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Polk County Itemizer-Observer • January 14, 2015 6A
LANGUAGE LESSONS
Monmouth institute gives immersive English language experience
By Emily Mentzer
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The Itemizer-Observer
MONMOUTH — Butter-
flies in your stomach?
To native speakers of Eng-
lish, it is common under-
standing that this phrase
means the same as asking if
someone is nervous. But to
the students at Monmouth
English Language and Cul-
ture Institute, it’s a very con-
fusing statement — at least
at first.
“No, it doesn’t mean you
like to eat insects,” said
Roger Shinkle, director and
co-owner of the English lan-
guage school, much to the
laughter of the small class of
advanced students.
Idioms, jokes and accents
prove the toughest when
someone is learning English,
students said.
“Sometimes I cannot un-
derstand a joke, so I cannot
laugh,” said Shinichiro Take-
moto from Japan.
When international stu-
dents learn English in their
home countries, their teach-
ers don’t always have the
right accent.
“The pronunciation is far
different,” said Faafili Papalii
of Samoa.
To learn, students are
placed in small classes, no
larger than 15 at once, Shin-
kle said.
“That’s very good for lan-
guage learning,” he said.
“We’re trying to make things
happen very fast.”
The institute, based in
Monmouth, is a total im-
mersion experience for in-
ternational students to learn
English before moving on to
an international — often in
the U.S. — high school or
college. Students live with
host families and spend
their time speaking, listen-
ing, reading and revising.
“We’re always looking for
host families in the commu-
nity,” said Maryanne Shin-
kle, Roger’s wife and co-
owner. “It’s a fun way to have
an international experience
in the family.”
Students, who pay for
their housing, range in age
from 18 to 43, with the aver-
age age of 20.
On the entrance to the
school building, a sign
reads, “English only please.”
“Here, we have to speak
the language,” Takemoto
• Call the Monmouth
English Language and
Culture Institute at 503-
838-0157 to volunteer
as a host family. Back-
ground checks are run
on host families.
• People also may get
involved by coming to
campus at 300 N. Stadi-
um Drive and being a
conversation partner.
• Roger Shinkle said
he is always looking for
places for students to
get involved in the com-
munity, including serv-
ice opportunities. • If
two students are placed
in one house, they are
never from the same
country to ensure that
their common language
is English, Maryanne
Shinkle said.
• For more informa-
tion: www.elci.us.
EMILY MENTZER/Itemizer-Observer
Roger and Maryanne Shinkle (far left and right) serve as a host family for students at the institute when needed.
said, whereas in his home
country, he doesn’t have to
use English all the time.
“Speak, speak, speak. Listen,
listen, listen.”
Another difference in
learning English at the insti-
tute is vocabulary. While vo-
cabulary is important, Take-
moto said in Japan, he
would have to study hun-
dreds of words every day
and take tests on those
words.
Here, Roger Shinkle said
things are run differently.
“One of the things we
teach our students is how to
learn a language,” he said.
“It’s not just a matter of
showing up to class. It does-
n’t work that way. That’s
slow.”
Students learn via fre-
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Faafili Papalii of Samoa and Ibrahim Daghri of Saudi Arabia study on their tablets at
the Monmouth English Language and Culture Institute on Friday.
quency rather than intensi-
ty, Shinkle said. For exam-
ple, a student will remember
more if he or she spends six
minutes a day for 10 days
studying rather than an
hour in one day.
“It’s like cramming versus
studying a little every day,”
he said. “You might pass the
test just fine cramming, but
learning a language, passing
the test means nothing. You
have to have skill.”
Students are given tasks
to complete in town, forcing
interaction with native
speakers.
It’s tough for them when
people speak fast, Papalii
said.
“It’s hard (to understand)
over the phone,” added Be-
hailu Bezuneh Kasse from
Ethiopia. “The phone is
hard.”
Part of what makes it
more difficult to understand
someone over the phone is
the accent, the speed at
which the other person is
talking, and the lack of abili-
ty to see their mouths and
body language. Drive-thrus
are not much better.
“They talk very fast,”
Kasse said. “So, like, if you go
to McDonald’s, you should
go inside. I have a lot of
times people give me the
wrong food.”
Students’ skills with Eng-
lish vary from beginning
levels to more advanced.
While some are learning the
subtle difference in the pro-
nunciation of the words
“peddle” and “puddle,” oth-
ers, like Papalii, are ready
for college.
She recently was denied
admission to Brigham Young
University-Hawaii, and is
now working toward accept-
ance at Western Oregon
University.
Papalii hopes to earn a
bachelor’s degree in educa-
tion and use that to be a
high school counselor.
“There’s a lot of troubles
and things going on in the
teenage students’ lives right
now,” she said. “I really want
to help them help their
lives.”
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Faafili Papalii studies English and learns study and academic skills at the institute. She
says she has a lot of homework, including applying to universities such as WOU.
Faafili Papalii chops the grass at her host family’s house with a bush knife, the same
way she would cut the lawn in her native country of Samoa.
Solution on Page 5A
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