ESL Basics

In the past week, I've been introduced to 75 new students with 75 different names. Not one student shares the name of another. And if you're familiar at all with the landscape of an average ESL classroom, you'll know that I'm not meeting students with names like "Taylor", "Michael", or "Jessica". Not at all. My students go by names like "Ayaka", "Adriana", "Lijuan", and "Baatarsaikhan". 75 unique individuals with 75 unique names - all of them looking for a home in my memory. 

The truth is that we find so much identity in our names. It's the first way we identify ourselves when we meet someone new. It's the primary way we distinguish ourselves from one another. In my profession, it's not unusual for a student to introduce himself to me and immediately tell me what his name means. "My name is Jian. It means strong." All of us want to believe that we're memorable enough for our teachers to remember who we are and what our names are - that we're memorable enough to be known by the character we're named for. We want to believe we're more than another number in a mass of students.

So I'm on a mission. 75 names in a week. "I can do it. I can fight my way through this", I tell myself. "Because my name means warrior."