Advice wanted.
I've been learning Farsi for 18 months. Every six months, a local Persian guy volunteers to teach 12 sessions of Farsi to a group of interested people. There are usually about 15 of us with various reasons for wanting to learn, but all of us are highly motivated adults with previous language learning experience. In other words, the perfect class.
Background: I am a TESOL teacher with a Master's in Education and 10 years of experience. I teach adult migrants at a local community college. The volunteer Farsi teacher is a lecturer in a STEM subject at a local university.
The 1st set of 12 lessons cost $100. To prepare, I found and practiced with Learn Persian - Persian in Three Minutes on youtube and bought a book to teach myself the alphabet. The 1st class, we started learning with Learn Persian - Persian in Three Minutes. No problem, I can use the practice.
I timed the teacher once, and he did 'chalk and talk' for the first 55 minutes of our 2-hour session. After that, I respectfully went up to him after class, discussed a few language learning theories with him, and offered some suggestions as to activities that would help us learn language.
The 2nd set of 12 lessons cost $100. We had some new people, so we started again from the beginning. I was getting bored, but I was highly motivated, so I stuck with it. I also did a lot of practice at home, including downloading some apps that would teach me new vocabulary and connect me on a language exchange with some Persians in Iran.
Then one class, he introduced seven verb tenses. The following week, he got quite frustrated when we couldn't make up sentences using all of the introduced verb tenses. After that, I respectfully went up to him after class and discussed with him how this was unreasonable and how to give us spoken and written exercises to help our recall.
The 3rd set of sessions we learned a few different things. It also cost $100. We were all happier, but he continued with the 'chalk and talk' and very little targeted practice. We sat in rows and rarely interacted with each other. So with his permission, I brought in a few props from my own classroom and worked with my classmates on reinforcing oral communication. I know that three other classmates also had a chat with the teacher over his old-fashioned methodology.
Yesterday the 4th set of sessions started. The price has gone up to $450, but there will be 32 weeks. Thirteen of the 17 students were beginners and four of us were from previous sessions. Again, we started with Learn Persian - Persian in Three Minutes. We sat in rows, the teacher talked for 59 minutes before any student said a word, he didn’t have a marker to write anything on the whiteboard, and we ended up saying four sentences once each during the class: ‘I am ________', 'Nice to meet you', 'How are you?' and 'Thank you', but not ‘I’m fine’.
The teacher left immediately after the class, so we couldn’t talk to him. The four of us who know each other from previous sessions are all fed up. We discussed meeting at my house to practice together, but we’d need a Farsi speaker to correct our pronunciation and answer questions. I’ve made some great new like-minded friends, and we are all so interested. We just sit through Learn Persian - Persian in Three Minutes’ I am ________ again.
Last night, I woke up at 3:38am arguing with the teacher in my sleep. The teacher is ostensibly a nice guy, but he refuses to take on board any constructive feedback, from me or anyone else. He conducts first-day goals surveys and final course evaluations, then completely ignores them.
This is my only chance to learn Farsi locally. I don’t want to feel unappreciative because the teacher is a volunteer, but I am paying for these classes. (The money goes towards the venue hire.) I don’t expect him to be great, but he needs to be adequate. He is lecturing us as if this is a STEM subject, but it’s not, it’s language learning. I find myself fuming in class rather than practicing Farsi. The $450 is due next week. I can’t be a part of this anymore, and it breaks my heart.
What would you do?
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