Newton High Schooler Starts Tutoring Nonprofit To Teach Tibetan Students English

NEWTON, MA – Neena Tarafdar was in middle school when she first began tutoring her younger cousin in Tibet who was struggling with English. Little did she know that her passion for languages and helping others would soon turn into a full-fledged transcontinental organization.

Flash forward a few years, the Newton South High School junior is the founder of a non-profit organization, The Lotus Project, that connects students in Tibet who want to learn English with Newton high schoolers proficient in Chinese.

“I'm kind of in this position where I have connections to kids in Tibet who want the help, as well as high schoolers from Newton who are very motivated to help,” Tarafdar said of the cross-cultural exchange the program offers both Tibetan students and Newton tutors.

With Tibetan students ranging in age from 6-years-old to college freshman, and high school students from both Newton North and Newton South high schools, Tarafdar has her hands full.

But despite the many moving parts, she maintains the cool confidence of a natural-born leader – not to mention that being a polyglot (she speaks English, Chinese and French fluently, and is currently learning Spanish and Arabic) certainly helps, too.

The Lotus Project

Tarafdar started the nonprofit in June of 2022 as a sophomore, and designed The Lotus Project website herself, created a list of resources, and even made curriculum plans for her tutors.

“Teaching any language can be really, really hard and there are always language barriers that arise,” Tarafdar said. “So I work to just make it easier for the tutors in whatever way I can.”

There are currently 16 student-tutor pairs in the program, who use the popular Chinese messaging platform WeChat to conduct their tutoring sessions.

Students and tutors can send messages to one another, conduct video calls, and share screens to structure their lessons however they see fit.

“I know of a tutor who is currently watching Avatar the Last Airbender with their student,” Tarafdar said, of the hit adventure fantasy television series, “They like to share screen audio,” she said.

“Purposeful, but individual conversation”

The most important thing about the tutoring sessions, Tarafdar said, is that both students and tutors engage in what she calls “purposeful, but individual conversation.”

Tarafdar pointed to her fourth grade student’s journey to learning English as an example of the way conversations focused on a student's individual needs and learning style produce the best results.

“I always like to speak as much English as I can with these classes to get as much exposure as possible,” Tarafdar said. “I started speaking English to her, and she didn't feel great speaking English. So she had a whole meltdown and started crying,” she said.

Tarafdar decided to switch to Chinese, and for the first few classes, she talked with her student about anything she wanted to in order to gain her trust and build her comfort and confidence.

As the sessions went by, Tarafdar noticed that her student was starting to become more and more comfortable with her.

“She started showing me the book she was reading at school and the little drawings that she made, and once she got more comfortable, we started introducing English and then having small conversations that were very similar every single time so she was comfortable,” Tarafdar said.

In the eight months that Tarafdar has been tutoring her, her student can now hold simple conversations in English with confidence and comfort.

“Now she can tell me her favorite color is blue, and why blue is her favorite color. It's been amazing to see, and I think that's kind of the best way to learn,” she said.

Tutor troubles

Students are not the only ones who struggle in the beginning with language barriers and feeling comfortable to express themselves.

Tutors too, Tarafdar said, can find it challenging to get to a level where they feel comfortable with their students.

To help them, Tarfdar will sit in on a few classes with the new tutors and help guide them in their conversations until they eventually become confident enough to do so on their own.

She has also started recruiting tutors who don’t speak Chinese fluently, but who speak a degree of the language.

“I do think it's completely possible to teach a language without having to have a common language between you,” Tarafdar said. “I lived in Paris when I was younger, and my parents kind of threw me into public school with all the French kids. You learn to adapt, and it honestly pushes you to learn the language better.”

Making a difference for everyone

Tarafdar said she’s extremely proud of the cross-cultural aspect of the program and the opportunity for Newton high schoolers to help Tibetan students, who she said are disadvantaged in geographical and political ways.

“Tibetan students have limited access to native English speakers as well as tutors and mentors from the wider global community,” Tarafdar wrote on the program’s website.

While the program's goal is to help Tibetan students learn English, the program also gives Newton tutors the opportunity to grow and overcome challenges.

Like the lotus flower, which Tarafdar chose as the name for the project because it symbolizes enlightenment in Buddhist culture, both Tibetan students and Newton tutors learn more than just a language through the program – they learn about themselves in the process, too.