Strangers Within Our Gates

About the Book

The English language already challenges enough Americans. Why do we still hear TV commentators say “to I” or “he should have went”? So watch my three Asian scientists try to make sense of the English language in my ESL classes. Learn to appreciate their cultures—how similar to ours and how different. Listen to them respond to the Christian religion. Hear them discuss politics at our pizza parties. Go with them to the movies—Martin Luther and The Passion of Christ—and see how they react. Get inside their contrasting personalities and laugh, if you want, at my own peculiar one. Feel my pinch of sadness when our ESL course disintegrated and we said our farewells. Far from being carbon copies of each other, these three distinct personalities might make you smile or sigh or even be surprised.

About the Author

Paul Boecler attended Concordia Seminary and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and later spent a year of study at Tuebingen University, Germany. He was a pastor in Milford, Ohio, before he taught college students, the last twenty-four years before retirement at Concordia College, Bronxville, New York. He was awarded honorable mention for a sermon published in Best Sermons, No. 2 by Harper and Row in 1989. He has published several short articles and books on a variety of topics. He and his German-born wife, Gertraud, are the proud parents of Gerhardt and Andrea, both residing in the Chicago area.