こんにちはEigemannです。
(English below)
St. Joseph's UniversityのESLスクールはキャンパスの端にある小さな平屋の建物にあった。その建物は小さかったが、中では多くの生徒が英語を学んでいた。生徒たちの国籍はさまざまであったが、韓国人とブラジル人が多かった。韓国人が多いのは、当時の韓国の経済が好調だったことから納得できたが、なぜブラジル人が多いのかはよくわからなかった。
初日にはスクールの責任者からオリエンテーションを受けた。責任者は黒人女性で、スタッフも黒人女性が多かった。大都市特有の人種構成なのだろうと感じた。この時点で、自分はさまざまな人と英語で会話してきたつもりだったが、黒人の人と話す機会は少なかった。スクールの英語教師はほとんどが白人であったためだ。黒人の人の英語には独特のアクセントがあり、まだ聞き慣れていなかったので、理解するのに少し時間がかかった。
簡単な英語力を測るテストを受け、その結果でクラス分けがされた。結果は良好で、最上位クラスに入れられた。自分はすでにTOEFLのスコアも持っていたため、このスクールには長く留まるつもりはなく、大学の願書が受理され次第、退所する予定だった。実際には、思ったよりもスムーズに進まず、予想以上に長く滞在することになったが。
自分のクラスの多くはヨーロッパ出身の生徒で、彼らはすでに十分な英語力を持っているように見えた。大学進学が目標ではない生徒もいて、英語力のブラッシュアップ程度の目的で来ているようだった。彼らはおそらく金銭的に余裕がある人たちで、中産階級出身の自分にはその動機が少し理解しづらかった。
クラス分けはされていたが、まだ英語に不慣れな生徒たちとも混ざって授業を受け、日々を過ごした。約4ヶ月間の滞在となり、その間にさまざまな出来事を経験することになった。
(続く
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The ESL school at St. Joseph's University was located in a small, single-story building at the edge of the campus. Although the building was small, a large number of students were learning English inside. The students came from various countries, but the majority were either Korean or Brazilian. I understood why there were so many Koreans, as Korea's economy was doing well at the time, but I couldn’t quite figure out why there were so many Brazilians.
On the first day, the head of the school gave me an orientation. She was an African-American, and many of the staff members were also African-American women. I assumed this was typical of a large city. By this time, I had thought I’d already had plenty of conversations with different people in English, but I realized I hadn’t had many chances to talk with African-Americans. Most of the teachers at English schools were white. The English spoken by African-Americans had a distinctive accent that I wasn’t quite used to yet, so it took me some time to understand them.
We were given a simple English proficiency test, and based on the results, we were assigned to different classes. My results were good, so I was placed in the highest-level class. Since I already had a TOEFL score, I didn’t plan to stay long at this school and intended to leave as soon as my college application was accepted. However, things didn’t go as smoothly as expected, and I ended up staying longer than I had imagined.
Most of the students in my class were from Europe, and they seemed to already speak English quite well. Some of them didn’t even plan to enter a college, but were there just to brush up on their English skills. They appeared to be financially well-off, which was something I, coming from a middle-class background, couldn’t quite relate to.
Even though we were placed into different levels, I also attended some classes with students who were still just beginning to learn English, and I spent my days at the school this way. I ended up staying for about four months, during which I experienced many different things.
To be continued.
