July 13, 2012

Friday.

Friday the 13th!

The third and last of for the 2013th year.

Was it a good day?  Well, it wasn’t a bad day.  I suppose, in the grand scheme of life, it was a regular Friday.

About the only thing different that happened, was I had the best laughing session that I haven’t had in a very long time.  Sure, there are days when situations occur or words are said that are funny.  But not to the extent of this evening.  And I have Christine, May, and May’s mother to thank for this hearty expression of joviality.

I think what kept the laughter going, was part in parcel to the fact that all my fellow teachers seemed to be exhausted this week.  Maybe the weather, maybe the fact that school is out…  who knows.  This just seemed to be a very tiring and exhausting week.  Of course, when one is tired, things that are funny, seem funnier.  A snicker becomes a giggle.  A giggle becomes a guffaw.  A guffaw becomes a rip roaring laugh session.  The type that leaves you sweating, perhaps crying, and hurts your sides.  The kind of laugh that takes a while to get out of your system, and yet feels so good, rejuvenates, and basically clears your mind.

We were discussing May’s story.  She is telling a story of a girl who learns a lesson about being polite to others. With our guidance and, in many ways, helping her to realize that some of the information in the story, is sometimes what people go through all the time.  There are actions that I have tried to help her with, with much laughter and snickers from her mother, Christine, and Janice, that May actually does in her daily life – and she doesn’t realize it.

Thus, the story has become almost personal.  However, May is a wonderful student.  She is 13 years old, and has to be one of the nicest kids I know.  She is a good student, although perhaps not the top of the class.  She does her homework on time, is not afraid to ask questions, accepts guidance, helps her classmates, and is friends with the other kids, younger and older than herself.  She’s respectful toward her mother and all the staff at Giraffe.  And the thing I like the most about her, is how she respects and interacts with her mother and me.

When I see the interaction between her and her mom, it truly is like a friendship.  She talks to her mom, and kids around with her, and just generally treats her mom, as if she was just another kid.  And mom reciprocates that friendship with May.  When it comes to the teachers, and me in particular, May is respectful toward me, but at the same time, there is a friendship.  It is refreshing to be able to talk to, give guidance to, and yet be respected by a teenager.

Back to the story.  In this story, May starts off, sitting at a dressing table, fixing her hair, putting on makeup, then looks non-chalantly at the audience, back to the mirror, then looks back at the audience and begins her story, with a slight surprise in her voice.  As May pointed out, her stories over the past couple of years, have begun in similar ways.  She looks at the audience, turns away, then looks back – a double-take.  Almost as if the audience suddenly appeared in front of her.

I started this ‘gigglefest’ by suggesting to Christine the following:  as May does her double-take, she should smear her lipstick across her face!  Kind of something funny, since in the first couple of lines, she states to the audience how beautiful she is, being the ‘it’ girl in school!  Later, she talks about how long she stares at herself in the mirror, making herself beautiful.  And here she would be with a lipstick smeared across her face.

Well, that started the barrage of other ideas.  A piece of toilet paper hanging out of the top of her skirt.  Her skirt tucked into the top of her underwear.  One high heel shoe, and one flat.  One ponytail coming out of the top of her head, another from the side.  Thick red lipstick around her mouth, but not on her lips.  One tooth blacked out.  Very pink cheeks…  you get the idea.

Well, the laughs were beyond all of us.  As I said, it was one of those gut-wrenching laughs.  The more we laughed, the more the funny ideas emerged.  It’s not often that these laughs happen.  It’s a shame, really.  Humour serves many purposes.  For me, it reinforces the fact that I am part of a team.  A team of educators who work together, rather than against one another.  A team that feels more like a family, than co-workers.  It shows the students that we are human.  It relieves the stress and worries of the day or week.

I realize more and more, why Janice and Simon have been fortunate with the staff.  Most of the staff have been working with this bushiban for longer than myself.  I’ve been with them for over 5 years now.  It is nice to see a group of people who are friendly, helpful, caring, dedicated, and probably some of the nicest people, I am happy to consider friends.

Other than this little laughfest, it was pretty much a Friday.

That’s it, that’s all… for now!

July 12, 2012

Tomorrow is one of the three Friday the 13th days of the 2013 year.  I’m actually looking forward to tomorrow!

