My native language is Afrikaans and luckily our neighbours were English speaking. Other children of the same age made fun about my ''broken'' English. Now imagine a student who can’t string more than a few words together. For me, being a mining engineer and working on various mining projects in Africa, I had to attain by some means the connection with the relevant local culture and the only way was to learn their native tongue. I usually had a mentor I identified and make sure he works closely with me so I can learn his language. I then help other colleagues to set new goals so that he or she can attain new levels of accuracy and nuance, and it means helping my colleague discover new levels of confidence and fluency so that he or she can engage with the English-speaking community in new ways.
I have been teaching since I have worked by means of showing colleagues how to do things and they also taught me things I never knew. So, for the past 19 years I have been teaching whether it is technical techniques the only way was to convey this with some common demeaning factor which was English. One of my colleagues from Australia came to assist on a project and then he was offered an Expatriate job in South Africa. I said he can move in with me for the interim until he finds his own accommodation. Five years later he was still living with me. In the beginning when we communicated, we seldomly said, ''I beg your pardon'' because our dialects were difficult to comprehend what the other was trying to say, unless we spoke slower and with better pronunciation. After a year, people that I meet will ask me ''what part of Australia are you from mate''? That means something, I have been there where you are now.!
I have started my first job packing people's groceries and it has been rewarding since I get a tip for a well packed job. I have also humbled myself to work hard to get people to appreciate my work and has been rewarding to see them enjoy it with a smile.