teachers, just speak about any and everything. ; Being in that school environment, just listening and observing, I gained an amazing insight to the Italian language, culture, and just general way of life.

Overall, volunteering with these classes was one of the best decisions I have made on this entire trip. I now find it silly to dread the 45-minute bus ride to and from the school, because once I made it to one of my four classrooms, there was no other place I would rather be. I eagerly anticipated students’ questions and looked forward to practicing my Italian with them. I truly enjoyed every aspect of teaching English to these enthusiastic Italian middle-schoolers, and I now have oodles of stories to relate to friends and family about Italian children. I learned so much from this experience and I am truly grateful for all of the wonderful memories it will leave me with.