English Tutorials for the Staff

by Crispina M. Reynera

Who said that an English tutorial is not important to us? Yes it is, for so many argumentative reasons and for the fact itself that English is an international language, it is globally advantageous and useful. And because the nature of work of the staff is dealing with international volunteers and clients, it was seen that obviously there is a need for the staff especially that most are not native speakers, to undergo English tutorials.

November of last year, two volunteers from LA California came to teach the staff basic English grammar rules, business writing and correspondence, oral & written communication, reading comprehension, group discussions, spelling, vocabulary, and other related topics.

Sessions were held at the VFV Center wherein the staff was divided into two sessions. The first session was handled by Loralei Bingamon, comfortable to be called as “lalai”, a 22–year old lass and a fresh graduate from theUniversity of California, LA. She is half Filipino and her origins come from Pampanga. Being half Filipino, she was able to relate and share experiences to the staff which made every session more relaxed, comfortable, educational, and enjoyable as well.

The second session was handled by a guy also from Los Angeles, and likewise a fresh graduate with a degree in Bachelor of Arts, Asian American Studies. This lad is pure Filipino in blood but was raised at the US whose origins come from Makati. He taught the group several educational activities along with the regular topics which made the sessions more fun while learning. Marc Loresto managed to be patient with the very curious, demanding, and eager to learn group, considering the fact that it's his first time to visit the Philippines and teach a group of young college–aged staff.

Schedules of the said sessions were during Mondays and Wednesdays at 5pm–7pm for the first group and during Mondays and Tuesdays at 1pm–3pm for the second group. Each session was looked forward to because every meeting the tutors would prepare different approaches and activities to catch the attention of everyone who were very exhausted from work. They liven up every afternoon session and make the group participate with the various activities. After every meeting, there was an assessment and evaluation which was very helpful & beneficial for the next discussion. This evaluation also made each one air out what and how they feel about a particular session.

Topics were customized to cater the current need of the staff to boost the confidence and improve the level of correspondence with the volunteers and clients. Finally, with the short period of time for the tutorials, somehow, the group was able to learn something from the discussions which was gratifying for each person's task.

Another year has come and new volunteers & international clients are expected this year, which may eventually challenge our communication skills. We may not have mastered all the rules but the adrenalin is still there, the eagerness to learn is still present, and we are constantly on the process of learning with each volunteer and each client we deal with every single day.

With the continuous enthusiasm and desire of the staff to learn, the anticipation and apprehension is there for future English Tutorials which we will be having again this year to refresh our minds. We thank Lalai and Marc for spending time and being patient with us and of course we contemplate and look forward to meeting our next volunteer tutors, whoever they may be, Welcome and Good Luck in advance!