Naturalization

This is the last of the videos I shot at Elizabeth Upton's class at LaGuardia Community College. They are recent (and not so) immigrants who are in her English as a second language class (or the CUNY Language Immersion Program).

Here is part one of the series.

Then mozie on to part two.

Sultana asks the questions we all've been waiting for:

The students worked hard at coming up with questions. Sultana is actually asking the question for another student, Malva, who knocked it out of the part but was too shy to get on camera to speak her own words.

So, in the spirit of having them have a bit of a moment in participatory democracy, I asked them to get all together and around Sultana while she read the question off the whiteboard. And this was momentuous because even Sultana didn't want to participate earlier in the class. I think that seeing the others having fun and not being judged (by her teacher or me) for their performance must have given her courage.