Meet Linda Witt, a superstar ENGin volunteer who’s been rocking 1-on-1 sessions with two buddies from Ukraine for over a year. Also, she is a member of ENGin’s board and a volunteer interviewer, having hosted over 1,000 interviews. Both her buddies live in Ukraine, one in Dnipro and the other in Kyiv and other locations, depending on where her soldier-husband is posted.
Recently, Witt heard about ENGin’s new mini-group format and signed up for it as well. She figured that the mini-group would be a way to double her impact, so to speak, in just one additional hour per week. Further, she had enjoyed her long-term buddies so much, she anticipated finding similar fulfillment with her new buddies, using the new format. Happily, she is finding the mini-group experience to be very positive for herself, and she hopes as well, for her latest buddies.
In early November, ENGin’s matching expert, Denis Chuvylov, connected Witt with two buddies for the mini-group (the groups can include two or three buddies; Witt opted for two buddies). The group has been meeting weekly since then. Both of the buddies are originally from Ukraine and are currently refugees, both located in the Central European time zone (which simplified the scheduling).
Oksana lives in Norway and has picked up a bit of a beautiful Scandinavian accent to her English. Maryna is currently in the Czech Republic and uses English extensively in her work with an international company. Both have an advanced level of English and look to their ENGin sessions as a way to get more speaking practice, to enrich their vocabulary, and to exercise their listening comprehension in a real-life context.
Like many ENGin sessions, icebreakers take the shape of informal conversation on what’s happening in the participants’ week. The group then segues into a discussion of an article of interest, pulled from the headlines.
“Recently we talked about subjects as broadly different as genetic discrimination in the insurance industry, to the latest research in the field of mid-life crises,” says Witt.
In each session, Witt notes, “I think we all three have interesting take-aways, from a general humanities perspective but also from different cultural perspectives. We get so involved in the topic, that the medium — English — becomes somewhat secondary.”
The group pulls articles largely from The Atlantic, which offers a variety of comprehensive articles on contemporary topics, written at a high level of English proficiency. The articles often feature complex sentence structures, advanced vocabulary, and in-depth analysis, making them suitable for readers with a strong command of the English language.
As the group heads into 2025, they will revisit their goals and potentially develop new activities for their sessions, resulting not only in upgraded skills, but also in enriched interpersonal connections across borders — a win-win for all involved.
Interested in learning more about the mini-group format? Visit our website to get started!
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