Fulbright FLTA Newsletter

An Egyptian Fulbright FLTA in the U.S.A.

One of my academic and professional goals is to have a good career. I have worked hard to develop a career. It has not been easy, but I feel that so far I am doing well. It is important to me to have meaningful work and I feel fortunate that I have found a job which is as well-suited to my temperament as teaching is. I derive great pleasure from seeing my students learn. I enjoy helping them to appreciate the mysteries and beauty inherent in languages. I have made progress in teaching by maintaining good relations with my students, and encouraging them to have good relations with each other. A classroom can be a place, in my opinion, where developing skills, for both teacher and students, can go on forever. I hope to make my classroom such a place.

Aly Dawoud, 2007-2008, Egypt (on the left)

Actually, I have many reasons why I wanted to participate in the Fulbright FLTA Program. These reasons include: having an opportunity to refine my skills, improve my English, and extend my knowledge of U.S. society and culture. My main aim is to obtain knowledge because knowledge is, as you know, power. Money can be lost, authority can be taken away and strength can be stripped from you in a moment. Real power is in what we have in our minds. The knowledge I have accumulated in the U.S. and learned how to use has given me real power.

Also, participating in the Fulbright FLTA program helps me to achieve one of my goals; traveling abroad. I have a special interest in traveling abroad, especially when it is to the most developed country in the world in all fields and in my field in particular - education. It is a means to obtain information about the local customs and traditions of other countries, and to have contact with their people. It also widens the scope of one's mind and helps develop friendly relations and global understanding. Finally, traveling abroad helps develop one's way of thinking and engaging with others. For all the aforementioned reasons, I really am glad to be a part of the Fulbright FLTA Program.

Participating in the Fulbright FLTA program, I consider myself not only a teacher, but also a student. Being a teacher allows me, in fact forces me, to be a learner. I must find interesting materials, articles or books for my students to read and write about. I must read and react to these books and articles in order to have something to share with my students. I must find ways of helping my students to understand their assignments, and then, try to understand and helpfully respond to my students’ ideas. And again, I’m also forced to be creative since if I deliver a boring lecture, my students will let me know. I should make my ideas vivid since I will then benefit by getting to know my students as people: their pasts, their present, their ways of feeling and thinking.

In brief, the Fulbright FLTA program has enabled me to acquire new methods and approaches of teaching a foreign language. It has helped me to obtain more information about the nature and organization of education in the U.S. It has demonstrated that different cultural backgrounds play a significant part in the success of teaching methods. It also has helped me to be a better person and teacher, and have a greater understanding of many things.

Transcending the Boundaries by Being a Fulbright FLTA

It all started with a workshop on the University of Notre Dame's beautiful campus. No, even before that, it began at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. I met new friends from all over the world. Can I ever forget that day? Five days passed within the blink of an eye. So many students from so many different cultures, sharing views, learning about their respective cultures, and picking up a few words from 24 languages; what else could be a greater experience? The story of surprises had just begun. Every day of my stay in the U.S. has been a surprise!

I discovered Chicago with ten other Fulbright FLTAs. The things I had read about Chicago were in front of my eyes! How proud was I to be Bangladeshi when I visited the Sears Tower, since the structural engineer was my countryman, Dr. F. R. Khan? The whole city is breathtakingly beautiful. I have also traveled to New York and to Florida. These places are simply bewitching.

Syeda Farzana Sultana (center), 2007-2008, Bangladesh

In my country, we cannot even imagine that a library will remain open for 24 hours. The libraries in my university just make me crazy! Whatever I am experiencing and learning from here, I will confer to my students when I am back in Bangladesh. I know I am going to be a far better teacher, more mature, and more professional.

I often wonder whether it is a dream to be in the U.S. with a Fulbright Scholarship. It seems like a long, beautiful dream, and this dream can be dreamt once in a lifetime! I love to observe people, and I always try to learn from my observations. I have learned to value and respect people more, respect laws, value children and not to poke into other people’s affairs. But the thing I do not like about Americans is that they are too individualistic and sometimes superficial.

Experiencing American culture is splendid. The systematic aspects of American life and American professionalism amaze me. I am trying to learn those aspects of the culture. After coming here, I have realized what it really means to be independent. Now, I am stronger, more confident and have more insight into life. I did not experience cultural shock after I arrived in the U.S. I have learned to understand whatever I've encountered as ‘differences' (it is silly to wonder whether these cultural differences are good or bad), as simply ‘differences.’

The Fulbright FLTA experience has given me a magnificent feeling that I am really valued. I feel invigorated to do things in life, although this life seems too short to do all the things I want to do. Being a Fulbright FLTA means learning to live life; a life that is worth living. It seems I've taken just one step, winning a Fulbright FLTA grant, but that step has taken me a hundred steps ahead of where I was.