Jeremy Schwartzbord
Home Institution: University of California, Berkeley
Host: Universidad de Oriente, Cumaná, Venezuela
English Teaching Assistant
Dates of Grant: 2008-2009

As class began, ten Venezuelan marine biology researchers broke into song - con mucho gusto.  The warm-up tune of the day happened to be the Beatles' "Octopus's Garden."  In the process of learning the lyrics to Ringo Starr's cephalopod-starring ditty, the researchers practiced their pronunciation, worked at improving their listening comprehension, and simply enjoyed themselves.  The researchers participate in a weekly English workshop I run at the Oceanographic Institute of Venezuela, located at the Universidad de Oriente (UDO) in Cumaná.  The workshop is secondary to my work with students as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in the Department of Modern Languages.  However, one of the most meaningful components of my job at the UDO has been my secondary project.

I could not have envisioned my project with the Oceanographic Institute before my arrival in Venezuela.  As an undergraduate, I studied terrestrial ecology and environmental education.  Though my college studies and English teaching do not have a strong relationship at face value, I applied to the Fulbright ETA program to gain teaching experience, to come into contact with the many facets of Venezuelan life and improve my Spanish.  I applied, won the grant, and serendipitously ended up at the UDO.  Aided by fortuitous social networks, I met Dr. Mairin Lemus, an ecotoxicology professor in search of an English teacher trained in the biological sciences.

During our first meeting, Dr. Lemus described the research station she directs, explained its English-related pitfalls and put forward a proposition.  The research station, Centro de Investigaciones Ecológicas de Guayacán (CIEG), lies nestled in the small coastal town of Guayacán - a boat ride away from Cumaná.  The researchers aim to publish their results in academic journals that require English translations of all abstracts.  But neither the researchers nor other biology students at the UDO are able to write clear, grammatically correct scientific abstracts in English.  Dr. Lemus admitted that grammatical errors in a poorly translated abstract are often cited as grounds for rejecting a research paper.  This has been a serious problem for the CIEG researchers, most of whom last studied English when they were in high school.  Dr. Lemus sought a remedy for the problem and asked me to lead a weekly English workshop for the ten researchers.

When I hold class outside in Guayacán, my students exhibit an incredibly ardent desire to learn English, asking question after question (i.e., ¿Comó se dice area de preparación de taxidermia?: “How do you say taxidermy prep area?”).  As we hold class, the wind constantly sweeps through, tossing the locals' small, pastel-colored fishing boats along the shore.  Inside, we translate articles as a group.  My students prepare presentations in English, readying themselves for international conferences in their fields and in turn, advancing their scientific articles.  At the same time, they have brought me to the unexpected surroundings of Guayacán and taught me about the area's ecology.  These rich exchanges are ones I will never forget.

This story originally appeared in the July 2009 edition of the Fulbright U.S. Student Grantee Newsletter.

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