I'm in the midst of learning how to be a language coach. This is not the same thing as a language teacher. Heaven forbid I try to be a Turkish language teacher! Not only am I not remotely prepared for such a thing, I live in a city of 4.5 million Turks. May they teach. A language coach is one who helps a learner through the learning process. She can direct and supervise through a specific program, she can give encouragement and/or accountability where needed, she can give advise on language schools, she can explain grammar points that are tricky, or any combination of the above. My role will probably be a combination of the above.
It also includes the ever dreaded job of finding language helpers. Language helpers are those who will actually be doing the teaching/guided practicing of the language with the language learner. In my case I am not finding teachers, I'm finding helpers. The tricky part is in the word helper. The Turkish for this word does not communicate as well, partially because the concept is not here and partially because we live in an expert culture.
Rabbit trail on the expert culture. You need your oil changed? Call the expert. You want to go on a diet? Call the expert. Keep in mind, this is a fairly generalized description. I do have a friend who, with her husband, has taken it upon herself to design their future house. I have a feeling she would appreciate life in the Northwest. She may even have a career in fishing.
Back from the rabbit trail. Finding language helpers. For me this involved both talking to friends to see if they knew of someone who might be able to do the job and putting up signs in my friend's neighborhood. One gal came through the "asking friends" method. Things seemed to be going well. I was set to meet up with her for tea two days before lessons were to begin and then we would start lessons two mornings a week at my friends house. All clear. But when you include the telephone and someone's second language into the equation, suddenly things are not quite so clear. All kinds of misunderstandings transpired. Unfortunately, because of the miscommunication I had already promised the position to another person.
I ended up calling our mutual friend to see if she could play mediator. She said she would pray about it for a couple of hours and get back to me. As soon as we hung up the phone, the would be language helper just "happened" to walk by our mutual friend's house, see her light on, and decide to stop by! They talked for quite a while. Our mutual friend was able to explain the situation without even telling her that I had called. Later that evening, I talked to our mutual friend. She suggested that I stop by sometime to apologize for the miscommunication. It had become clear that no one was at fault and yet, in a culture where apologizing is not the norm and asking for forgiveness is often unheard of, humbling yourself and accepting the blame speaks volumes. Maybe we could say it shouts when words are not clearly heard.
