Blogging and ESL + my first ESL Session

Blogging is not my style; I am finding that the personal and familiarity used in writing a blog is very foreign to me. I learned to approach writing from an outside, keeping myself at a distance from what ever subject I was discussing. With blogging I am finding myself trying to stuff myself into a form that just does not come naturally; even now I am struggling to keep my writing from drifting to an outside view of blogging. As I struggle to fit in to a more familiar style I find that I am spending a lot more effort, energy, and time trying to say what I mean. With as much trouble as I have adjusting my style of writing to blogging, I can not imagine how much harder it would be to try and blog in a different language. This small struggle of my own has given me a much greater appreciation for what ESL students are having to go through in order to try and conform to an American conception of writing.

I wrote the previous paragraph while waiting for my shift to start. During my shift I had my first session with an ESL student. To my relief it went a lot smoother than I was afraid it would. The prospect of tutoring native speakers did not really worry me. But the idea of trying to explain ways of writing and rules that I know without knowing made me question how I would ever get through a session with an ESL student. Thankfully I was not left with a dumb look on my face wondering how to explain something I knew was correct but not why it is. Instead I found that I was able to answer the ESL student’s question of why it is better to use a lot instead of lots in a paper. Perhaps I know more than I realize, and will be able to explain some of the other rules I know without knowing. But then again I may just have delayed looking dumb for a few more days. Either way I feel a little more confident that I will be able to help ESL students when they come into the writing center.

The other thing that surprised me was how well the paper was written. There were only a few minor errors in the paper that could have been left alone since they did not detract from the idea of the paper or make it difficult to understand. With how well the paper was written I have started to wonder if I should be more worried about trying to help a native speaker than I was about helping ESL students. It is too early to tell now, but if my first experience with an ESL student is any where near how most of them will be, I think I might just end up enjoying ESL sessions more than those with a native speaker.