Meet Our NY Teachers

Rebecca Randel

It took some years for Rebecca to change her profession to become an ESL teacher, but it's surprising she didn't start earlier. She grew up surrounded by several languages and cultures, both at home and amongst her friends, and has always had a voracious appetite for learning about other cultures, people and food. Over the years she studied Hebrew, Spanish and Russian, though now only her Spanish remains intact in her brain. It was her interest in learning about other cultures and languages that spurred her interest in teaching ESL, first as a volunteer back when she was in college at SUNY-Binghamton in the early 1990's. Then after a decade of work as a nonprofit manager, Rebecca decided to shift her work in ESL from a volunteer position to a full time job.

She says that in her class, her biggest goal is to boost the confidence of her students. "When I review the do's and don't's of the class, I write, 'Make mistakes!' on the board. The students look at me with a strange smile, and start to relax when I tell them that I'm serious! I really do want them to make mistakes...a lot of them! If they're always worrying about speaking with perfect grammar and perfect pronunciation, the words will never come out of their mouths. They'll be so afraid of making mistakes they'll never learn how to relax and let the words out. It's important for them to feel comfortable when they speak English. Speaking a foreign language confidently, with enthusiasm AND mistakes is so much more fun than speaking it perfectly!"