Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman.
A lot of my friends can’t practice English at home—particularly when their spouses don’t speak the language. Every family has a member or two who avoids literacy classes because they’re self-conscious about sounding ignorant.
Having a job doesn’t always help, low-wage workers get clustered by language—they’re not hired to say things, just the opposite.
Newcomers have to work their way through our bog of a language, some arrive faster than others. Many have told me they look forward to having conferences with their kids’ teachers—in English.
They’re genuinely grateful for your patience when you talk with them. They’ll reward you by showing you recent family videos on their smartphones. They keep them right next to their translation apps.
