Monday, May 19, 2008

RUFUS' JOURNAL

I’ve now been at ‘The Dhaka Project’ for 12 days and I’ve taken about 10 English lessons. Unfortunately, at the end of my ‘Standard VI’ English class today I felt rather annoyed.

Why’s that? Was it because the kids weren’t listening to me? (No) Was it because the kids weren’t enjoying the lesson? (No) Was it because a power cut had meant a boiling hot classroom? (A little)

In fact, the real reason was because the kids were so good at English!!

I had prepared myself to teach them verbs, adjectives and nouns - things I hoped would push their knowledge a little. In reality, they already knew these words, what they meant and how to use them! Crikey! They even started to confuse me with talk of pronouns!

So, I’m now thinking hard about what (and how) I can teach them. I know it’s useful for them to talk to a fluent English speaker and I’m definite there’s a lot I can help them with. The kids could actually take a few of their classes just in English – so maybe instead of teaching English I’ll teach a different subject in English – they’ll learn two things at once! I wonder if they’ll be interested in my favourite subject, American politics..... :)

My adult teaching class is going very well. Not only have we conquered 1-100 in the last couple of days, we’re now moving on to the important question words – What, Where, When and How. I’m very surprised how quick they’re picking it all up and I’ve got great expectations for their progress.

Apart from that, Gawair (the district where the project is), is fine. We’ve been experiencing a few power cuts (not very nice when your room’s at 33 degrees) and a few dramatic rain storms, although I don’t think this’ll compare to the monsoon....

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