In past years, and decades, Friday the 13th has always been a good day for me.  As far back as I can remember, understanding in the English culture, that Friday the 13th is supposed to be a bad luck day, I decided and realized A LONG TIME AGO, that the 13th day of the month, no matter what day of the week it was, the 13th day was always a good day.  I looked forward to it, and made it a day of pleasure, rather than a day of disappointment.

In the western culture, 13 is an unlucky number.  In the eastern culture, 4 is the unlucky number.  Funny.  When you add the digits 1 and 3 from 13 together, you get the number 4.  Hmm…  That means that, no matter where I go in the world, either the number 13 or the number 4 are considered bad luck numbers!  Then again, since I was born on the 13th of a month (and HOW I wish it had been the 4th month, like my paternal grandmother’s birth date), I have to settle with 3/13.

So I’m looking forward to Friday the 13th!

This morning I had a schedule change, and went to Giraffe for a class.  Simon, Janice’s husband, was there.  He was off to see a doctor.  His lower jaw looks rather swollen.  Janice called it something like ‘pig face’, a translation from Chinese.  Funny, but I hope it’s okay.  It actually kind of looks like mumps.  One of the teachers reminded us that Simon had had some work done on his teeth recently, and this may be something resulting from his dental work.  Anyhow, off they went.

Later on though, Janice was not around.  Apparently, whatever is wrong with Simon, he has to go to the hospital.  Sounds a little more serious.  He won’t be out of hospital until Sunday!  Then on Monday, the family is off on vacation.  I hope this doesn’t impede on their vacation time.  Personally, I think he’ll be fine, and back to his chipper self.

I also decided to have a little ‘pep talk’ with a couple of students.  It’s not something I usually do, but over the time they’ve been students, I’ve noticed that their attitude toward the teaching I do, is waning.  Unfortunately, when others see this, then the others figure its okay as well.  In the next couple of years, these students will be writing GEPT (General English Proficiency Test).  Part of the GEPT testing is where the student is given a picture, or a series of pictures, and in an allotted time period, expected to write a story.

My ‘pep talk’ was to try to encourage them to do better.  My assignments for these students, allows them a week to write a story from a picture, however the story must contain between 75-100 words.  One student seems to feel that they are able to tell the whole story in about 20 words!  Once the grammar is fixed up, the spelling mistakes noted, the sad truth is, they have only written about 5 correct words.  This is not going to bode well on their GEPT.

I’m not exactly sure how long each of these students has been learning English at Giraffe.  However, take all these Giraffe classes out of the equation, they have all been learning English since Grade 2.  It is part of their elementary and junior high school curricula.  By this point, having had English classes for at least 5 years in the school system, and at the very least, 2 or 3 years of English classes at Giraffe, writing a 75-word essay should not be a problem, given a week to complete it!

If I put it into a mathematical term, all they need to do is write about 10-15 words per day, or 2 sentences.  In the space of one week, they will have written the required story.  Writing two sentences would take them (and this is REALLY stretching the imagination), no more than 5-10 minutes.

Unfortunately, students in these times, have a lot more distractions at their disposal.  Parents want their kids to have what they didn’t have – computers, Internet, big screen TVs, cell phones, MP3s…  all these devices and services are a huge distraction.  Taking 5 or 10 minutes out of their chat time or computer game playing time, can mean the difference of thousands of points on their game, or a missed message from their friends.

Eventually, at some point, either these kids will be asking their parents to hire a private tutor, or mom and dad will pull the plug on the electronics.  That’s what happened to one student I tutored a few years ago.  His grades were dropping, his English was getting worse, and I was hired!  Mom and dad took away his cell phone, his gameboy, his MP3 player, and had the cable disconnected for the three years I was teaching him.  They moved him from a school where he had lots and lots of friends, and placed him in another high school.

Yes, he was upset, but after the disruption to his life, his marks increased, and his English level was back to an acceptable level required by the school.  All too often, parents are willing to reward their kids with these new electronic devices, for getting good grades.  Only to discover, that once you give a gift to a child, it is difficult to take it back.  As well, the detrimental effect on grades is something that is difficult to reattain.

Oh well.  As I’ve said before, I can only provide the tools.  The student has to learn how to use them.

That’s it, that’s all… for now!