Hello everyone!
Things over here have been becoming to become a bit more routine and the initial bewilderment at everything completely new and different over here has been becoming to wear down. I have been getting to know some of the teachers at the school more and more, and have been exploring the island. Typhoon FengShen has been hitting the Philippines these past few days, it actually overturned a ferry in the central Philippines. We got a bit of it on Friday and Saturday, and it was weather unlike anything that I had seen so far on my trip. Strong, gusting winds coming from nowhere, unbelievably strong rain that lasted almost for two days. This is the beginning of the wet season here in Camiguin, and the dry season in over. Over here there is no summer, fall, winter of spring. Only wet and hot.
I have been progressing with my work and have been discovering that a few more of the teachers are very excited to learn English. But some of them also do not seem to be very motivated, and seem to avoid having a lesson with me at any cost, lest I have to push it on them. Maybe it is because they are shy and ashamed of their English, I don't know. But maybe it is because they simply don't want to.
I am sharing my room with a teacher called Wilvin, he is 25 years old I think, and he has a 3 year old son. He is the head of English at the school, and while at first he avoided English lessons and did not want to schedule a lesson, saying that we live together and I sit in on his classes, and that that is more than equal to an English lesson, he has recently come around and has been very keen to work on pronunciation and grammar. Oftentimes, when I am free, he says "Eugene let's work on pronunciation" or "Eugene let's work on my English," and that makes me happy because I was a bit resentful at first, when I felt that he was avoiding English lessons, because he does in fact have some things to work on.
I have been sitting in on Wilvin's English classes. He teaches Language and Pronunciation to Grade 6 students and Language to Grade 5 students. During the classes, I sit in with a notebook and write down when Wilvin makes a mistake in pronunciation or grammar, and I think that he is quite sensitive to it. Of cousre he appreciates that I do it, because I am doing it to help him, but I can tell that he is also a bit bothered whenever I start jotting something down in there!
Wilvin has also given me the opportunity to teach several lessons in his classes. I taught part of one grade 6 class, and the entirety of another grade 5 class on pronouns. It is very hard! And it is true what they say, that standing up there in front of the board makes you dumber! Sometimes you don't know what to say or do, and you are completely lost.
I have also been making quite a bit of progress learning sign language. There are many deaf students at the school and 2 of the teachers are also deaf. During my English tutoring classes with them, I pick up a lot of the sign langauge because it is better to communicate with them in sign language than through jotting things on paper. But I have learned enough that I can sometimes say an entire sentence without not knowing a word, and if I don't know it, I can spell it out in sign language and then they show me the sign. One of the teachers, Archelene, can also read lips pretty well, and that makes communicating with her much easier!
But the problem is that sign language does not really follow the same rules of grammar as spoken language. In fact, they usually take a lot of shortcuts. So instead of signing "I am going there," they usually sign "I go there." Furthermore, sign language does not have the various tenses that spoken and written language have. For example, the signs for "I went there" and "I have gone there" would be the same. This makes the deaf teachers have many problems with written grammar, because they have never been exposed to it, not even in their communications in English. And this has made working with the 2 deaf teachers, Archelene and Tonette, particularly challenging and also particularly rewarding!
Goodbye from the island, for now.
Eugene
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
starting to get rolling
Hello!
Things over here have been very good, I have been bonding with the other instructors at the school and have been getting to know some of the students. The instructors are all very friendly, as is indicative of Filipinos in general, as far as I have been able to see. Even if you are a complete stranger, they will often offer you a drink, or some food, or invite you into their house! They are really very nice people! But of course being the city slicker that I am, I always get a bit suspicious when a stranger approaches me like that and offers me something: what do they want from me? Are they going to rob me? But I have learned to let my guard down a little bit here and just allow myself to meet the people.
It is very interesting to watch the students at the school. Some of them have a real curiosity and passion for learning, and others seem a bit disinterested and copy their homework from others. Leo, one of the deaf students at the school (who was actually found in a bus terminal in Cagayan de Oro by the school nurse) always goes to the staff room and searches through the shelves, looking for books with pretty pictures. Then he procedes to leaf through the books, and mumbles to himself some of the words that he is able to read. I have observed another girl, Zichochin, doing the same thing. Except she is quite good in English and was able to read a few paragraphs of the children's book by herself. When I approached her and offered to help she turned very shy.
