English Teachers for One Day

On Friday, Chuck and I had a truly cross cultural experience as "English teachers for one day." We volunteered to teach English to junior high students in our hotel owner's school where he teaches English. With over 500 kids, all students were neatly dressed in orange uniforms and the school was lovely with flowers and courtyards everywhere. We were ushered into the concrete classroom of 40 silent students and introduced, whereupon the teacher promptly left to answer his cell phone (can you believe it?) We fumbled around, discussing our country, drawing pictures, and talking about our family. We tried repeatedly to engage them but they mostly smiled silently at us. I found a workbook passage and read it to them. It started with "A mother took her daughter to mall to buy fashionable clothes" and the grammar went downhill from there. I asked the multiple choice questions and they answered correctly and in unison in English. Must be the conversation which is so hard!

Then Chuck tried topics of sports and ended up teaching them all to shout "Go Ducks!" in unison although we have no idea what they understood of that. How funny to have 40 rural Balinese teenagers cheering for an Oregon football team halfway around the world from Oregon!

We were struck by the dearth of supplies and materials with no visual aids, in such a nice school. The teacher leaves the room every time his cell phone rings! As a teacher, my heart goes out to these teachers and students trying to learn with no visuals or materials and workbooks written in terrible grammar. I think of all the wasted materials and technology we have in the US. We are indeed fortunate, taking so much for granted when Third World kids have so little.