Before I even entered Queens College, I had meticulously planned my four-year academic itinerary, consisting mainly of English and Science classes. My plan seemed set in stone, but unexpectedly I found myself teaching for an English 110 class as a student. OK, so I was just a Teacher’s Assistant (TA), but the experience of viewing the classroom from the perspective of a teacher has helped me understand the struggles of the numerous multilingual students in my science classes, students who not only have to learn the difficult information but also interpret it using their second language. Looking around the room in my science classes, I was never surprised that the class was more representative of a UN meeting than a Jane Austen book club: In my mind, science is a universal language.

Despite the fact that at Queens College the courses are taught in English, the complex ideas of science are common to every culture, so I did not expect the ESL students to be at any disadvantage. After my tenure as a TA, however, I found this assumption to be faulty. Until the ESL students became accustomed to the professor and his manner of speaking, it was very difficult for most to follow along, but as the semester continued, all understood the course requirements and how to fulfill them. As a result of my experience as a TA, I am now able to appreciate how hard it is for ESL students to succeed: not only by struggling with the complex ideas behind scientific theorems, but also by having to do so through the prism of standard English.