A Backpack Full of Dreams

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The thirty-nine ESL students, dark eyed and dark complexioned, each took their turn telling me their name and their country of origin. Mexico. El Salvador. Honduras. Cuba. Peru. Colombia. Ecuador. Lebanon. India. China. Korea.

This is Los Angeles, home to more than 224 languages, not including regional dialects. It was my job, as a guest speaker at the community college, to present the notion of improving English language skills throu...