A smiling Chinese man came for the first time to the ‘English for Work ESOL’ course at the Jesus Centre. I was giving the class a short spelling exercise and I noticed the English script meant nothing to him at all. Quietly, after the session, I drew him on one side: “Would - you – like - me - to - teach - you - to - read?” I said very slowly with gesticulations. His face lit up. He speaks very little English – and I mean that; actually he understands very little either.
So today we began c-a-t, d-o-g, s-a-t. It was a start. At the end my new friend grabbed me by the hand twice over and, smiling broadly, said ‘thank you’ – a word he knew. It was one of the heartiest handshakes and ‘thanks yous’ I have ever had in my life. “See you next week,” I said. Yes, certainly, I’ll be looking forward to that.
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