TEOMAN, Bellevue, Washington, USA

Middle School Student 
Male
​First Generation American


Q: What do you have in common with your teachers? 

A: When we first immigrated to the United States, I was only three-years-old and I had just learned how to speak my primary language--Turkish. At the playground, while the other kids played Bakugan, Pokémon, and Beyblade, I just sat in the corner and watched. When the time came to go to pre-K, I did not know what to do.

This was because I had just mastered Turkish, which made it harder to learn a second language without mixing the words up.  In addition, it looked like every kid around me was a master at English.

Apparently, my teacher was just as I was. She had also just moved to the United States a couple years before. My pre-K teacher knew what I was going through, so she gave me extra support. She taught me almost everything I needed to know.

Eventually, by the time I went to Kindergarten, I was the first kid there who learned how to read. On one of my first experiences with the American school system, I learned that having things in common with your teachers is very important.


Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? 

A: Of course! It does not matter how many similarities you may have with your teachers. Any similarities can help start a bond between the two.

As a student, I think it is very important to have similarities between each other. By having similarities with your teachers, this creates a friendship that is very important to have. Additionally, I think it is much easier to learn from a person who has similarities with you, know or trust versus a person who you have never seen in your life.

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