But then I spoke to Zichocin for a bit. She is the oldest of 5 children and comes from somewhere in Mindanao (I don't remember where exactly). Her mother is a housewife and her father is a farmer. She said that her family is very poor, and she probably would not be able to go to school were it not for Family to Family. I asked her about her dream, and she said that she wants to be a teacher. I asked her why, and she said that it is because she wants to one day help other children like herself, who would not otherwise have the opportunity to get an education.
And then she asked me about my life. I told her that I come from New York, and I described as "there are buildings everywhere, and no grass or green, except in some closed places where there are trees that are called parks." I never imagined how foreign the concept of an American city can be to a child like Zichochin. She comes from a completely different world. She asked me about my dreams and my family, and I told her that I dream of being a doctor, and that my father works with computers and my mother is also a doctor. She asked me if I was rich. All of the sudden, I felt very ashamed. I do not usually consider myself rich, when most people ask me I say that I am upper-middle class. But here, there was no way of denying it. I looked around at the school, and at the clothes that she was wearing and that the other children wear, and at the opportunities that I have had to visit so many places around the world while these children have never left Mindanao, and while most Filipinos live and die without ever having stepped foot even as far as Manila or Camiguin. And I said, yes I guess I am rich. But I told her that I would rather not be rich if other people have to be poor.
I meant it at the time, but I do not know if that is really true. I am able to see how lucky I am, yet I am scared to think that maybe it could have been different, maybe I could have been very poor and not had any of the opportunities that I have today. While I feel sorry for the people around me and want to help them, I cling to my wealth and privilege selfishly.
Things over here have been very good, I have been bonding with the other instructors at the school and have been getting to know some of the students. The instructors are all very friendly, as is indicative of Filipinos in general, as far as I have been able to see. Even if you are a complete stranger, they will often offer you a drink, or some food, or invite you into their house! They are really very nice people! But of course being the city slicker that I am, I always get a bit suspicious when a stranger approaches me like that and offers me something: what do they want from me? Are they going to rob me? But I have learned to let my guard down a little bit here and just allow myself to meet the people.
It is very interesting to watch the students at the school. Some of them have a real curiosity and passion for learning, and others seem a bit disinterested and copy their homework from others. Leo, one of the deaf students at the school (who was actually found in a bus terminal in Cagayan de Oro by the school nurse) always goes to the staff room and searches through the shelves, looking for books with pretty pictures. Then he procedes to leaf through the books, and mumbles to himself some of the words that he is able to read. I have observed another girl, Zichochin, doing the same thing. Except she is quite good in English and was able to read a few paragraphs of the children's book by herself. When I approached her and offered to help she turned very shy.
But then I spoke to Zichocin for a bit. She is the oldest of 5 children and comes from somewhere in Mindanao (I don't remember where exactly). Her mother is a housewife and her father is a farmer. She said that her family is very poor, and she probably would not be able to go to school were it not for Family to Family. I asked her about her dream, and she said that she wants to be a teacher. I asked her why, and she said that it is because she wants to one day help other children like herself, who would not otherwise have the opportunity to get an education.
And then she asked me about my life. I told her that I come from New York, and I described as "there are buildings everywhere, and no grass or green, except in some closed places where there are trees that are called parks." I never imagined how foreign the concept of an American city can be to a child like Zichochin. She comes from a completely different world. She asked me about my dreams and my family, and I told her that I dream of being a doctor, and that my father works with computers and my mother is also a doctor. She asked me if I was rich. All of the sudden, I felt very ashamed. I do not usually consider myself rich, when most people ask me I say that I am upper-middle class. But here, there was no way of denying it. I looked around at the school, and at the clothes that she was wearing and that the other children wear, and at the opportunities that I have had to visit so many places around the world while these children have never left Mindanao, and while most Filipinos live and die without ever having stepped foot even as far as Manila or Camiguin. And I said, yes I guess I am rich. But I told her that I would rather not be rich if other people have to be poor.
