Lessons with Friends

The Tuesday class was riddled with disciplinary problems. The chidren did not seem to stay to the course in which I set out. I had printed out a list of software material which I was going to present as part of a lesson plan. I was going to start out with some fun word games and then continue onto some reading excercises. The moment I started to help one student, the other children were putting on music, chatting online or playing other oline games that had nothing to do with English. I felt that their interest was not really to learn English, but rather to play on the internet as if this was an internet café. The moment I turn one yahoo messenger off or turn off a video game, the other children would start playing online music behind my back. Some did try to put some effort by playing English music but it wasn’t really what I had planned. I tried to go with the flow as much as I could on Tuesday.

On Thusday, I had a diffent plan. I had used my projector and plugged it into a DVD player. I then showed Friends, the TV series with English subtitles. I then asked the students to write down after each segment of dialog. Some students were faster than others but they were all trying this time. After a scene, I would play back that portion and have the student all read out loud together. This would follow the dialog of the actors on Friends. I stressed the importance of annunciation and pronouncing of the words with the same inflections as what the Joeye or Monica were doing on Friends. After a couple rounds, I then made each student by themselves say each line following the actor’s rendition. I then had them stand up and use hand gestures and body language to express the words the say way the actors were doing on screen. Some student took right to this. The most roudy and difficult children were the ones that took to this exercise with enthusiasm. The shy quiet ones had more difficulties but they did their best with their accents and monotone reading of the words. In either case, they were able to muster the words out with emphasis on correct pronunciation. Since it was more a group activiey, I notice the the class room management was more coherent and it was less chaotic as compared to Tuesday. The experiement worked well. I think the slapstick humor of friends and the language was a good lesson for the children. I had to choose sceens that were not too racy. I will try this experiment next time with other sitcoms. The light heartedness of friends really was universal and the children really took to it. Many of the students were beyond the grammar excericses we were doing beforfe and were bored. They were ready to takle upon the subtle nuances of how Enlgish is spoken. This was fun and also challenged the students. They had to be in front of the whole class so it created a good dynamic classroom energy.

Bears for Kids

The night before my flight back to Vietnam, I was trying to fit a hundred stuff teddy bears into the two boxes that were allotted for the flight. They were mainly air so I put them into garbage bags and used a vacuum cleaner to suck the air out. While trying to press my knees on the bears, I heard a voice coming from a distance. It sounded muffled and then I realized it was the bears. It was if they are a live and did not appreciate being pressed into a little box. I was the only one in the office and hearing voices was a haunting experience. I tried my best make it comfortable for the stuff animals for their journey over seas.

It was generous of my sister’s friends to donate these stuff animals. Along with the stuff animals were over 50 videos. When we came to the gates of the orphanage with the two big boxes, I poked my head in and asked for co Bao who was one of sister monks that took care of the children. As soon as the boys saw me, they started to run out and were excited to see to box of toys. They actually remember my name and it was a nice feeling for them to all run out to greet. The videos made one of the boxes quite heavy, so the boys helped me carry it in. I did not tape it shut so it was very easy to open. The little boys were eager to see what is inside so I told them they were secrete gifts that is going to be passed out. That seems to fuel their curiosity so I had to stack the boxes beyond their height to keep them from looking inside.

I caught them at their dinner time as co Bao instructed them to eat. Before the meal, they were instructed to welcome and thanked the guess and they all chanted together as a group which quite a thrill to hear. They must have had training in this since many of the children were quite young. As I waited outside while the children ate, co Bao gave me some treats and some of the younger children were playing outside. There were babies that were one years old and infants. I felt as if there were new children added all the time as compared to my last visit in November. There were also female helpers tending to the youngest children. They were not dressed in the monastery wardrobe and did not have shaven heads like co Bao. I speculated that they were volunteers which are nice since there were so many children and very few adults to supervise.

After the boys ate, they came out and clung on to me and I could not help but hold them in my arms. Co Bao affectionately told me not to hold them since they would all wanted to be held. I did not seem to heed the suggestion since I tried to hold to as many as I could have two or three by my side at all times. I swung the boys in my arms and it was a joyous experience for me and seems to be fun the children as well.

Co Bao had the children all sit down in rows as we were about to pass out the gifts. From the numbers of the children, I knew that we did not have enough stuff animals for all of them. The little children sat in front so I figured that the older children would understand if they did not get anything. The little ones could not distinguish between the size of the animal and what kind of animal it was. The boys that were seven or above were very keen and some even shook their heads when I tried to hand them an animal that was either too small or no to their liking. I moved on to the next child in that case but most of the children were very graceful and liked the animal that they were given. They bowed their head very respectfully and immediately get attached to their new stuff animal friend.

They were very eager to see a move since that was what we did before. They kept on prompting me so I we headed to the large room upstairs. We started to watch Finding Nemo which was a great animated movie on about a fish named Nemo. Although the images were captivating, the content was too complex for most of the children especially with the language barrier. The boys really clung on to me as we watch the show. They either sat on my lap or hug me from behind or on the side. I never felt so welcomed and filled with love. With some impatience, one of the children even pulled the plug on the LCD projector and requested another movie. I then proceeded to show Ice Age which was an animated film on a group of animals making their journey through evolutionary ice age. The children warmed up to this movie. They were very curious and asked many questions. An example was why the tiger died did but then woke up again?

When the movie was over the little girl asked when I will be back again. She wanted me to stay and said that there was a place for me to sleep if I stayed. I said that I would be back again soon and that we will see another movie. Some of the children followed me out to the front with co Bao as we waited for the Taxi. There is a cute twin little girls who were eight years old. They are very well behaved and just seem to like to be close until I jumped into the taxi. All the children are very special. They are all individuals and loving little children. It always fills my heart to visit them.