My New York genes kick in. I can talk to anyone.
Edwin Lynch, Metropolitan Diary New York Times Jan 11 2016
As a folk journalist, which pays less than what is required to survive in New York City, one is forced to accept other lines of work when living there. And, especially in the 1990s, many artists, writers, and composers taught ESL, English as a Second Language.
Looking for that 13 bucks an hour? NYANA was the place to do it downtown.
“NYANA” stands for the “New York Association of New Americans.” A wonderful place where new immigrants came to learn. We taught Russians, Syrians, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Koreans too, in hopes that one day they’d go out and find great jobs and hire us.
What I mainly remember from back then is that almost every adorable women in NYC taught ESL. Cool-looking, indie gals, who came from all over the country to read Jim Harrison and Carl Hiaasen on the subway on their way to work. Not with yellow hi-liter pens (that was more the ’80s), just intensely, like they did not want me disturbing them.
Actually, the real reason I taught ESL?
One day, after dropping out of college to travel, I found myself on the island of Crete working in the vineyards with grandmothers and grandfathers whose children had all left Greece to open fish and chip shops in Australia. Right there under bulging green grape (stafilya) bunches, trying to communicate with these lovely Cretans, that’s when I decided: I want to use the English language again.
So I came back.
One day in class downtown at NYANA, I’d been drilling my Russian students with the typical lesson:
“Yefim, do you like chicken?”
Yes, I…am…chicken.
“Yefim, do you live in Brooklyn?”
Yes, I…love…Brooklyn.
I turned one of my more advanced students, Basya Rankashiskas:
“Basya, is it better to marry for love or for money?”
Oh Henry, to marry for love it is better than money.
Then she blew my mind by coming back with:
Henry, why you no married? 22, Russia, married. Why no you?
“Well Basya,” I said. “I’m…looking.”
She pointed to the large classroom map on the wall:
America is a big country, Basya said.
Well, she had me there.
So now I’ve spent most of this millennium traveling around the country sticking a microphone in faces until I guess I find one that fits.
Activity
Ride the Staten Island Ferry and talk to everyone. (I took my ESL students along and it was fun.)
Teach ESL; you will learn to engage foreigners in basic conversation and won’t regret it.
Happiness is interpersonal.
Ticht Naht Hanh Tricycle Magazine Spring 2015