Cheng's email to us:
'If you remember my short stint volunteering for English conversation classes at a disadvantaged school in Amsterdam, here is the soon-to-be extension of it in Maastricht :
My comment:
Many people did not realize that learning is a two-way process - what appears to be one-way: teacher teaching the student is likely to be both ways. It enriches the teacher's experience as well as learning something in the process too. That's why I frown on those 'kiasu' parents who tell their children to learn from others but not to share what they know. This can only be a short-term success, if any, at the next test or examination. But life after school and university is much more than that. Selfishness will show and nobody likes selfish and self-centred people.
Link
The very act of showing another person how to do something will increase his or her knowledge of the subject matter, and is likely to reveal any lack of understanding of it which would otherwise be unknown.
In the case of the English Native Speaker Project, by imparting knowledge of English to the Dutch students, the volunteers are actually learning Dutch with native speakers and this is probably the better way rather than merely relying on modern audio-visual aids. At the end of the day, what good is your language ability if not to be able to converse with the natives?
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