To answer Adrian’s question about my students, here’s a little bit about them. I have gotten to know them better, and I share with them things about myself as well.
Anyway, all of them are migrants. Some recent migrants while others have been here for a number of years. One Vietnamese lady has been in Sydney for 11 years already. All of them (except for those China guys) are very nice and they are eager to learn. The age range is from 20 – 45.
There are 4 students from Vietnam, 3 from China, 2 from Hong Kong, 1 from Turkey and 1 from Tibet. I’m sure they all have very interesting stories to tell about their lives, but I have only managed to speak to a few in greater depth.
Yesterday, I spoke to the Turkish student during the break. The conversation started by me just asking her how her job hunt was going. Then for some reason, she started telling me things she hasn’t even told her classmates whom she has known for a longer time. Not that I was uncomfortable with that. Actually it was nice that she was comfortable in telling me. Anyway, this Turkish student is only 20 and she came to Sydney under rather bizarre circumstances. She married this Turkish-Australian guy after one month of knowing him in Turkey. She thought he was from Turkey but it turned out otherwise.
So she came over to Sydney without knowing a single soul or any English. After coming to Sydney, she discovered to her horror, that her husband was a drug addict, and his family was verbally abusive towards her. So she fled from him after a month or two after coming to Sydney. She has since divorced. Now she’s making a life of her own, and she’s very motivated. She says she studies English every day, and she hopes to be able to study law in an Australian university one day. She says that all her friends in Turkey are in their second year of uni and her parents have urged her to go back.
But she doesn’t want to ‘cos she says she likes it here even though she doesn’t have many friends. Also she feels she’s better off than her friends ‘cos she gets to learn English. Even though it’s like back in kindergarten in English classes, she sees learning English as a stepping stone to greater things. She’s really strong and matured for someone her age.
So that’s one student of mine. The Tibetian guy also has an interesting story. But I’ll leave that for another day.
During the break, I was also chatting to some other students. Then they joked that I should find a “nice Australian boy” so that I can continue to live in Australia. I told them to recommend some to me. Haha.
Next Tuesday, they’re going on an excursion to Bronte Beach. They’re having a barbecue there and I’m going to join them. Am looking forward to that.