At work with private teacher

Nyuay Ong came to Norway from Burma. She has not been able to finish her primary school, and therefore it was difficult for her to start on Norwegian studies. This courageous woman with 5 children did not give up! She came regularly to Fredheim (our school), sat between other participants and struggled to learn the difficult Latin letters which formed the even more difficult words of our language.

After some months at school, I wanted to try her out into the labour market. She seemed to me as a hard working woman, always with a nice smile. We therefore made our preparations and found out that she could try to work at one of the town's cafés. Nymoensenteret (the café's name) lies in the center of the town, and is linked up to a center for elderly people. All workers here ar volonters, that means that they are not paid for their work.

Nyuay Ong immediately charmed everyone here! She is a fantastic worker, never late, always doing everything that has to be done with high speed and a warm smile :-) And when there is little to do at the café, she sits down with Annie, a pensioner, at a table to learn Norwegian. Annie is fantastic! She has made a private "book" with drawings for Nyuay Ong, teaching her words that might be useful for her. It is much easier to understand when you can see the words either in real life or in pictures and drawings. (And you, my friend, can click on this photo to learn a few Norwegian words too - as a preparation for the visit in June 2010!)

Nyuay Ong's week is now filled with 2 days work and 3 days at Fredheim school. I visit her at work nearly every week, checking up on her development in the language and her understanding of the routines at a café. She seems to be very content with this, and she and her colegues have a nice time working together.