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ESL & The Peace Corps

- By Mike Dunphy -

Part 2: Training

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Before we go any further, I’d like to administer a small test.

Name five facts about the Republic of Estonia.

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

Really, try it.

If your face showed any signs of contortion, you are 95% of the people I meet.
1-2 facts: You probably came across it accidentally on an episode of Jeopardy or that Simpsons where Bart becomes Mr. Burns’s heir.
3-4: I’ll buy you 3-4 beers.
5: My e-mail address is metsikATyahoo.com

Don't feel bad though if you can't say much about it. The truth is, there really isn't any tangible benefit of knowing about the country.

When I learned I was being sent to Estonia by the Peace Corps, I knew the following: Firstly, It was spelled E-S-T-O-N-I-A. It was on the Baltic Sea and it was a former Soviet Republic. I had also heard of it on that episode of the Simpsons.

I knew even less about teaching. I couldn’t have distinguished a transitive from an intransitive verb anymore than I could speak Estonian.

None of that mattered though. The three months prior to leaving were full of a feeling I’ve never really managed to recapture since: Complete satisfaction and belief that my life had meaning and direction.

Not even a quick jaunt to Mexico to see my sister the week before I left could take my eyes off Estonia. I spent most of the time on the beach drinking umbrellad cocktails and reading Routledge's Colloquiel Estonian.

In the beginning of June, They flew us to Chicago where all the new recruits spent three days holed up in a hotel and going to seminars to learn Peace Corps policies. It also inaugurated a three year period of serious drinking. I can’t remember a single face, name, conversation, or Peace Corps policy from that conference to this day.

  

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