no lucrativo=non-profit
Today this woman came in playing Korean charades with my Mexican secretary. I overheard the attempt at conversation, “no English”, was all the woman could make out verbally. We have free ESL classes four mornings a week at my non-profit. One of the things about Chicago that I love is the fact that one cannot assume ESL students will be of Latin decent. Most days Russian, Polish, and (today) Korean accents are repeating nouns of color, country and weather in unison. The sounds come muffled from under my door while I examine client files for the day.
I like to look at their faces when I go by the classroom to fill up my Nalgene bottle. Some of them are giggling nervously through a grammar exercise. Others are cautiously eyeing their interesting neighbors searching for some form of connection other than language. All of them hopeful that the morning will bestow a bag of words to distribute in varying pairs throughout their day.
If you encounter them in salutation this afternoon, be kind, and show mercy. Their phrases are limited, but their spirit undefined by semantics.
posted by Stephanie Willis, LCPC, CADC @ 10:18
4 Comments:
well articulated my friend. you paint such a beautiful canvas with words.
you do have a gift for writing. if you decide to write a book i will buy it and read it. i don't read enough.
thank you twice.
brett, i decided to write a book when i was about eight and i realized i had a different perspective than everyone else. i'm 26, and still too nervous and protective of my writing to publish. with the kind support of people like you (and a few others) i am slowly taking real steps to do just that.
you should write a book about monsters who suck brains out of people's earholes!
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