I meant it at the time, but I do not know if that is really true. I am able to see how lucky I am, yet I am scared to think that maybe it could have been different, maybe I could have been very poor and not had any of the opportunities that I have today. While I feel sorry for the people around me and want to help them, I cling to my wealth and privilege selfishly.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
my first week at the school
I have been at the Family to Family School and Farm for one week now, in the Philippines for two weeks now, and I have been having an absolutely amazing time. All of the instructors have been very hospitable and I have been getting to know some of them, particularly Wilvin, the main English person at the school and Joseph, another instructor there.
Being at the school has been an eye-opening experience. The children walk around with tattered clothes and dirty feet, but still I am confident that what they have at the school is much better than what they would have had otherwise, whatever they would be doing. The students all live at the school, and are incredibly disciplined. They help to clean up, always greet me very respectfully ("Good afternoon, teacher Eugene!"), and are always in class and never late. Although in grading their homework I have noticed that they do copy each other's homework quite a bit!
I have been sitting in on Wilvin's grade 4,5 and 6 English classes. In the beginning, the children were all very shy around me, given that I am a big intimidating American who supposedly speaks broken English but now after a week of me being there, they have warmed up to me. However, I have to say that I am a bit disappointed in their level of English. The grade 5 and 6 students are sometimes barely able to compose complete English sentences when asked to do so. An example would be "Rey-rey playing a basketball." However, there are quite a few very promisiung students in the class, I can see that they are trying hard to learn and get great pride and satisfaction from doing so.
Yesterday I began to tutor the instructors in English. We decided that I would be meeting with them for at least one hour every week to work on pronunciation and grammar. Quite a few of them do not seem that excited about it, but on the other hand maybe they are but are also a bit shy or ashamed of their imperfect English. Of course, there is nothing to be ashamed about. On the other hand, I have been a bit disappointed with the level of English spoken by some of the instructors. I think that out of all the instructors, Wilvin's English is the best, and yet he often omits verbs or articles in his speech, uses inappropriate word order and mispronounces words. Maybe I am expecting too much, but I can see how the students would themselves get confused. Of course, I have not told Wilvin this and I hope that I do not make the instructors feel like their English is bad, on the other hand it is quite good and if I was expected to speak a language that was foreign to me I wouldn't expect myself to be as good! But maybe for teaching students, it is not good enough...
I would like to end this post with an experience that touched and inspired me. One of the instructors at the school is called Evelyn. She seemed quite reluctant to be tutored by me because she kept on postponing it, and to be honest my impression of her was not that positive because she never really spoke to me. But nonetheless, she scheduled her tutoring session with me for one of the first available slots. Then, when it was time for me to come get her from the "instructors' lounge" (I'm not sure what the proper name is, but don't let the word lounge fool you into thinking that it's fancy) , I saw that she was reviewing English grammar, in particular the past and past participle forms of irregular verbs (become, became, have become...) At the point, I realized just how nervous she was about the lesson, and perhaps that she may have been shy or ashamed of her English. And maybe she was being cold because of that very reason as well.
In any case, I went to get her, and we started the lesson in the room next door. Given that this was our first lesson, I tried to ease her in by having her talk about her life. She took this very seriously, and went on to tell me a story about her life which went something like this: she comes from a family with a lot of children, either 9 or 11. In any case, she is the oldest one, and her family is very very poor. Her father is a farmer and her mother is a housewife, and they live right here on Camiguin. When she was young, her family did not have enough money to buy her eyeglasses and school supplies, but she said that the Palmeris were kind enough to provide them to her through her humanitarian work. They also helped her through high school, and I believe through college in Cagayan de Oro, where she studied Education. She told me how thankful she is that the Palmeris gave her the opportunity to get an education, and to help her very poor family financially. Furthermore, she said that she is very loyal to the Palmeris for all the things that they have done for her, and this is the reason that she wanted to work at Family to Family School and Farm. Furthermore, she said that she is extremely motivated to learn English and to make the most of the opportunity that is presented to her in my presence at the school. Throughout the lesson, she demonstrated such a zeal and motivation for learning, it was very impressive and I have to say I was amazed. This was a woman in her late 20s or early 30s (not old of course, but perhaps past her student days). She was so motivated that we went ahead and scheduled another meeting for this week.
