Breaking Barriers

Clarence the Tiger, Dora the Unicorn, Ellie Elephant, Ralph the Dog, and Peter the Pig were all ready to make their début. The spotlight was centered perfectly so that not a shadow would cast that could draw attention away from me or my plush animal squad. I was the ring leader, and it was almost showtime. It was time for me to transform from Krystale the Corrections Auditor to Krystale the ESL Teacher. My audience.... well, my audience was 4 or 5 very attentive and eager learners ranging from 4- 7 years of age from Qingdao, China.

I started teaching English as a Standard Language online as a way to earn extra income. It also provided me with the opportunity to use my degree and learn about different cultures while remaining in the comfort of my home. I became a pro at using TPR (total physical response) method. The hours were flexible, the pay was great, and just a few hours out of my day with some pretty cool kids that were more excited about learning the English CORE curriculum than the American learners I taught during my brief stint as a public elementary school substitute.

In most Asian cultures, the English language is taught as a foreign language. Parents spend thousands of dollars for their children to learn the English curriculum from an American tutor. There are tons of online platforms that offer these services. Chinese students spend anywhere from twenty-five minutes to an hour on a fun interactive platform as teachers from anywhere in the world instructing them through learning activities via video calls.

I learned so much about Asian culture, and I slowly began integrating their culture into my own. I didn’t even need a passport.

Green tea and Oolong tea became a home remedy that healed me and my family members from congestion and cold symptoms, I learned that mooncakes are probably one of the most delicious desserts ever invented, but most importantly I learned that blatant racism isn’t just a Black problem.

During the onset of Coronavirus, my students would tell me about the racial tension between the Americans and the Asians that lived in their cities. Each race blamed the other for the spread of the pandemic, and it soon began to impact the Online ESL world as stricter online teaching regulations were enforced. Asian parents started having more of a “preference” about the appearance of the tutor taught their children.

It wasn’t long before my full tutoring schedule turned into 4 or 5 of my regular students. It was then I decided it was time to leave the online platforms and offer my services as a freelancer. I spent hours researching and creating ESL curriculums with interactive PowerPoint slides, researching webinar platforms with elaborate features that could offer my students the most entertaining and educational experience. My time was spent on freelance websites, social media groups, and WEChat recruiting new students. Finally, I had a full schedule on my own platform, and the most exciting part is I now have students from Asia, Brazil, and Transylvania.

Then, Asian racism hit closer to home.... a shooter entered a massage parlor in Georgia and opened fire. There were eight victims and most of them were of Asian descent. I was now teaching students from the ages six to seventeen. Then one day during our free lesson, my student picked a conversational lesson on gun control.

To hear the sheer terror in their voices as they talked about the violence in America and the racism some of their own family members faced while staying in America brought back my own dormant emotions about police brutality and the racism that I had experienced personally living in America. One of my students said, “I would never move to America....the police kill people.” I quickly steered the conversation back to how to use adverbs correctly...no pun intended.

I know that my passion will eventually manifest an immersive learning platform that would allow my students to learn about American culture and share their culture via their own social media feeds. t would be a virtual pen pal program similar to the current social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, but with an interactive learning curriculum throughout the live feed or prerecorded videos, transcribing and translation capabilities, and short quizzes based on the grammatical or comprehensive lesson chosen by the student and based on the content. There would also be additional options to purchase interactive learning games and a monthly educational newsletter created by me and other tutors with a complete lesson and tutor invitation only, “live class". I would offer a subscription service that would allow them to subscribe to a daily feed so they could learn English and appreciate our culture as well as theirs. Parents would also have the option to hire a certified tutor and complete monthly lesson plans and opt-out of the additional paid subscription.

I never would imagine that my life’s journey would create a space for me to also learn so much about other cultures. I have received several lucrative offers to travel around the world. The right opportunity that would be beneficial for not only me, but my family has not presented itself as of yet, but when it comes, I will gladly accept.

Creating this type of platform will not only serve as an educational platform, but the most important purpose is to create a unified safe space to allow everyone the freedom to create, educate, and break language and racial barriers from the comfort of their smart device or computer.

What I once thought of as a fun side gig, has become my passion, and I have developed genuine friendships with some of my students and their parents. The irony is I never would have imagined that teaching ESL would also give me the amazing experience to become a student.