Mind Your Language :)

*breathes in*...aahh...it's finally friday, and i finally have a breather from my CELTA. we all didn't know what hit us the first week, really. from 9am to noon we sit in and observe real teachers in action, and then had really great theory lessons, and after lunch it was lesson prep and actual teaching. i find the theory part really useful, although the crash-course in grammar was a bit bewildering cos you know lah, english learners our generation mana lah tahu all these technical stuff like past participle, present perfect continuous, gerunds etc etc...? really! even my mat salleh coursemates plead ignorance to all these stuff (actually we learnt that this is even more so for native speakers). oh, and today was Phonetics/Phonemes Part 1 and dear god...it's like learning how to read/write in a totally new language altogether....

my coursemates are a great bunch. in my group i have corrine, an Aussie-Italian Italian language teacher, louise and paul (2 Aussies), Jo from england and cynthia from brazil. we learn so much from all our past experiences and classroom observation put together (we teach 2-3 lessons a week with our group and tutor sitting in, observing and making assesment. how scary is that?). cynthia's just amazing to watch; i enjoy all her lessons and even learnt some aspects of grammar all over again. i love her easy rapport with the students, her clear concise language, and her animated gestures in illustrating a point. and of course, that slight brazilian lilt in her speech.

for the first 2 weeks we teach a pre-intermediate class of 16 - a free english language class for foreigners who are or not studying at Curtin. and what a great bunch they are! there's the Chinese, Japanese, South Koreans, a Vietnamese, a Lebanese girl, 3 indonesian guys, a Saudi and a Dubai fella. and Azheen, a blond avril-lavigne-looking patriotic Kurd who's proud of where she comes from. i think not many people caught where she came from until she explained Kurdistan is near Iraq (and then "aaah..." and saddam comes to mind). i was really intrigued, and upon some googling realise that a famous Kurd would be the great Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi, otherwise known in the West as Saladin.

and so of course you sort of get the typical stereotypes, which i've come to realise boils down a lot to cultural learning styles. the east asians are very diligent but quiet leaners who come armed with electronic dictionaries, the indonesian guys quiet and smiling. the arab guys are a hoot to teach, though! they are so expressive and confident and make the class so lively and relaxed. they volunteer for everything and are not afraid to make mistakes while speaking (learning better in the process). and they're so funny! our tutors concur that arab males make great students with their enthusiasm and participation. and another interesting observation by the tutors - the east asians are not confident speakers but have better writing and grammar, while the arabs are charismatic and confident but (to quote Chris Symons my tutor) "simply tragic" in their written english. why ah?

our students come under interesting circumstances too. some of them are academics in their own countries (Gunawan is a chemical engineering lecturer in jakarta, lily has a PhD in applied physics from china). azheen is part of Kurdistan's effort in building up an educated society (from what i understand from her the government sends students overseas to study in various fields). some of them are on spousal visas while their spouse study/work here. i must say it's great teaching a class of willing adult-learners as compared to a class of reluctant teenagers who'd rather be somewhere else because basically discipline is not even an issue, and they want so much to learn.

i had my own issues in the beginning; i was worried students might prefer a native-speaker, cos why would they come all the way to Australia to learn from a non-native one, right? and what would it be like teaching with Arab males around - you know, the male-female thing in Islamic culture and how they'd take to having a hijabbed non-native female standing in front of the class teaching them. but hey...it all worked out fine, because firstly, native or non-native they want a good teacher, and secondly my tutor told me that maybe being non-native and an obvious muslim lady has its advantages in striking similar chords with certain cultural groups who might regard me as being more familiar and understanding (and hence put them more at ease). so no worries, hey? :)

putting all that aside, i love The Hasbern and Ilhan so much for being so understanding while i'm taking this course, since i'm away from home from 8am-7pm mon-fri and bogged by assignments and lesson planning the rest of the time. *eh? wait a minute. that sounds like my typical day in singapore..haha!* The Hasbern has been playing the role of home-maker very well, and i've been coming home to a nice hot meal the past week - i suddenly miss Banquet and its hainanese chicken rice and voila! i came home to hainanese chicken rice on the table on Thursday! ilhan pun good boy "ee-han cayik ibu tapi ee-han tak nangis" and i reckon he's enjoying the bonding time with his baba. he's got a new Ranger and Ranger mask in the process...hmmmm...

3 more weeks to go!