Delle Lovig

 

 

                                              In the late 1970’s many Vietnamese people left their                                                 country to become refugees.  Over 137,000 were                                                    accepted into Canada.  Some of these people had                                                    bought places in large boats as a means of escape and thus they became know as “boat people”. Their plight was not an easy one and, in fact, became an international humanitarian crisis so difficult was their ordeal on the boats as they made their exodus.

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 I was teaching grade 5 at Crestwood School in Medicine Hat and the school provided an ESL room for those children of the “boat people” who were struggling to learn the new language, English.  Three of the girls in my class left my room each day for a few hours to attend these English As A Second Language lessons.

I had planned a short field trip for my class and we would be leaving the school the next morning by bus promptly at 9 o’clock. Therefore, I stressed the importance of arriving at school on time and I figuratively gave the order, “Come to school tomorrow on time or you will miss the boat!”

 The next morning I had an anxious Vietnamese father at my classroom door. He was most frantic thinking his daughters would once again be going on a boat! After much gesturing and explaining, he and his daughters finally realized we were going on a bus ride and not a boat ride; something that probably brought back horrific memories.

Learning a new language is difficult enough without the teacher throwing in “figurative language”.

And that’s one of my “chalk dust memories”.

 Delle Lovig ---Retired 2007 and proud of it!