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Every Sunday, six or seven Winchester High School students conduct English language classes at Vinson-Owen Elementary School. They call their program, “Teaching English to Elderly Immigrants.”
Amberwood Drive resident Nicole Han started the program during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Social isolation was a big problem then,” says Han. “There was no opportunity to interact, so I started teaching English on Zoom.”
Winchester High School senior Maxwell Li says these language lessons are sorely needed.
“Not just for Mandarin speakers,” he says. “Winchester is a melting pot and learning English helps bridge the barriers that separate people."
One of the learners is a former English teacher from China. Lakeview Road resident Limin Ma came from Shandong Province five years ago to live with his daughter.
“Yes, I taught English, but that was 27 years ago,” he says.
Alex Zhang notes his grandparents are from China.
“When they got here, they really struggled,” he says. “Going to the hospital or riding on a bus was a problem, so I started teaching them, and I found out Nicole had this program, so I joined.”
Lexington student Daniel Chen moved to the U.S. from China a few years back and his grandparents still live in China. When they visit, they need help getting around.
Alanna Lee has been volunteering at a summer camp, teaching Chinese to the campers.
“Teaching adults is a nice change,” she says.
The class at V-O isn’t just for grandparents — there are plenty of younger adults and also a few children, including an eighth-grader. The little kids are often the first to volunteer to speak the sentences that are taught, and they get a round of applause from the other students.
“We work on a different topic each week,” says Han, “such as banking terms, as well as words needed at grocery stores, on the T, or the doctor or a pharmacy.”
The high schoolers create a slide show each week with sentences the learners repeat after their teachers say them. Then they hand out scripts so the learners can dialog with each other.
Zhang says, “We keep it to about a dozen new words each week.”
Han says they hope more students will join. Information can be found at the website she created.
