Customer Reviews

I Hate English! (A Blue Ribbon Book)

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I have not run into many children who have felt this way in my short career as an ESOL teacher but students similar to Mei Mei are out there. This book is very helpful to teachers with ESOL students in their classroom who are not trained in TESOL practices. Students often go through a silent period where they are listening to the language and just taking English in before they begin speaking it. The story of Mei Mei gives an indication what may be going on in their minds at the time.
When I lived in Thailand, I often became frustrated and angry when I wanted to answer someone in Thai and tell them what I understood or knew about a subject, but was trapped by my lack of fluency in their language. I used to think, "Boy! If they could only understand me in English, then I'd tell them!" People would often mistake my lack of ability to communicate with lack of intelligence, which would frustrate me further. I will share this book with my students and hope I understand what they going through at times.

Recently I used this book in an ESL teacher training class to help public school teachers understand culture shock for their ESL students. I read this book to a class of 28 adults and they were fascinated. Once, when I looked at them, they were sitting there like a class of children listening to a fascinating story. It was great!! In the evaluations, many mentioned the book as being very helpful to them.

I teach English as a Second Language to Spanish-speaking elementary students. We begin the year by reading this book and discussing how the students feel about learning English. We often refer back to the book throughout the year as we identify our own stages of language acquisition. This book is very realistic and motivational.

Young Mei Mei moves with her family from Hong Kong to New York City and hesitantly learns to speak English with the help of Nancy, an understanding teacher. The story is mostly realistic with a shy second language learner slowly coming around to speak the language. When Mei Mei does speak though, she talks for "twenty two minutes without stopping," proving that she did know the language only refused to use it. There is not a lot of character development, rather the focus is on setting and plot. Watercolor, cartoon-like illustrations accompany the text, depicting the classroom, learning center and China Town. Readers can take from the story an effective means of teaching, that is, a very experiential, hands-on approach to learning. Through the teacher's patience and understanding, Mei Mei practices her English. Teachers of English as A Second Language might find the book useful in early meetings with their students also, any children involved in a big move to a very different place might empathize with Mei Mei

I teach English as a Second Language to Spanish-speaking elementary students. We begin the year by reading this book and discussing how the students feel about learning English. We often refer back to the book throughout the year as we identify our own stages of language acquisition. This book is very realistic and motivational.

English-language learners at the elementary level are an obvious target audience for this book. However, it works beautifully with adult and high-school ESL students as well! Often they "hate English" even more because it is so difficult for an adult (or near-adult) to make peace with the disconnect between the complex ideas they are able to express in the first language and the "baby talk" they feel ready to pronounce in the target language. Additionally, some may be dealing with a kind of culture shock as they fight what sometimes seems an uphill battle to learn a language they aren't entirely sure is worth all the work. The humor involved in the book, the friendliness of the illustrations, and the simplicity of the language all can help the ESL teacher or tutor convey that these feelings are not unknown -- that they don't go on forever -- and that we will keep reaching out, even when it isn't easy. And maybe, just maybe, they AND we will be laughing just as loudly as Mei Mei and her tutor are by the end of this captivating book.

P.S. If you use it for a read-aloud (as I usually do), make sure you respect the unusual line breaks ... as with poetry, they are designed to give emphasis to key words and parallel structures. Over time, you can even encourage students to compare lines in the text to look for the patterns -- after they've come around, of course. :)

I teach English as a Second Language to Spanish-speaking elementary students. We begin the year by reading this book and discussing how the students feel about learning English. We often refer back to the book throughout the year as we identify our own stages of language acquisition. This book is very realistic and motivational.

My mother bought me this book many years ago and I loved it as a child. Now that I'm teaching I bought it for my classroom. I think it offers a great look into one challenge faced by immigrants. It is also something most children can relate to: feel different. I highly recommend this book!