Throughout my first two years of college, I volunteered as an English tutor for the Intensive English Language Institute (IELI) at Minnesota State University Mankato. This is a program designed for international students who have been accepted into the university, but haven’t passed the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The goal of this program is to provide English tutoring to these students so that they can pass the exam, become fully admitted into the university, and begin taking courses within their major. As a tutor, I met with my students twice a week for one hour. During this time, we would follow a simple lesson plan provided by the program which focused on developing English listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Throughout my time volunteering at this organization, I had three students from different countries: two from Japan and one from South Korea. 

 

Volunteering at this organization allowed me to meet Levels 1 and 2 of the Knowledge and Understanding section in the Global Citizenship Competency, because it gave me the time and a place to ask others simple questions about their cultures without judgement or reserve. Although as a tutor, I focused primarily on helping my students develop their English language skills, most of the activities we did naturally gravitated towards conversations about culture. As I learned in my previous Honors classes and through personal experiences, language is highly linked to culture. Therefore, even small tasks like explaining a passage to a student about the Fourth of July led to conversations about differences and similarities between our countries’ celebrations. Seeing my students’ eagerness to share information about their culture motivated me to ask more questions about their country. Their attentiveness to the things I shared also motivated me to speak about my own, which turned our conversations more complex as I spoke from both the Mexican and American perspective. The relationships I built with my students pushed me to seek interactions with people from different cultures outside of our tutoring sessions as our mentor-mentee relationships turned into friendships and they introduced me to their group of international students. My students also encouraged me to attend cultural nights hosted by our university which allowed me to immerse myself into a new culture, even if it was for a few hours. 

 

The interactions and conversations that resulted from this experience only gave me a small glimpse of my students’ cultures as citizens of Japan and South Korea. However, they helped broaden my knowledge and understanding of Asia.

 

Below is a picture of two of my students and I, from left to right: Ana Leyva (myself), Seigo Aono, and Juyeon. I also attached the journal entry I created for my Introduction to Honors class after ending my first semester as an IELI English tutor.