Someone Tell Ms. Luth I'm an English Teacher!

In between doing HIV/AIDS seminars at Urumwaella I’ve been going with Julia (another volunteer) to her placement at a secondary school called Kilimahewa. 

We teach 2 English classes there.  The classes are a little more advanced than counting to ten and learning how to write the alphabet.  It’s a far cry from Watoto Rau, but it’s a fun challenge.

First off, what I didn’t realize is that English is CRAZY.  I always used to be bitter that English was my first language (at least when I was traveling). The reason being that it seems like everyone else in the world who doesn’t speak English as their first language is fluent, or learning to be fluent in English making them bilingual.  I want to be bilingual!  However, after this experience I will never again take for granted that English is my first language.  English may be hard to learn, but good gravy, it is hard to teach! 

For example:  He goes to school.  He is going to school. 

Both are different forms of present tense.  The verb “to go” is an irregular verb.  When you conjugate “to go” we say, “I go, you go she goes, he goes, it goes, we go, you (plural) go, they go.  Also, we have to teach them that when you are using the ING form of a verb it often requires a helping verb. Consider the helping verb “to be”.  It conjugates as, “I am, you are, he is, she is, it is, we are, you (plural) are, they are.  Hence we have “He goes to school.  He is going to school.”  There is just so much to think about!  Also, how do we try to explain in what context you would use each of these 2 sentences appropriately?  I don’t have to think about what I’m saying, I just say it.  It comes naturally and it’s hard to explain something you do without thinking.  English is sooooo hard! These poor students! 

Also why do we add an S to the end of verbs only when we are using them in combination with he/she/it or a name?  For example: I walk, you walk, he/she/it walkS, Abby walkS, we walk, you (plural) walk, they walk.  What is the deal with that S? 

There are so many rules in the English language.  And for as many rules as we’ve made up, there are just as many exceptions to those rules.  If I had a nickel for every time I said something along the lines of, “I know guys, I’m sorry English is so crazy, you’re just going to have to memorize it”, I could afford to buy my students a proper English teacher!

In our first class the age range is 14 to 16.  They definitely know a good deal of English, but they’re a bit shy.  Usually the class consists of about 16 students or so.  The second class is a sharp contrast to the first.  It’s made up of usually 45 to 50 students ages 10 to 13.  They are far less reserved!  Sometimes they mock Julia and me, but only playfully.   For instance, Julia and I often make sound affects without even thinking.  Such as when a student gets something right, or we finish an exercise in which they did well we might say something like “Yaaaaay” or “Wooooo” and without a doubt over half the class will yell “YAAAAY” right after us! They love it!  We’ve gotten to the point where they can sense when a yay is coming on and we all do it together!  If only kids in the states where so easily entertained.

There are a lot of things I feel that these students are more receptive to than students of their same age in the states would be.  For example, they love to sing!  We will write songs on the board like “I’m a little teapot”.  Then we’ll do something relevant to the lesson of the day such as finding all the nouns and adjectives within the song lyrics.  After that we have them repeat the lyrics after us as we do the actions to the song.  Lastly, we all sing it together, actions and all! They are so into it, it’s fantastic! We also do games like “Simon Says”. This gets them practicing using action words and body parts in English.  “Simon says jump, Simon says touch your knee, Simon says clap your hands”. 

We do spelling tests everyday.  After saying all the words we call on students to spell them out loud as we write them on the board and there are always at least 10 hands in the air!  It’s like students here are less self-conscious.  They might suggest 3 wrong letters before stumbling upon the right one multiple times within one word, but they’re still just as likely to raise their hand for the next one!  This lack of embarrassment illustrates exactly how a learning environment should be.  Don’t be afraid to try just because you’re afraid of being wrong; making mistakes is part of the learning process.  They seem to really understand that here. I love that about this culture.  

 On our second to last day at Kilimahewa we asked each class to do a 15 minute free writing session.  They could write whatever they wanted provided it was in English.  We just wanted to gage how far the students had come since we’d started teaching them.  Things that we’ve gone over include, past, present, and future tense, a vs. an, nouns (proper and common), verbs and helping verbs, adjectives, adverbs, using comparatives and superlatives (big, bigger biggest), punctuation (basics), etc.  We reminded them of all the things we’ve gone over these last couple of weeks and encouraged them to use some of these skills in their free writing. 

At the end of 15 minutes, we collected their compositions.  Going over their papers provided me with the BEST laughs I’ve had thus far in Africa!  Here is a sampler of just a few of my favorite sentences (or fragments):

I like very very much.

Good by teacher to say welkome agen.  

I am a flower.

What is a chair?

What is a noun?

You carries my bananas.

She is not my books.

My sister is going to America yesterday.

Elephant is my biggest your my mine.

What do you come from?

Of course, there were students who did really well too, but their compositions weren’t nearly as hilarious; therefore, not included in this blogfrica. 

To finish off our last day we took a picture with each of our classes.  As all 45 of us huddled close together I felt little hands stroking my ponytail…my hair is a fan favorite of Tanzania, or at least among Tanzanian watoto (children).

On a completely separate note, I’m going to Nairobi this weekend to see my Aunt Corrine!  Diana and Abby, two other volunteers from Minnesota, are going with me!  It’s a 7 hour bus ride and I somehow doubt there’s air conditioning, but it’s sure to be an adventure.  Who knows, maybe we’ll make some new friends on the ride, or become fluent in Swahili! Hah.