I hope that this finds all of you well.
With love from beautiful and hot Camiguin,
Eugene
Being at the school has been an eye-opening experience. The children walk around with tattered clothes and dirty feet, but still I am confident that what they have at the school is much better than what they would have had otherwise, whatever they would be doing. The students all live at the school, and are incredibly disciplined. They help to clean up, always greet me very respectfully ("Good afternoon, teacher Eugene!"), and are always in class and never late. Although in grading their homework I have noticed that they do copy each other's homework quite a bit!
I have been sitting in on Wilvin's grade 4,5 and 6 English classes. In the beginning, the children were all very shy around me, given that I am a big intimidating American who supposedly speaks broken English but now after a week of me being there, they have warmed up to me. However, I have to say that I am a bit disappointed in their level of English. The grade 5 and 6 students are sometimes barely able to compose complete English sentences when asked to do so. An example would be "Rey-rey playing a basketball." However, there are quite a few very promisiung students in the class, I can see that they are trying hard to learn and get great pride and satisfaction from doing so.
Yesterday I began to tutor the instructors in English. We decided that I would be meeting with them for at least one hour every week to work on pronunciation and grammar. Quite a few of them do not seem that excited about it, but on the other hand maybe they are but are also a bit shy or ashamed of their imperfect English. Of course, there is nothing to be ashamed about. On the other hand, I have been a bit disappointed with the level of English spoken by some of the instructors. I think that out of all the instructors, Wilvin's English is the best, and yet he often omits verbs or articles in his speech, uses inappropriate word order and mispronounces words. Maybe I am expecting too much, but I can see how the students would themselves get confused. Of course, I have not told Wilvin this and I hope that I do not make the instructors feel like their English is bad, on the other hand it is quite good and if I was expected to speak a language that was foreign to me I wouldn't expect myself to be as good! But maybe for teaching students, it is not good enough...
I would like to end this post with an experience that touched and inspired me. One of the instructors at the school is called Evelyn. She seemed quite reluctant to be tutored by me because she kept on postponing it, and to be honest my impression of her was not that positive because she never really spoke to me. But nonetheless, she scheduled her tutoring session with me for one of the first available slots. Then, when it was time for me to come get her from the "instructors' lounge" (I'm not sure what the proper name is, but don't let the word lounge fool you into thinking that it's fancy) , I saw that she was reviewing English grammar, in particular the past and past participle forms of irregular verbs (become, became, have become...) At the point, I realized just how nervous she was about the lesson, and perhaps that she may have been shy or ashamed of her English. And maybe she was being cold because of that very reason as well.
In any case, I went to get her, and we started the lesson in the room next door. Given that this was our first lesson, I tried to ease her in by having her talk about her life. She took this very seriously, and went on to tell me a story about her life which went something like this: she comes from a family with a lot of children, either 9 or 11. In any case, she is the oldest one, and her family is very very poor. Her father is a farmer and her mother is a housewife, and they live right here on Camiguin. When she was young, her family did not have enough money to buy her eyeglasses and school supplies, but she said that the Palmeris were kind enough to provide them to her through her humanitarian work. They also helped her through high school, and I believe through college in Cagayan de Oro, where she studied Education. She told me how thankful she is that the Palmeris gave her the opportunity to get an education, and to help her very poor family financially. Furthermore, she said that she is very loyal to the Palmeris for all the things that they have done for her, and this is the reason that she wanted to work at Family to Family School and Farm. Furthermore, she said that she is extremely motivated to learn English and to make the most of the opportunity that is presented to her in my presence at the school. Throughout the lesson, she demonstrated such a zeal and motivation for learning, it was very impressive and I have to say I was amazed. This was a woman in her late 20s or early 30s (not old of course, but perhaps past her student days). She was so motivated that we went ahead and scheduled another meeting for this week.
I hope that this finds all of you well.
With love from beautiful and hot Camiguin,
Eugene
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