New language, new techniques!

In the final blogpost from Razan, she tells us about going back to school, learning new teaching techniques and her dreams for the future.

"I enjoyed going back to school to improve my English. I got to meet and speak to many people and we had lovely teachers. My husband and I learnt together for two hours each day. We took our school bags, water, sandwiches – it was fun every day! And it changed many things in my life. I learnt a lot of new teaching techniques, like using fun interactive ways to learn, using technology to aide this. We didn’t have these things when I was teaching in Syria. I had a job teaching Arabic in the local mosque [in the USA] and used these new techniques!

"I now work as an Arabic interpreter in a City School District in Syracuse. I act as the bridge between the schools and the families. I like to support these families. Many of them still don’t have the language and it is often the children who quickly pick up English and become translators for their parents and other adults. This can lead to some problems.  If the children are translating, they might feel they are smarter than their parents and the parents feel like they have failed. This is a worry for many parents. So, I encourage them to also learn English!

"My dream is to see my kids graduate and be successful in life. I also want my husband to be successful and to become fluent in English. He would like to build on his experience of working with humanitarian organisations and support refugees, especially Syrian people.

"My dream for myself is to work in human rights and to share my thoughts, advice and wisdom with others, especially other women."

Razan lives with her husband and four children in Syracuse, N.Y., USA. She and her family are originally from Syria and spent time in Jordan and Spain before they resettled to the USA four years ago with the support of Reed Smith.