U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad. The work that diplomats do has an impact on the world as they serve at one of any of the more than 270 embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions in The Americas, Africa, Europe and Eurasia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

The duties of a Consular Officer include to provide emergency and non-emergency services to American citizens and protect our borders through the proper adjudication of visas to foreign nationals and passports to American citizens. We adjudicate immigrant and non-immigrant visas, facilitate adoptions, help evacuate Americans, combat fraud, and fight human trafficking. Consular Officers touch people’s lives in important ways, often reassuring families in crisis. They face many situations which require quick thinking under stress and develop and use a wide range of skills, from managing resources and conducting public outreach to assisting Americans in distress.

Being an ISF ETA at UFPA

American Breakfast - English practice at UFPA

There's a lot of acronyms in Brazil. I am an ETA (English Teaching Assistant) with the program Ingles Sem Fronteiras (English Without Borders) at UFPA (Universidade Federal do Pará). This is a new program so things have been more than a little chaotic to start out with. Stevie, Anna (the other 2 American ETAs in the same project as me) and I have been trying to figure out how best to use our time to help the eight Brazilian English teachers that we work with. Each English teacher (who are really senior students or graduate students themselves) teaches three courses (each course is two hours) twice a week. That's 48 total English classes every week which is very, very busy. The English classes are aimed at students who will study abroad using the grant money from the Science Without Borders program. The classes focus on cultural exchange, how to pass the TOEFL exam and English conversation.

Meeting new students under the gazebo on campus

So far we have been visiting all the classes and introducing ourselves. We hope to offer workshops on language and culture for the students in the future along with teaching workshops for the instructors. It's been especially fun to work with the ISF students because many of them are learning English for the first time. For most of them, it's also the first time that they have had the chance to speak with a native English speaker. One morning we had an "American Breakfast" out by the river with English conversation, music and lots of good food. It was a big hit and there were requests for more activities like this.

Stevie (left) and Anna (middle), the other two ETAs in this project, posing with a student

The ISF instructors are the best of the best at UFPA made even more impressive by the fact that they are students themselves. They are all very intrested in teaching methodology and pedagogy as well as having their students reflect on the language learning process. Let me share a couple of these reflections with you after one of their first classes with a native English speaker (me):

“Falar em inglês para mim é sempre um grande desafio, pois não tenho prática no idioma. Porem, hoje, percebi que é possível superar esse obstáculo. Ter a presença de uma estrangeira em aula foi uma experiência formidável! Eu nunca tenho vivido algo parecido. Na aula de hoje senti que estou gostando mais do inglês, pois antes era um sacrifício para mim estudar, porem agora é divertido. A dinâmica em grupo foi bastante proveitosa! Por um minuto já estava falando em inglês naturalmente.”

"Speaking English to me is always a challenge, because I do not practice the language. However, today, I realized that you can overcome this obstacle. Having the presence of a foreigner in class was a terrific experience! I have never experienced something like that. In class today I felt that I'm enjoying it more because before it was a sacrifice for me to study, however now it's fun. The group dynamic was very enjoyable! For a minute I was actually speaking English naturally."

Visiting an ISF English class for some conversation practice

“Hoje eu aprendi não somente vocabulário em inglês ou escrever e entender. Aprendi também a me soltar mais ao falar a lingual estrangeira. Eu já havia tido outras aulas de conversação, mas em alemão, e lá não me sentia tão a vontade quanto me senti hoje. Acabei até desistindo desta disciplina em alemão, porque eu me sentia completamente insegura na aula e achava chata. Gostei bastante da dinâmica da aula de hoje e me senti bastante animada para aprender mais.”

"Today I learned not only English vocabulary or writing and understanding. I also learned to try harder to speak the foreign tongue. I had had other conversation classes, but in German, and there did not feel as comfortable as I felt today. I ended up giving up this course in German, because I felt completely insecure in class and thought it was boring. I really liked the dynamics of class today and felt pretty excited to learn more."

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Wanderlust

In Mandarin: 旅遊癮 (lǚyóu yǐn)

According to my Mandarin teacher, the term 'wanderlust' can best be translated as 'a travel addiction or craving'. In the above translation, 'yǐn' has several meanings such as 'a strong impulse', 'a longing', or 'a desire'.

U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

Being an ISF ETA at UFPA

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