What I Learned Through AASL - submitted by Manaka Nakamura

I decided to take this program only because I thought volunteering would be a good experience, but I didn’t consider how it would be useful for me. In addition to that, this class had various levels students, and my core level was 106, so I had hesitated to take it a little before this quarter began. However, I found that had great advantages especially for lower levels students like me because there were more opportunities to get involved in higher levels students.

I would like to share what I learned. First of all, I got the way to think underlying causes of a problem and find solutions. We learned it in class but I could try to use it in volunteering. That is why, I understood it more deeply. I found that it was important to think something from various points of view. Secondly, creating a goal and always keeping it in mind are simple but effective ways. At the beginning of this quarter, we made class mission statement, and also I made my own goals. I always kept them in mind and was thinking about how to meet them. That is why, I could achieve all of them and figure out my next goals reflecting on previous ones. Same time, I found importance to have goals. Thirdly, I became much more talkative and not to care about my English ability while talking. English was the only way to communicate with people here, so we had to speak it to do volunteering. Moreover, as I talked to people, I started to feel comfortable because they tried to hear me seriously and had interests in me. That changed my mind about talking in English. I had been a little shy, but I could talk without caring about my speaking skills. This experience has the biggest impact on me.Through this program, not only I learned and improved English, and also I got some tips. They must be helpful in my life. I had great opportunities and meaningful time in AASL.

What we Learned While we Were Teaching - submitted by Yoshika Kitahara

 The first day we went to YALLA for volunteering, many children thought we are  Chinese. They can’t distinguish between Chinese, Korean or Japanese. Of course, because they haven’t seen Asians before.  If they feel someone looks like Asian , they just think about Chinese. Because China is the biggest country in Asia . Also population is bigger than Japan and Korea. However China, Japan and Korea is totally different country, so we decided to make some material for them and introduce our country.

We thought about what should we write in material. And we wrote something that we think children might be interested in. For example, country flag, famous companies, culture, food and so on.

Last day we brought that material to YALLA, and did presentation. Children were very interested in our presentation. They have many questions about our country and listen carefully. I think the most excited part for children is how to say hello in Japanese and Korean. They followed us and practiced again and again. We are so glad they enjoyed our presentation. One of the adviser want ask to other  volunteer to do same thing. Because it was very educational and helpful to get some information about country. Also we are glad we gave a good tips to them.

A Handshake! - submitted by Winter 2018 Advanced Core Level Team

“Feeling fragile is worse than feeling dead.”

I’ve been in war zone. I watched many of my dear, close friends die, literally in front of my eyes. But, he holding my hand and not letting go, was respectfully a more horrifying experience.

Don’t get me wrong, me volunteering at ActiveCare, senior center in Mission Bay, was one of most rewarding afternoons I’ve ever had. And it’s safe to say, I felt the same from all of the lovely class.

“Three..ee, twoo-oo, o-ooo-one” Me trying to trick him so he could leave my hand, something I learned from babysitting my nieces. Hoping he would leave my hand, I start thinking; this is happening just after thirty seconds!

Under the circumstances, I asked him WHY. “Why are you pressing so hard? Why won’t let go? It’s starting to hurt, you know!” He answered: “Feeling fragile is worse than feeling dead.”

Serving our elderly, one of the most honorable acts that demonstrates our humanity.

Unexpected, yet Powerful Life Lessons - submitted by Juyeon Jeong (Vanessa)

When I decided to give up 7 years of a promising career in Korea and moved to the US to learn English for my new career goal, I didn’t expect that I would acquire life lessons in the English Institute.

Not only the priceless volunteering experiences but also Amy’s profound lectures were very inspirational and motivational. When I went to the volunteering sites or Amy’s class, I forgot that I was here for English because I was truly enjoying the moment. So I would like to share what I learned from this program.

[From the Class]

As an average Korean, I had not gotten opportunities to think and talk about homelessness, or refugees. In fact, even for underlying social issues including poverty and local imbalance were often not spoken between co-workers or friends. It was too controversial and political. However, learning about profound issues, discussing different ways of approaching the issues, and mostly writing journals about my thoughts in a short time frame made me develop my views and opinions. I believe that the critical thinking skills that this class naturally infused within me were the best.

In addition, having dealt with those different topics helped me a lot to broaden vocabulary words.

[ volunteering activities]

There are so many meaningful lessons that I learned from volunteering activities. But I would like to emphasize two points: the power of appreciation and the power of small actions.

First of all, volunteering is not easy unless you were a devoted volunteer in the past. However, once you make up your mind to go to volunteer sites and meet people, all misgivings melt away. I went to different types of volunteering sites thanks to Amy’s arrangement. Each time, I received smiles and appreciation from people. Their genuine appreciation motivated me to work harder when volunteering. I began to appreciate them accepting and sharing their moments with me, moreover I appreciated the opportunities of serving people.

Most often people including me believe that big organizations or government can make solutions for the social issues. However, I learned that everybody can make a change like a butterfly effect. The small action we started in my class impacted organizations and locals, and it would eventually reach to cities, states, countries, and the world.

Looking back on the last 8 weeks, I can feel that I have improved and developed my English, myself, and (hopefully) the community. I am thankful for our teacher, classmates, and people I met while volunteering.