Our brave ESL students are still forging ahead in meeting together via Skype for stimulating discussions, friendship, support, and class content. When we first started meeting electronically on St. Patrick’s Day, we thought we might be doing it for a month or so. Here we are–going on almost five months.

Guillermo from Argentina suggested that we study the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s song, “Murder Most Foul.” The song lasts about 17 minutes, and it is chock-full of historical and cultural allusions.  We’ve been having one of those song lessons roughly once a month, and Barbara McCreedy has done research in order to lead the discussion and have accompanying slides. Guillermo has once again treated us to piano music: a tango, a jazz piece, and “The Birthday Song” for our recent celebrants. You can be sure that when he’s with us, his yerba mate tea is never far away! He has told us that people in his country are crazy about that tea, and in a neighboring South American country, it’s even worse; bus drivers there can hold the tea containers with their elbows and pour themselves some tea while driving a bus!

Youry, the doctor from Venezuela, continues to add her special sparkle to the class, and we celebrated her birthday together recently. She heard spoken birthday greetings in Korean, German, and Arabic.

Janet from Colombia is putting forth extra effort to improve her English, and we are all proud of her.

Mohamed from Algeria is continue to make strides, also. We had a baby shower for him last month. You might wonder how such a thing could happen in a Skype class. I had dropped off a bag of wrapped gifts for the baby and instructed him not to open them but save the entire bag for our next class. He did so, and at the appointed time, he opened his presents in front of all of us. It is a tradition in our class to have a baby shower for a student who is having a baby or a student whose wife is having a baby. It’s a great opportunity for the students to learn a different set of vocabulary words.

Katheryn from Chile has an elegant spontaneity to her English now, owing to her attending class, studying outside class, and landing a full-time job in which she uses English every day. We admire her continuing desire to learn even more.

Dominik, a personal friend of mine from our sister city of Hamm, Germany, is attending class with us when his electrical engineering studies and family life allow it. We are doing our best to pick his brain about many topics because he is in a position to teach us a lot about his country. 

Chang from South Korea is continuing to crank out poetry.  Have a tissue handy, for here is one of his poems called “My Wife’s Hand.”