Helping Immigrants

I love the school where I study Spanish. It is not just a school. Instead, it is an NGO which helps immigrants to immerse themselves into Spanish society. I was referred to EICA by a guy named Jose - whom I met at a Meet Up event. Jose used to teach at EICA a few years ago. He said he had a great time teaching there and he recommended studying Spanish there - for free. The courses are 3 months long and classes are four times per week, one and a half hours per class. That means 6 hours per week. The teachers are volunteers- who are not paid for their work. Each day of the week, we have a different teacher. This adds variety and interest to learning.

Cooking |: Front, from left : Rodrique, Seidou, Mariya, Husain, Leila, Chloe
Back, from left Teacher, Me, Kang Kang, Hua Hai, Muhammad

On Mondays we have Bep - who is an experienced teacher with excellent teaching skills. On Tuesdays we have Esther - who is a new teacher but has such a charming personality. On Wednesdays we have Jaume - who is an elderly gentleman but very kind and interesting. On Thursdays we have Diana who is a young and funky teacher with an pleasant personality.

The lessons are varied and introduce to us, grammatical matters as well as practical spoken language. We play games and do group activities too. We even go beyond learning out of books. We did some cooking lessons, visited a local market and had to buy fresh produce and went to a library and opened up library membership. We also had a presentation by a local government official on how to get the most out of government services in the city - free health, free studies, free counselling, free translation and many other free services. I am sure this was very well received by the student audience who are 99% illegal immigrants! In my class alone there are students from: China 3, Ghana 3, Bissau 1, Cameroun 1, Russia 2, Algeria 1, Morocco 1, South Africa 1.

Making Panallets : Rodrique, Leila, Mariya, Kang Kang

There is only a handful of legal immigrants who are students at EICA. I do like the diversity and the energy at EICA. There are some wonderful characters and such great people. Thanks EICA for an excellent service to people who are trying to speak Spanish or trying to become Spanish!

The Panallets are ready to bake!