Volunteering with Lha- A Kiwi in Dharamsala
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Some of my students may be short on formal education, but the one thing they are not short on is intelligence. Bright, smart, and quick to learn, they are keen to learn and easy to teach. And always ready with a smile or laugh. If they have one fault (if you can call it that) it is that they are so modest and self effacing.
As an exercise in vocabulary, grammar and writing we have been preparing job applications and Curricula Vitae. Now, the western way is to magnify, exaggerate and emphasise our skills, qualifications and experience, whilst minimising or ignoring our deficiencies. This is not my students’ way. I try to get them to project their positive attributes, but in their endearing way they tell me instead the things they are not so good at. That they are sometimes lazy in school, or that they are not always patient: all their minor flaws.
I cannot help but love them to bits. And every day they teach me so much.
-Kevin Roberts
Posted on February 21, 2013
