Taking grandmother to EAL class leads woman down career path
A Winnipeg woman's efforts to help her grandmother learn to speak English have led her to discover a career path for herself.
When Kan Yao was growing up in China, it was her grandparents who took care of her, because her own parents were so busy with work.
Her family moved to Canada in 2009, giving Yao an opportunity to help her grandmother, Shurong Li.
Yao says at first, her grandmother was very quiet and didn't go out much, because she couldn't speak much English. In order to help her make friends and be more independent, Yao agreed to take her grandmother to an English as an additional language class run by Age and Opportunity.
"At first she was nervous, and then she was seeing a lot of people, other newcomers in the class, and she just [said], 'Oh, maybe I can try a little bit,'" said Yao in an interview with CBC Manitoba's Weekend Morning Show.
Her grandmother asked Yao to stay with her to help translate, and Yao agreed. Once she was in the class, Yao found herself enjoying the experience. The teacher in her grandmother's class asked Yao if she could help other students.
At the time, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do at university and began thinking about teaching EAL as a possible career path for herself. Yao now has her EAL teaching certification, is enrolled in linguistics classes at the University of Manitoba and is volunteering with Age and Opportunity's English language program.
At first, Yao said she would get frustrated with her grandmother because she seemed to be picking up the language slowly, but then she says she realized that her grandmother had spoken Chinese for 70 years and she needed to have more patience.
And while she originally started going to help her grandmother, Yao found herself leaving her grandmother on her own in order to give her the space to speak for herself for most of the class.
"I went to her group and she's like, 'Come on, come on! Help me, help me! I need you to tell me which is the right answer.' And I'm, like, 'Grandma, you need to do this yourself.'"
