Entry Level and Progress

Ponna

I recently started teaching an entry level class in the morning.

“How are you?” I ask a newer student.

She stares at me blankly while her classmate elbows her whispering fiercely, “I am fine. I am fine.”

“I am fine,” she shyly answers, her voice barely above a whisper.

I find myself becoming attached to this class. We’re hardly parked at school before an entourage of small boys come swarming out, opening up my door. Eager hands snatch my backpack and triumphantly carry it to the table for me.

Although we have a large language barrier, I enjoy interacting with these students. I have

Leena

five boys. Sna, the little boy who loves to carry my bag, is hyperactive and excitable, but not the most excellent of students. He’s too busy telling the others how to do it to fully understand how himself. Monarea is a bright boy. He knows a lot, compared to the rest of the class, but he feels a little like he already knows it all. Noich is very smart. Luke said he learned everything about letter sounds from just sitting in class (minimum participation. Earlier Luke had a few students who weren’t really his students, but just sat and listened). Sokdom and Dara don’t say a whole lot. Sokdom knows some and Dara knows much less.

I have seven girls. Leseang is almost too young to be in class. She doesn’t know how to read Khmer yet, so I don’t have super high expectations on teaching her to read English. Her sister goes to Michael’s class, so I agreed to teach her. Leena and Ponna are both bright, but a little impatient. Raddet doesn’t attend so well, but she knew NOTHING when I started teaching her two weeks ago, and she’s caught on fairly fast. Sara is an attention starved child. She can be a handful. When she comes I almost hold my breath waiting for something to happen. Sayda is rather quiet and not very regular. Navwee is an adorable girl who quietly slips into class and studiously works. After class I’ll sometimes talk with her, and her shy smile transforms her face.

Put it all together, I think I’m becoming too attached. I don’t have much longer here, and I find twelve new strings tying my heart down. It’s going to be difficult to leave.

Teaching an entry level class is a whole new challenge for me. It reinforced the realization of how far my afternoon class really came, because when I first started teaching them, some of them weren’t much ahead of these youngsters. It reminds me of my first day teaching my afternoon class…

I stood in front of the students and stared back at the 20 pairs of curious eyes. They all looked the same. “My name is Jody,” I said slowly. “What is your name?” I walked by each student getting them to spell their names for me. By the end of the first class I was overwhelmed. Half the students hardly knew the ABC’s while the other half could read simple words and were ready to move on.

Pom

Frustrated, I tried to steer a middle course, which was way too fast for the students who didn’t know, but much too slow for the ones who did. I lost a few good students and many of the bad ones, but a few stuck it out. As the weeks slowly progressed I began to bond with these boys. Although I felt like I failed at teaching them English, we at least began to have fun.

Months slowly melted into each other, and now here I am over a year later with basically the same class (a few girls now attend too, which the boys at first resented). The difference is astounding really. They don’t speak near perfect English, but… looking back I can hardly believe these are the same students!

The other day there was a party going on at school, so only five of my usual ten came. They

Kimlean, Iy, and Mongol

cried, “Today no learn.”

“Today we will learn a little,” I smile at their excitement. I couldn’t blame them for wanting to take off to watch the activity.

“Tomorrow maybe not come,” Ya says.

When I ask why, he doesn’t know the English for it, but I know it’s the party going on at the school. “Will you come tomorrow?” I ask.

Soklat says, “I come.”

Iy, Mongol, and Ya

“Mongol, will you come?” I ask.

“Yes, I come,” Mongol says and Kimlean echoes his reply.

“Maybe I come. Maybe no come,” Ya says.

“Kanya?” I ask the other girl. “Will you come?”

Kanya grins. The others laugh. “Kanya lazy. She no come,” they say.

After we study a bit I ask what game they want to play. Soklat says, “Class Michael play bingo for candy.”

“I don’t have candy,” I grin.

Ya leaps up. “Soklat give me money. I drive moto Luke. Go buy candy.”

“No,” Soklat cries. “Ya give money. I drive moto Luke. Go buy candy.”

We decide to play with flash cards. I describe the picture and they have to say what it is. For example: it is an apple. I may say, “It is a fruit. It is a circle. Sometimes it is red and sometimes it is green.” My heart swells as they carefully listen. I want to get them to the point where they’re the ones describing the card, but they’re just not there yet.

I wish I could remember what I was telling them… but I love the confused, concentrated looks on their faces.

I still struggle sometimes teaching these students. Some don’t understand what’s going on, while others can become bored, but I can’t help being extremely proud of them. They’ve come so far, and it’s going to be hard to leave them. I will miss this class. Not just because I have fun with them now, but also because of all the struggles we went through earlier.

