Learn by teaching

The thing I least expected when I started this project is that my work was going to be so rewarding.

Motivation decreasing
I started my project in Marburg (Germany) in August 2020 in a Gesamtschule and I felt that I was not very useful because it was difficult for me to communicate in German. I started helping out in the Physical Education and the Spanish lessons. At that time I liked what I was doing but I wasn't totally passionate about it. Then, confinement, schools closed and online lessons (this is not something I like very much).

Motivation increasing
Two months ago, six children from Pakistan came to the school integration class. They need individualized education because they are not literate and cannot advance in classes without knowing the language. For this reason, the school asked me and my colleague to become German teachers. When I came to Germany in the summer, my German level was A2 and now it is more or less at a B1.1. For this reason, at the beginning many doubts entered me and I did not know if I was going to be the ideal person for something of such responsibility: teach a language that I do not know perfectly and make it possible for children to integrate with the rest of the group.
It was not easy at the beginning because we do not speak any common language (not even English). Their native language is Urdu and mine is Spanish… not even a word is alike in both languages, or so I think haha.

After this time, we have learned to understand each other with gestures and images, I have learned a lot how to make myself understood and I continue to learn as I teach them new content. With this I feel that I am creating a path with them and that the traces will remain when my project is finished. That moment will make me very sad, but in the meantime, I am enjoying it very much! :)