http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20130211/NEWS/302110037/-1/NEWS04/Schoolteacher-from-Eritrea-now-an-eager-student?nclick_check=1
Schoolteacher from Eritrea is now an eager student
Feb 11,2013
Adem Ismail, 44, is a regular at the Forest Avenue Library, where he practices his conversational and written English with a group that meets there each week.
Originally from Eritrea, in the Horn of Africa on the Red Sea, Ismail came to Des Moines in August. Thousands have been displaced from his country because of drought, food shortages and a war with Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000.
Ismail speaks some English, but occasionally his pronunciation is difficult for others to understand. The language barrier is a steep hurdle.
But he’s eager to learn English, he said.
“Sometimes when you speak, people say, ‘What you say? What you say?’ ” he said. “The class (at Forest Avenue Library) is very good.
It is helpful in language — how to read, how to speak. … Sometimes it’s hard to make understood. When children come, in two years they are masters. They are speaking as Americans.”
Ismail has reason to feel good about his life here: He recently passed a test to obtain a General Educational Development certificate, and earlier this month he found a job packaging freight at the Des Moines airport.
In Eritrea, he worked as a literature teacher in an elementary school.
He keeps working on what he terms his plan.
“First I would work and learn side by side, to read and learn the culture,” he said. “Then, I have the plan to marry.”
He also hopes to go to college to study English and general science.
— Janet Klockenga
Received on Mon Feb 11 2013 - 10:52:45 EST
