Cultural and Language Assistant Lina Mukdad enjoys her work so much that she feels like it's a second home.
“I love this job. I think when you love that job, whatever hard things come, you can adapt,” she says of her role with English Language Partners in Dunedin.
The Iraq-born Arabic speaker has been a Cultural and Language Assistant (CLA) in our English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) literacy classes since 2016.
Dunedin is a refugee resettlement city and welcomed its first group of Syrians in 2016. More have arrived, as have Palestinians, Afghans, Iraqis and Yemenis.
Our literacy classes are for former refugees who are pre-literate, meaning they have less than six years' education in their own language.
As a result of their educational background and/or disrupted learning, they have both English language and literacy learning needs.
Lina says some have never been to school and may not know how to write in their mother language of Arabic.
She's seen them gradually progress from speaking almost no English to functioning well in everyday life, getting jobs or attending Otago Polytechnic.
She remembers one woman, who'd learned English at primary school in Syria, studying hard in literacy class and after only two or three years, going to polytechnic.
“She was really keen to learn.”
Lina uses her cultural knowledge and language skills to assist teachers to plan, prepare and teach sessions. She also assesses learners' progress and administers records.
She says her role is mainly to translate for the teachers. Two of the weekly classes are three-and-a-half hours long and a third lasts three hours.
The learners are adjusting to living in a new culture, far from the countries they've had to leave. Lina also assists them with “day to day life”, such as dealing with an English language phone call or understanding New Zealand society.
Over the years, the new Kiwis have asked for advice about their children and various situations. Lina has helped them recognise the benefits of living in Dunedin, such as tertiary study possibilities and that their children are safe.
She has overcome her own cultural challenges, as she balances supporting newcomers with respecting professional boundaries and empowering learners so they can function by themselves.
Asked what she has gained from her CLA job, Lina smiles.
“I have been really building a good relationship with friendly team and students in class.”
She feels happy when she sees a family coping well, after initially not knowing how they will settle and whether they will stay.
“I keep telling them my story and they feel, 'Oh really? Okay'.”
Sharing her story reassures former refugees and allows them to see first-hand that settling in a new country is possible.
Lina was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and in 1997, she and her husband arrived in New Zealand as skilled migrants, accompanied by their two children. She was a pharmaceutical laboratory assistant and he is a clinical dental technician.
They lived in Auckland and Wellington before moving to Dunedin in 2002, which is when her long association with English Language Partners began.
Originally she was herself a learner, joining a class for company. Her home tutor remains a friend.
After Lina's third child was born, she attended a Mother of Babies & Toddlers ESOL group. When her son outgrew this, the teacher invited her to stay on and volunteer.
“Because I love to come, but I don't have my baby!”
Lina’s teacher encouraged her to do an English Language Partners' home tutor course and Lina then volunteered in that capacity.
Once the Syrian former refugees arrived, their first class opened and Lina started her CLA paid job, which she continues to love.
English Language Partners' Dunedin Centre Manager Christine Cook says New Zealand resettles 1500 quota refugees each year.
Our ESOL literacy classes cater specifically for former refugee learners and we teach about 1800 of them throughout New Zealand.
“The programme aims to develop English language and literacy skills so that learners can participate more effectively in New Zealand society, and undertake further educational and vocational opportunities.”
Other such classes run in Southland, Christchurch, Aoraki, Nelson, Marlborough, Hutt, Porirua, Palmerston North, Waikato and Auckland.
Nationwide, English Language Partners employs 36 CLAs who speak between 16 and 18 first languages.
Christine says Dunedin's two classes consist of about 40 learners at a time and the CLA role is valuable.
“English is the biggest way we can empower people – and the CLAs focus on that.”
Story by Sharon Fowler
