One of the most fascinating aspects of my job has got to be the different methods that people use to teach English. One of the most effective ways that's taught intrigues me a lot. Sign Language. American Sign Language to be exact.
The reason behind it is that not every child that comes your way is going to be comfortable speaking to you. Some of them won't speak at all. The problem is that it's hard to tell if the kid understands or not. So one of the ways that they've come up with to show that the kid understands is to teach sign language along with the target language to give the kid a sign that they can communicate without speaking if they don't want to right away.
To me, this is a fascinating route to go. Not only does it prompt the child to talk without actually talking, you're essentially learning a third language to teach children a second one. Will I be fluent in sign language by the time I've made my mark in this company? Who knows? EIther way, it's still a very intriguing route to go. Especially when you can't speak Chinese to the kids to help them out.
I was going to do a Beijing pic of the day, but the internet is being a dick.
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