Home Thoughts From Abroad

We got back from Nihiwatu on March 22 and I got right down to building a set for our play. I had been planning and ordering supplies, arranging a place to work and renting tools to work with for months, but I had held off starting until after the March break. Then I went flat out for 8 weeks. Every day it seems there was a new wrinkle to iron out. I learned the names of most of the men in the physical resources department by the time it was over because I spent so much time working in the parking spaces beside them.

I had some good help from Bill, who has done this kind of thing before and who was never stumped for an answer. And Les who had done some construction and was willing to put in time after his long teaching day. I also had help from my students, in particular Mehdi, who was invaluable, and Brian, who couldn’t seem to do enough.

The play was a smash success, although each audience needed about ten minutes to actually catch on to what was going on. The play is a play within a play, and the jokes escalate as the three acts are like fugal variations that trip over one another. If you never seen the movie, you just have to rent it. Once the audience caught on, there was no end to the laughter and the fun. It was a great success, and I was sad to see it come to an end.

After the last show we tore down the set and packed it onto a truck and all went and had supper. This week feels like someone died. We are all exhausted and depressed. We’ll get over it, and find other things to do, but they won’t be as much fun. There is a DVD coming out for those of you who would like to see what a really fine student production looks like. I can’t wait to see it again myself, but I confess, I am looking forward to seeing it with my feet up for a change!

Plagiarism is a huge problem in Asia, and largely winked at in a culture that is set on getting ahead at all costs. Basically my students all plagiarize all the time. When they are caught they want to know why I am persecuting them for doing something that everyone in the country does.

My view is that plagiarism is a natural consequence of an education system that stresses rote learning and adherance to a fixed set of answers above individuality. I have been testing a software product called TurnItIn that detects plagiarism and my role today was to present a report to my colleagues.

I and Bill MacNamara, a colleague, have been pushing for Taylor’s to purchase a site licence since we got here. I was a little nervous about selling this largely unknown package, and greatly relieved to discover from the presenter before me that the school had just committed to its purchase. That turned my sales pitch into more of a seminar about its use, something I am much more comfortable with.

Despite having less than 10 minutes to work with, the presentation went well, and I garnered some much needed positive feedback for my skills. Imagine me being at the forefront of introducing software? Will wonders never cease!

Pam is away in Cambodia, so I get to post to our weblog for this week. So what am I going to write about? School of course!

This is the first class I teach in the morning. I do feel sorry for them! There are a nice bunch, but they suffer all of my glitches in preparation. I don’t know if they notice, but I grimace each time I deliver something that could have stood a little more tuning before delivery.

This is my afternoon class, same subject, one period later. Now I have not only prepped but practised as well. My delivery is better timed and I am more relaxed as a consequence. Things are a lot smoother for them. That doesn’t mean my lessons are error free. However, this class will gently correct me if I stray!

This is my last class of the day, and by far the most interesting. By this point in their English development this kids can not only articulate, but debate and defend their arguments. We have been examining The American Dream through To Kill a Mockingbird and Death of a Salesman, and I have found it very rewarding. Their presentations (see the images in Flikr in the sidebar) were excellent.

It is a challenge keeping up with these kids and my days are long, but it has been a lot of fun. It is hard to imagine that the term is over in just twelve more days!

This has been a long week for Steve!  The kids are wonderfully sweet and eager to learn – a real joy to teach – but the periherals are endless. He has put in a minimum of twelve hours everyday just trying to stay on top of the reporting procedures in the Byzantine world of bureaucracy that characterizes Asian schools. The end result of sitting for hours at a desk and neglecting walking and swimming, is an almost permanent back spasm. 

The Staff Room is one open space that houses upwards of fifty teachers, each assigned a cubicle which is in fact a study carol such as you would find in a library back home.  The place is filthy, with papers, books and student assignments piled everywhere.  Teachers are treated like a commodity, like copy paper or water supplies, and as a result the teaching staff is pretty transitory. There is no way of knowing if that pile is recent marking or fifteen years old. And we won’t even talk about the bathrooms!

The bright spot in the week was that Steve met for the first time with two other men who are working together to set up a Saturday night discussion group for college students.  They have been offered a space to meet off campus with snacks provided by our church.  With five colleges in one block of the city, there are students everywhere and they love a good debate. Steve is praying that this will be the start of a much needed outreach into his students’ spiritual lives.

Our early arrival here has been such a wonderful opportunity to settle in and do a bit of sight seeing before school starts.  We often found ourselves commenting on the fact that the other nine new Ontario teacher’s were not going to have this luxury.  Two young men, Les and Easton arrived last week and Mark and Erin arrived yesterday, all of them bright, energetic and fresh out of school.

Two more couples will arrive on the 3rd and a single guy on the 7th.  With orientation scheduled for the 5th and school starting on the 9th, it will be a real challenge for them to overcome jetlag, decide on a place to live,  get all the paperwork started and teach.

We didn’t get to meet any of them prior to coming due to our early arrival but did have email contact and were able to help some with their planning. We have had a great time meeting the newcomers at the airport and trying to help them quickly move through things that took us hours because we had no idea where to start.