On Monday 9th December, the very first English class was conducted in the Tarkeswor Women’s Business Centre, in Jitpurphedi. The building was inaugurated two weeks ago and is now becoming a place where the women of the community can attend workshops, classes, work on their entrepreneurship projects (for example bag making), or simply meet up in a safe environment. The English classes are every Monday and Tuesday afternoon, and they last 1 hour each. The women are divided according to their level, assessed during a meeting last week, together with their goals and objectives of the classes: learning to write emails and curriculums, being able to communicate with the international volunteers and to help out their children with homework, using English for business, listening to English music and movies. There are 3 levels: basic, starting from the alphabet, intermediate and advanced.
In the first classes, the women had the chance to present themselves, their background and family, and get to know the teachers, Pratiksha, an Intern at VIN for the Community Based Development Project, based in Jitpurphedi, and Martina, an EU Aid Volunteers, working in the same project for 6 months. The second day the women that were quite shy at first, had already more confidence during the class, and they took a little test to assess their English level. From there the teachers could start to explain the basic structures and vocabulary of the English Language. The motivation of women for learning English is really high. To give an example of it, one of the students, Iswory of 38 years old from Tinpiple, commented that her son questioned her decision to learn English, saying “Mom, why do you want to learn English at your age?”. And she firmly answered: “There is no age for me to start learning English!”. Iswory attends the basic English class, and on the second day of class, she was really excited to share her knowledge of the English alphabet and the days of the week.
Hopefully, the English classes will comply with the women’s expectations and give them the opportunity to expand their horizons.
– Martina Todisco & Pratiksha Rai
Member of