スミス英会話奈良西大寺校の講師が書いた記事。日本語のメインサイトはこちら
Just wanted to share a story that a student shared with me last week and I thought it was pretty cool. Others here have mentioned how we Smith’s School of English teachers become close friends with our students and since we see them often it allows us to learn more about our students lives and what is really important to them.
Basically by working closely with the same students week after week an environment is formed in the classroom which allows the students to relax and share personal stories.
And from my experience, a relaxed student learns a whole lot more than a nervous one.
So, one of my students who is a medical university student comes to class last week and as usual I ask “What’s new?” or “What’s up?”
He begins to smile broadly, I mean beaming with excitement, and now I’m starting to get excited myself, and I want to know what he wants to tell me.
Well, as it turns out, he relays to me that during the past week while he was riding the train home, a man suddenly started to have a seizure and collapsed on the floor of the train. He further explained that the man’s eyes rolled back in his head and that the man lost consciousness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seizure
I was frozen in my seat while listening to his story, which coincidentally, he was telling in pretty good English despite the fact that he is a “beginner”, and has only been at my Smith’s School of English for a couple of months.
He continued with the story telling me how he was so nervous, his knees were buckling, but he knew he had to help this man. He had just studied CPR in school one week prior.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiopulmonary_resuscitation
カーディオプ’ルモナリ・リサシテ’イション, 心肺停止の蘇生救急
But there was something very unique about this man…he was a foreigner…
Now you can understand why this student of mine was so nervous. He was capable of assisting this man medically but would he be able to communicate in English with him…
Despite the fact that all the passengers on the train would be staring at him for getting involved he jumped out of his seat and immediately began administering CPR on the man.
The man slowly regained consciousness and my student was able to use the basic English he has mastered so far to gauge the general condition of the man and also to notify the train staff of the man’s condition and the need to make an unscheduled stop at the following station.
After arriving at the station, my student then accompanied the man to a nurse station where he was taken care of by medical professionals.
The man was grateful and my student was elated at having been able to put both his newly acquired life-saving skills and English communication skills to use!
These kinds of stories are so uplifting and this is what makes Smith’s School of English the best English teaching environment in Japan.
You get fulfillment from the work you do and the students let you know it!
By the way, would you believe that this student thanked me for helping him?!
I mean I’ve gone out of my way to help students out with certain things, but I did nothing here besides teach some things like “How are you?”, “Are you ok?”, “Do you need …?”
He was the hero of the day but his story sure made me feel good about my work and Smith’s School of English!
Alex Stanciu
アレックス スタンシュー
Smith’s School of English Nara – Saidaiji
月謝制 の スミス 英会話 奈良 － 西大寺校
http://www.smithweb.co.jp/school/saidaiji.shtml 英会話 西大寺 奈良市
Leave a Reply