Fatima

Fatima has been an English teacher for 15 years, and has been with WEFIT for two years. She specializes in certification preparation as well as the medical field. With her energy and empathy, she shared her insights and anecdotes about her profession with me:

1. Intercultural teaching: how do people eat rice?

“When you have a class of 12, 14, or even 6 people, it means you have six different personalities in front of you. So I think the trainer really has to adapt to those people because they're here to learn.

For me, everyone has their own culture, and I have mine too. So we can have a multicultural atmosphere, and we can exchange while learning. I love that. It’s this difference that creates a spark.

I remember one day I had five people of different nationalities, and each of them talked about how they eat rice. One said, ""No, it has to be white."" Another said, ""With sauce,"" etc.

That way, they learn the language: colors, flavors. They end up learning a lot of things at once. And in the end, we left feeling joyful, having learned, and opened up to other cultures.

2. Creating a course that fits the learner’s personality:

“The first thing is to put the person at ease, to place them in a situation where they are in control at the start of the lesson. What I mean is, I let the person speak: “So, who are you? How do you like to learn?” Based on the answers, I can figure out what method I can use with that learner.

It makes me think of Thierry, for example: during the first sessions, the first four sessions, he didn’t want to speak at all, he was shy because he was often judged — for his accent or the way he spoke — so he was afraid.

As soon as I said to him, ""OK Thierry, I’m not here to judge you, I’m here to help. If you stay in your shell, I can’t help you enough. But if you really tell me, 'Fatima, go ahead, I’ll make mistakes, you correct me, I don’t care, you won’t judge me,' then we’ll make better progress.”

Not judging is one key. Letting them speak is a second key. And the third key: you have to be serious, but also bring a bit of joy, because learners, the people in front of us, they feel it — they sense if we love what we do or not.

So they’ll say, ""Ah, but Fatima loves what she does. So I’ll make a bit of an effort."" And I swear to you, it always works.”

3. Teaching in the medical field – an anecdote

“Teaching in the medical field, there are tons of anecdotes. Sometimes you’re really surprised because it’s so real.

For example: I was in a face-to-face class at a hospital with a doctor, a cardiologist. He was taking his lessons at the hospital during work hours, and several times he said to me: ""Fatima, can I come back in 5 minutes? It’s an emergency.""

I said, ""OK, no problem."" The first time, the second time. Then the third time, I said, “Doctor, if you have a problem we can reschedule your session, just tell me.”

And then he said to me, ""No, no, no, I’m just in the cardiology department. Sometimes I need to resuscitate someone or quickly check on a patient — the heart might have stopped for 30 seconds, I step in and then I come back.""

And I thought, “OK, he’s talking about a cardiac arrest just like that, so casually!” For him it was totally normal, but for me it was impressive — a bit strange even. But he came back calm. That’s his job, it’s his work.

Still, teaching doctors is truly exceptional and special.”

I recommend watching Fatima’s interview — her energy and authenticity will win you over!