 

 

Teaching Struggles

“Learning English is important,” the Khmer people assure us fairly often. Sometimes we’re not sure if they believe it themselves.

Another empty classroom faced us in Gosrok. Luke and I decided switching up the time didn’t help any. We’d been told that our grades had Khmer class in the afternoon, so morning classes would be better. We told them to come at 10. They had said they would. At 11 we packed up and left without teaching. “Maybe on Tuesday there’ll be students,” we said with little confidence.

Some of the students playing football after class

Tuesday rolled around and still no students. While we lounged in the hammocks waiting for students not to come, Ee(aunt) explained why they stopped coming.  One school was offering English classes and unless the students studied English at that class they couldn’t study Khmer in that school… period. And that wasn’t the only English class within easy reach. So we decided to drop Gosrok School and focus on the Vesvan School.

Our attendance at the Vesvan School wasn’t looking too good either. Several of our most regular students could no longer come. The sixth graders studied Khmer in the afternoon, but the fifth graders studied in the morning, so we had two classes in the morning and one in the afternoon. When we drove in the first Tuesday morning, it didn’t look like very many students. But on the following day the trees were groaning under the weight of children.

“So much for my lesson plan,” Luke grumbled.

The principal had passed on the word that we were ready for another class. The students came pouring in. That night Michael sent me the word to prepare a lesson for an afternoon class. So now, we teach three classes in the morning and three in the afternoon every day. It seems we’re either overrun with students or hoping we’ll have at least two students.

I just can’t get enough of the sunsets!

When it comes to teaching English as a Foreign Language, empty classes and overabundant ones aren’t our only trials. There’s the wide knowledge gap within the class room. In my afternoon class about half of my students are ready to begin reading, while the other half struggles over what sound ‘e’ and ‘i’ make. Then there’s the student who comes for about half the classes, so every time he comes you must spend ten or fifteen minutes explaining to him what’s going on. And let’s not forget the one student who gets bored with bingo at the table and thinks playing on the floor would be more fun. =)

I love the times when the students understand what I’m teaching and use it, or when they clearly enjoy class and enthusiastically do their best, or when they race to see who can finish the worksheet first, or who can get the most correct. Sometimes I feel like life really couldn’t get any better than a classroom filled with eager students.

A Dream Come True!

Bangla Bound!! At least that would’ve been true a couple of days ago. It took me FOREVER to get here! But, hallelujah!!! I am HERE!!!! I will spare you the miserable details of how I arrived in Nazipur. Really, we suffered many hardships, but so far every cramped muscle, every sick feeling, every sleepless hour, and every stinky, unshowered day was worth it.

Nazipur (pronounce the z very softly) is a small village in north Bangladesh. We are around 9 hr. night drive from Dhaka. After a very miserable night in a minibus (notice how I’m sparing you the details), we arrived to a cold, dirty, uninviting house. That didn’t last long though. We pitched in and had the floors shiny clean and our things in ship-shape order in… well, I would say no time, but that would be a slight untruth. It didn’t take us too long, but that day felt like an eternity. Oh, yes, that was Friday (and although I said I’d spare you the miserable details, I will add that I had left home on Sunday).

On Saturday, we slept in slightly, and took rickshaw vans to a girl high school. I will be teaching there. After a VERY long time of listening to many big wigs giving long windy speeches in Bangla, we drank tea and ate mishty –a white little ball that tastes like textured humming-bird food… *shudder* nastiness!!! The girls were so nice and friendly. Wanting to shake your hand and smiling brightly at you with big inquisitive eyes. Some know very good English, others… not so good. They showed us how to play some games and giggled behind our backs at our attempts to pronounce their names. I think I will like it there very much. They are such lovable people! And so beautiful!!!

We had a late lunch and I visited one of Lidia’s friends with her. Lidia was here last year and so she has students and friends. (In fact our house is always being invaded by Jonathan’s, Keith’s, or Brian’s friends/former students) We sat on their bed, ate some kind of delicious, but VERY spicy food, and went for a walk. After supper we visited another friend of Lidia. Sitting on the person’s bed and drinking tea or eating a snack is the BIG thing to do here!! They are very polite and hospitable!! They share the little they have with great happiness and to have someone at their house and NOT feed them is more than unthinkable.

So far so good. I love it here. I look forward to each day. I can’t wait to know what new adventure each day brings. Tomorrow I start teaching. I’m nervous, but excited. God is SO good! My dream is coming true! I feel so overwhelmed! Please continue to pray for me, because I don’t think this high will last forever. Surely sometime the cold showers, squat pots, and lack of privacy will get to me. I NEED your prayers. I know you have been praying, and I can tell. I mean I’ve survived my trip here! That in its self is amazing. =)