Teaching English in Yemen was more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. I knew teaching would give me a chance to better understand Yemeni culture but I underestimated to the extent that the students would contribute to my overall experience in Yemen or the impact that we could have on each other.
A teacher can open doors in a student's minds that perhaps they never knew existed. I taught the language within a context and the content of the context, well that's where teaching got interesting.
On many occasions we had healthy debates regarding the dividing and controversial topic of Qat. Qat is a leafy narcotic that when chewed produces feelings of euphoria. Some students were strongly against it and voiced their opinions regarding the adverse health effects, the impact on Yemen's agricultural resources and the time and money, which they felt was wasted on such a habit. Other students in the class strongly disagreed. They valued Qat chewing sessions as part of their culture and as a means of socializing and bringing people together. For them chewing Qat was productive as it is during these Qat chewing sessions that most business deals are arranged. Some students in the class disagreed with its daily use but valued the tradition of chewing Qat on occasions such as weddings and funerals.
We discussed the role of the government and the students' expectations from their leaders. Almost unanimously they all felt that the government could do more to improve waste management, enforce laws, reduce traffic congestion, improve and increase the number of education facilities and provide assistance to the handicapped and underprivileged.
We discussed euthanasia and animal rights and the religious guidance on such topics. We watched the movie "The Inconvenient Truth” by Al gore and had in-depth discussions about global warming and the effects it is having on the world's climate. I shared with them pictures of art by Van Gogh, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol and we discussed famous quotes by Maya Angelou, Albert Einstein, Margaret Thatcher, Martin Luther King and Gandhi.
But most of all I challenged them. I challenged them to see the world from a different perspective, not as a place where they had to accept the conditions they were given but as a place they could change for the better.
I taught a class of 13 students (Level 6B) at Mali Institute, Sana'a, Yemen. This was my first teaching gig after obtaining the Cambridge University Certificate in English Teaching to Adults. Coincidently, I also discovered a greater appreciation for teachers! The amount of time and effort that goes into planning lessons, grading exams, reading student essays, nursing paper cuts (:)) and actually delivering the lesson exceeds the monetary reward by far. However making a difference in someone's life was priceless.
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