My Experience in Fundación de Desarrollo Técnica, Industrial y Empresarial |
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My Experience in Fundación de Desarrollo Técnica, Industrial y Empresarial |
I spent four months in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala teaching Java, HTML, and English to
students from all over Central America. I taught a great variety of students, from teachers
and programmers, to students who have never used
a computer before. I taught all of this in Spanish. It was fun and challenging, and I was also
able to profound my knowledge of programming, perfect my Spanish and learn how to teach
better, besides the pure experience in living in another country. It was one of the best experiences
in my life.
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What is Fundet? | |
| One prerequisite to attend is to be an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Although not affiliated with the church, it was set up and financed through donations of the Clark family, who are members of the church. The school requires all students to complete with the standards the Church, and we begin class with prayer. |
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There are two types of students, intensive and part-time. The intensive
students come from all over Central America to study. Those out of town sleep
and eat in the school. I was able to sleep and eat with these students. Since
most are poor and cannot afford to study, most of the students receive a schoolarship from the Clark
family to cover a part of the cost and the rest of they take out a loan from
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,
through the Perpetual Education Fund. Because of this, those receiving help, which is almost all the
intensive students, need to be returned missionaries, active and attending an institute of the church.
 | In the evening I taught a class to programmers. They have jobs using databases and already knew a lot about programming. However, they needed knowledge of Java to progress in their careers and progress their companies. This was very challenging since they have had experience in programming in the field, they just need to be taught a new language. |
| I learned a lot from them as well in their specialities. This knowledge I passed on to the other students. It was fun and a nice change from having to teach from the beginning basic programming concepts. This class was for an hour and a half Tuesday through Friday. | 
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This is where I spent most of my time. I spent three hours a day Monday-Friday with them,
besides helping them with their projects outside of class.
This is more challenging because many of them weren't very familiarized with computers
and many hadn't even had basic algebra. However, they had a great desire to learn
and have dedicated themselves to learn how to work computers. Outside my class, they also had a class
in Linux, Maintanence, Pascal and my English class. I spend much of my time
teaching basic logic such as conditions and loops, which is fortified with the class of Pascal.
I became good friends with them and by the time I left they had learned a lot. Below is
a link to our class page, where each student has links to their own web page, which they designed
themselves.
A practically essential skill in the computer world, unappreciated in the United States, is the ability to speak English. All of the commands are written in English, most of the help and documentation for programming is written in English, and many of the companies are founded in the United States and even those which are not requier fluency in English. I took for granted that commands like print would be obvious to English speakers that it would print. However, my Spanish students who don't understand English get confused between that and read, which would read a line.
We have a lot of fun in our class. I also have some students who are not studying computers in my class. Many of the students already have a basic understanding of English and have had American companions on their mission that have taught them a bit of English. Several have a great desire to learn English and understand the importance of it. It is fun to teach such students. We start every class with a prayer in English, and frequently hold conversations outside of class in English.
I served my mission in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and was able to learn a lot about the latin culture. It was completely different than I had imagined, a lot more developed and modern than the image I have had of starving third world countries. There are many people who are working hard to better themselves and their situations. Especially among my companions and other return missionaries who have learned the value of hard work and integrity in their missions. However, what's missing in Latin America is the oportunity to progress and learn something new. When I was in Brazil the colleges were on strike and when I was in Guatemala the public schools were on strike. It is difficult to receive a good education to support your family, especially if you come from a small village.
So when I heard about this teaching opportunity in Guatemala I was very excited to help out those whom I consider the some of the most deserving people in the world, and at the same time perfect my Spanish. Since I have come here I have that I have really done something to help out, to help these people and Guatemala progress, both spiritually and temporally. I am very grateful for this oportunity to teach.