Language Tutoring: For International Students, a Second Home
Abdallah Alsallal majored in Japanese at La Guardia Community College before transferring to Queens College, with the goal of becoming a college instructor. After he graduated, he applied to work for the tutoring lab back at LAGCC. The interview, he said, was something he’d never forget.
“One of the questions [Lorna Feldman, who oversees tutoring lab] asked me was ‘Why do you want to be a tutor here?’ I said the tutoring lab is my second home.”
The modern language department is for tutoring students who studied a foreign language. Currently, Japanese is one of the popular languages that students register the most. Alsallal was very enjoy tutoring and puts all his efforts to work for students. In 2018, Alsallal successfully becomes an instructor.
“I felt like they had already prepared me to teach here. It was quite challenging for sure. Now I have been doing for a year. I’m very happy. This is my dream’s job come true.”
Alsallal made many friends here. He has special emotion because tutoring lab is not only a workplace but also like a home to him. In a tutoring lab, tutors have come from different countries. Europe, Asia, and South Africa. The various cultures consist of multiple languages that create a harmony environment and the feeling just like home.
Xhovana Robi is an Italian tutor. She is a senior tutor. She works here since she was a sophomore student. The tutoring lab is also her second home.
“I am an international student. At the beginning, it was hard to make friends. This place helps me a lot. I find so many good people and so much fun. We are a big family.”
For Xhovana, the teaching lab was improving her to gain more experience in teaching. To be an Italian teacher was her expecting job. Since she became a tutor and teaching lab for students. She realized the teacher is not an easy job. How to interact with students; how to make students pay attention to the class; how to be a good communicator then get what students thinking are need a lot of practical experiments to find the result. Last year, Xhovana graduated in LAGCC. She applied for Hunter College for a learning education major. During this semester, she spent whole-time work in the tutoring lab. As she said, this is a valuable experience that leads her to go on the right track. She perceives a tutoring lab as her part of life. Her friends and work are all here. She is happy to have a home in the U.S. This job is encouraging her to find herself; to complete her chase what she wants to be.
Sophia So has been working in a tutoring lab for two years.
“This is a big family.”
Sophia made a lot of friends here. She demonstrated in school that she can’t get time to make friends. Students go to class to class and the schedule is always changing. But here it is like staples place. Even if students come and go, still a family environment like a long-term relationship.
Everyone who studied and taught here loves tutoring lab. Whenever you go, this place is an international students’ home and it will always wait for them to stay.
