#14

March 21, 2014
Volunteering at Oxford University Press conference

Every spring Oxford University Press organizes a conference for Latvian English teachers with British guest lecturers speaking about some newly developed, yet effective techniques used to teach English as a second language. Since sixteen people altogether volunteered themselves as assistants at this event when only four were needed, I suppose I can consider myself lucky for actually getting the opportunity. 

After arriving at Tallink Hotel Riga 9.30 am, I got to help at setting up the tables for registration by distributing some of the handout materials. Whilst waiting for further orders I already made myself familiar with the written instructions left for voluteers that, at first, included registering the teachers, giving them the appropriate forms of inquiry and asking whether they wished to receive emails from OUP. Frankly, considering that they came to the conference, some teachers had already noted that they would not like to be informed about upcoming events, organized specifically for English teachers...

Nevertheless, after being instructed in person by our supervisor Dace, I felt confident about my skills and necessary knowledge, and easily adapted to the given task. In addition to the responsibilities mentioned above, quite often I and my classmate Mikelis, with whom I worked together, had to redirect teachers to the other table, for the lists were arraged by last names and we got only "N-Z". Although there was a clear sign explaining directions, many people - probably because of the line being much shorter - mistakenly came to our table. 

Even though we did a fine job and were not troubled with many misunderstandings, I must admit, I had expected to communicate mostly in English. Yet, if some teachers were not fluent in Latvian, they immediately shifted to Russian instead of English. To me, it was a great disappointment, despite my Russian skills demanding practice as well. Still, from my perspective, registration was the most interesting part of the whole conference, because while sitting behind the door, I could not even listen to the wonderful speeches. All the following tasks were rather mundane.

In five minutes, if not less, we stuffed twenty-four gift bags, attached numbers to them - an action that later appeared useless - and began writing certificates. Again, the task was easy and neither as challenging nor as demanding as I would have preferred, but we did a good deed and that was satisfying enough. Naturally, the certificates written last were neater and more elegant, but - considering that letters were large the whole time - the supervisor did not complain.

However, to me the most ironic incident seemed to be the first ten-minute break, during which the teachers were supposed either to visit the restroom or simply to break their sedentary time. Still, almost all of them left the conference room and began pouring coffee and eating blueberry pastry dishes that were made by Tallink Hotel Riga staff. Therefore, Dace - the chief organizer and our supervisor - was obliged to order more pastries and even cookies, so that people had something to nibble on during the actual coffee break. Our task then was to hand out lottery gifts to teachers who, by chance, had got one of the twenty-four lucky inquiry forms. Approximately two thirds of the 'winners' came to receive their gifts, but still the numbers we had to put on the gifts proved to be entirely unnecessary since having them only hindered the process.

After that the only responsibility left was arranging the certificates on the tables in alphabetical order, ensuring that, once the last lecture ended, teachers could quickly and easily get their certificates.

And here come some pictures:

direction signs in hotel lobby

registration table before I got to work

lists of teachers signed up for the conference

a glimpse into the conference room

writing certificates

unofficial coffee break

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My reflections
Even though from a volunteer's point of view the Oxford University Press conference cannot be considered eventful, to me it definitely was an entirely new experience, useful in some specific ways.
While not having to offer brochures and advertisement handouts to random people who evidently lack interest in a matter was a pleasant change, most importantly the activity gave me the opportunity to practice my communication skills with unknown people as well as to work collaboratively with three classmates. Certainly, I improved my ability to quickly distribute responsibilities whilst working in a team, to adapt to various situations and to competently and politely react when some issues arise.
Still, although generally I enjoyed volunteering at this event, I had several disappointments, the first of them being the lack of opportunities to actually use English. Contrary to what I anticipated, not only the teachers did not use English when communicating with me or with each other, - many of them switched to Russian instead of English, if they had problems with Latvian language. Also, while it is a reasonable choice, considering that our supervisor could not have been sure whether we could be trusted in the first place - I would have preferred some more challenging and intellectually demanding tasks than the ones we were assigned. Lastly, I would have liked to hear the speeches, for the few introductory sentences I did hear appeared to open a very appealing speech, but, of course, this is a minor disappointment.
Overall, despite the activity being rather mundane at times, it was different than most of the activities I have so far taken a part in and therefore I found it interesting.