Lundbom on the campus of Yaşar University, in Izmir, Turkey, where she was on the English faculty.
Words and languages fascinate Jeanie Lundbom ’88. The act of forming words and navigating the intricacies of the English language have been her life’s work. And she’s used her expertise to help immigrants become proficient speakers, holding out a helping hand to those seeking a new life in the United States.
“I have always loved language. It’s an incredibly complex skill that people have, that they develop, without realizing it,” she says. For the past 30 years, she’s used that fascination to help new immigrants learn English, a notoriously tricky language to learn, especially for those whose schooling in their homelands was lacking.
“I have taught for community programs, adult schools, refugee resettlement agencies, language institutes, junior colleges, and universities in Northern California, Chicago, Germany, Ukraine, Turkey, and now Maine. I’ve taught everything from literacy to advanced levels, and especially enjoy teaching grammar. I even have a YouTube channel (youtube.com/jeanietheenglishteacher) with grammar videos I’ve made. The production quality is very low tech, but they get the job done,” she says.
Teaching English as a second language has its pluses and minuses, however. It is not lucrative, especially teaching adults, and it’s difficult to make a living doing it, Lundbom says. Her career of teaching in many different places has enabled her to learn about the world and other cultures. Lundbom says she once counted 17 different native languages in one of her adult English language classes. She spent several years working with Bosnian refugees in Chicago, an experience she cherishes.
“I got quite immersed in the lives and culture of my Bosnian refugee students when I worked for World Relief [a refugee resettlement agency] for four years in Chicago. Every day of acclimating them to life in the U.S. and teaching them ‘survival English’ felt so vital,” she says. “There’s something very invigorating about going to work when what you’re doing makes a real, concrete difference in people’s lives.”
From Bosnia to Ukraine to Turkey, Lundbom has traveled to a variety of political hotspots teaching English. From 2015 to 2016, Lundbom was an English language fellow with the U.S. Department of State (a sister program to the Fulbright) and was placed in Cherkasy, Ukraine.
One of Lundbom’s classes at Portland Adult Education in Portland, Maine, where she currently teaches. The majority of the students are asylum seekers from Central Africa, mainly Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with smaller populations from the Middle East and Central America.
“The diplomatic and educational benefits of those exchange programs can’t be matched,” she says. “I was the first American many of those Ukrainians had met, and in fact the first native English speaker many of the English professors at my university had gotten to know. And on my end, I am without a doubt more educated and invested in what’s happening right now in Ukraine.”
In 2020, Lundbom came back from Turkey to live with her parents in Kennebunk, Maine. “My parents are both in their early 80s now and having health issues, and it was clear to me that this was where I needed to be. I’m extremely fortunate to have a full-time contracted position at Portland (Maine) Adult Education with really outstanding colleagues.”
She says Portland has had many asylum seekers from Central Africa for a number of years now, and despite a large English as a second language program, there is a very long waiting list for classes. Most of her students are from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, and many of them are living at shelters or being put up in hotels.
In addition to English, Lundbom helps those learners who haven’t had the “Western” style of schooling. “If this is one of their first classes they’ve taken, we teach study skills, [and help them] learn how to learn in our kind of academic system. That is absolutely huge,” she says.
“I have concluded that out of all of the factors a student brings—their age or how different their language is from English—the number one factor [in their ability to learn English] is their past education. It has driven home what it means to get a good basic education. You’re working with people who have not ever learned how to learn in a school setting or study on their own,” she adds.
“Teaching English, or any language, without using translation is a real art form. There’s so much you have to teach that’s not concrete, like ‘What’s your name?’ You have to be able to make it so clear by demonstrating the ideal context for it that even if someone’s hearing gobbledygook, they practically have no choice but to understand. There’s a lot of acting involved.”
Lundbom’s years of experience have been fulfilling, and she sees a continued need for her services. “Every program I’ve worked for has had its own issues and challenges, and the challenges we’re facing with this community are especially large. But I wouldn’t think of doing anything else.”