Introductions

By Mujtaba Akhter, Span 232 student


Hey. How's it going? My name is Mujtaba Akhter and I am currently a senior at the University of Illinois studying Economics. This semester, I am enrolled in Spanish 232 (Spanish in the Community) primarily because I would like to keep up my language skills after studying abroad in Latin America. The university offers a variety of courses in the Spanish department; however, this seemed to be one of the only ones, if not the only one, in which I could have direct conversations with natives of Spanish-speaking countries. At the same time, I was highly motivated by the fact that I would be helping out in the community with students who could really use the extra attention.

I was originally signed up to tutor at the Booker T. Washington Elementary School, but after attending orientation, I came upon the realization that I would not do so well with kids. I have patience for more adult subject matters, but for some reason, I'm really not sure I have the energy to ask kids to be quiet more than once, or have the energy to repeat myself more than once. Therefore, I chose to tutor at the high school level at Champaign Central H.S. I know many of you may be thinking the behavioral situation is probably even worse at this grade level, but I disagree. I think it's different. The students actually understand that they have to be quiet, but they just rebel. I'm not an expert in child psychology, so maybe my views are completely wrong. In any case, I'm helping in the ESL program which takes place during the last period of school. I hope to continually aid these students through their difficulties in the English language and at the same time maintain my own Spanish fluency.

Comments

  1. Ms. KloeckerOctober 14, 2008 at 9:34 AM

    Hey Mujtaba! Voy a Ecuador tambien el semestre que viene! I'm really excited, I hope you had a great time there. Which semester did you go?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 16, 2008 at 7:36 PM

    I am so excited to hear that you are working at Central! I loved working there, it was so much fun! Viva Ecuador!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownApril 16, 2011 at 11:19 AM

    hey Mujtaba..asw...how u doing bro??? so wat u doin these days??? mail me @ nawaz_kashif@hotmail.com

    ur bro

    kashif(india)

    ReplyDelete

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