George Garrett
In June 2009, I started volunteering as a tutor for Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle. After attending the tutor training, I was assigned to teach English to a middle-aged woman who had escaped the harshness of life in North Korea. The International Rescue Committee had brought her to live in our small university town.
When we first met, she said that her goal was to improve her ability to speak and understand English, even though she had successfully settled into the local Korean-speaking community. As it turned out, she did improve significantly. After just a year of meeting one-to-one for an hour twice a week, she had risen to the “High Beginning” level. Moreover, during that time she obtained her green card and got a better job with the local university. I felt pleased for having helped her in her efforts to make a new life in America.
What surprised me, however, was how much I benefited from the experience. Our conversations enabled me to learn about a culture and country very different from my own, and at the same time I learned what is distinctive about America by seeing it through her eyes. It was also stimulating to learn about aspects of the English language that we take for granted, but which can seem very strange from the point of view of a non-native. Why is the opposite of “put on my jacket” not “put off…” but “take off my jacket?”
Most importantly, however, I have been inspired by her character, curiosity, and resilience in the face of difficulties. It has been more than just a satisfying accomplishment to tutor her these past two years—it has been an inspiration. I am grateful to Literacy Volunteers for having made this experience possible for me.
Debra Weiss
My mother always said, “If you read, you can cook.” That phrase took on a deeper meaning as I became involved in the LVCA program. I had been interested in volunteering in a literacy program for years before I did something about it. I decided to go to training and see what it was like.
When I got my first student, Alice, she had been in the program for like six years. She was a feisty 62, and she called her sessions “goin’ to school.” I thought to myself, what I am going to DO with her? That turned out to be a non-issue. Adults differ from kids. They know exactly what they want to learn. Alice wanted learn how to read maps. Even though she had been a city bus driver for years, she couldn’t read a map. She wanted to know how her dishwasher worked. She couldn’t understand all the paperwork she got from Social Security. She also suspected she was getting ripped off on her vacation and sick pay at her job, but couldn’t quite figure out the employee manual.
We worked on all that. We would spread out the map, pick a random place, plot our course, write out the directions, and then get in the car and drive to the destination. We did this numerous times, and every single time Alice would say “I think I’m making a mistake. We’re lost.” And I would say, “Are you following your directions?” And every single time, we’d get to our place. And Alice would laugh.
I showed her how to use her ATM card at the grocery store. The little machine intimidated her. After she did it one time, she said, “It just can’t be that easy!!!” Then I found out why she never wrote checks. She couldn’t write out the months of the year or write out the dollar amounts in words. We worked on that, and mastering the check-writing thing gave her a huge amount of confidence.
We were together for two years before she moved away.
Then I got Chris. He was 19 when I met him. We were together for over four years, and finally, when he was reading articles from the Sunday New York Times Magazine with little difficulty, I told him he didn’t need to be in the program any longer. He reluctantly agreed, but didn’t want to quit our sessions. I think he likes having someone encouraging in his corner. Who wouldn’t? While we don’t meet regularly any more, we still get together occasionally to catch up on each other’s lives because we’re good friends.
My next student was Hyan Ah. She was from South Korea. I was her conversational partner. We went on outings around town. We talked and talked and talked about all sorts of things, and I learned that our cultural differences weren’t all that different. We spent our last several months together making a quilt. We finished it just as she was ready to go back home. It’s something she’ll have forever and will serve as a reminder of our time together.
If you’re even remotely interested, go through the training. You’ll make a huge difference in someone’s life. If a person can read, not only can they cook—they can do anything. It’s the best gift you can give someone, and, in doing so, you’ll get an even bigger gift in return.
Gary Sites
When I moved to Charlottesville, I was determined to do something worthwhile in our community, and hopefully be of some help to someone. I started looking for somewhere I could volunteer.
I found out about Literacy Volunteers Charlottesville/Albemarle from an ad in the newspaper. I called about the upcoming orientation meeting for perspective tutors, but learned that I couldn’t fit the training into my schedule. I then forgot about LVCA for almost two years, when I saw the ad again, asking for volunteers. This time I was able to attend six training sessions to become a tutor. All of these meetings were informative and fun. I enjoyed them so much, I was a bit sad when they ended. I learned strategies for teaching reading and writing skills to adult learners. But my learning did not end there.
Through the instruction, the meeting of new people, and the fun, I found a place that has added something wonderful to my life. Along with the training for becoming a tutor, LV-C/A asks for each tutor to be active for at least a year. I remember thinking, “I’m not sure I can meet with someone twice a week for 52 weeks, but I’ll give it a try.” I thought that it could really get to be a chore. Never did I imagine that the sessions with my student would become so fun and rewarding.
No matter what is going on in the rest of my life, I always look forward to our two weekly sessions. Not only are we a good tutor/student match, we have become good friends. We do things together like attend Bible studies and church services. We both have children, so we often discuss parenting strategies and stories. We recently read Bill Cosby’s book, Fatherhood. We did a lot of laughing in those sessions, while working on comprehension and word recognition.
It seemed like no time, but we reached our for two year mark. We’d put together a list of 350 new words that have been mastered in that time period. We’d also read a biography of George Washington Carver, along with many chapters from different books from the Bible. Next, we read a commentary on Proverbs by Dr. J. Vernon McGee. I don’t know what kind of experiences other tutors and students have, but my association with LVCA has been all positive. The staff is always available to help, advise, and encourage. My student has become a better reader. I have become a part of a wonderfully run organization that has made a big difference in many lives, especially mine.
