The students… multiculti

One of my first goals was to remember their names… and believe me, I am not talented for this task! I drew a sketch of the position of the seats with the name of the students on it. This way I learnt all the names very quickly. Sultan, Zulfiqar, Meryem, Rodabelle, Fatima, Aatif, Karren, Mohamed, Ibran, Said, Albania, Mariem, Faisal.. are not the most common names in our country. However, I think this makes the job easier.

They chose the place they seat on at the beginning of the course. For that reason they are organised in small groups, boys with boys, Moroccans with Moroccans…, but some difficult students were later moved from their chosen seat to prevent them from disturbing.

As it happens in the neighbourhood, the most numerous nationalities in the class are Moroccans, Pakistanis, Philippines and South Americans. Catalans are underrepresented in the group.

Many times, their nationalities mark their English level. Some Philippines and Pakistanis know better English than most of Moroccans and South Americans because they have had a previous contact with the language.