Our First English Class

Today we taught our first class of Mongolian students at the Church building.    There were 15 students and they were mostly members.  We worked very hard on the lesson material not knowing how much English they already knew.  The entire class is at the beginner level.  Our lesson plan worked out really well.

 

Most everyone was able to say their name, age, tell about their family, favorite food and why they want to learn English. An interesting note about the Mongolian people: The literacy rate here in Mongolia is one of the highest in the world at 91%!! I understand it stems from when they were under Russian rule. The Russians built lots of schools and pushed education. Now education and reading is a tradition! It's very impressive!  It's funny but everyone in Mongolia asks everyone's age--men and women alike. That was one of the first questions we were asked when we invited the class to ask questions about us. :) Dan tried to explain to them that the question would not be appropriate to ask if they were in the States.

 

We were happy that we invited our translator to be there for the kick off.  We would not have made as much progress as we did today. The group's enthusiasm to learn English is contagious! There was great participation and each of them tried really hard to speak English. They wanted to make the class two hours each, but we will stick with one hour. :) 

 

So, we look forward to our next class, now with our confidence a little higher.  The person with Debbie and I is Nyam-Od our translator. She served her mission in Oakland, CA and speaks English fairly well. The other picture is our English class. We expect more will come next week.

 

Just before our class we attended the Mongolian Sign Language Class and learned a lot.  Some of their signs are similar to ASL but some will take some effort and practice to get our fingers to contort like theirs. The letter "B" was particularly hard.

 

We hope that each of you had a great 4th of July, and that all is well with you and your families! May God Bless!