5th Meeting: Counting and listening

Photo taken from TOEFL Preparation Wesite

Today's class is exciting. We embarked to the next milestones of our learning.

- Counting up to 100

- Listening activity

It is exciting for me because I can now say my age in Spanish (I can fell you're smiling.. :-)). I mastered 1 - 10 and now I get to 100.. Huraaah!!! lol... For my beginner student they love it when we go to 100 because we can do a LOT more with the range of number knowledge they have. We can play the math jigsaw game, they how old is/are... game etc etc. 

Anyhow, what got me really excited is that we did a listening exercise where the teacher played the recording and we filled in the blanks in our photocopied worksheet. This a milestones for me because I can complete all except 2 answers. To be able to listen for information and actually able to retrieve the information correctly indicated that to certain extend I have the vocabulary needed, the sentence understanding and context understanding. This is a complex application of learning. This is when the seemingly solitary learning of vocabulary, useful phrases etc come together to aid you in your understanding.

Wencheng Sun's article in English Language Teaching Journal says

Languages are mainly used for listening, speaking, reading, and writing in intercommunication. Listening and reading are input competence, and speaking and writing are output competence. Among these the listening and speaking competence tends to be more important in human communication and daily life. The primary language of human being develops from listening and speaking.

She went on and says:

In order to hear the important data, characters, events, and time clearly, and master the general idea, students must integrate languages and specialties and apply them into practices.

As an input competence, listening required on-hand basic knowledge. That is why, I am excited and say that this is a milestones. I can comprehend the message. I have enough basic vocabulary to get me by. I do not have full understanding of the sentence but I have the vocabulary that can act as my cue words for me to guess the meaning. -

4th Meeting: Game of life - How Many Years Do you Have?

¿Cuántos años tienes? is how old are you in Spanish. But the direct translation is How many years do you have?
That just throw an interesting way of looking at life, isn't it?
It's like for every time you are asked, you are reminded of time you've passed and how many more you can expect to live for. You are reminded of how you live, did you use your time wisely, do you hurt anyone in your journey, any unfinished business? because if you do, you still have some more years to make sure you ticked all the boxes.
O well, that has nothing to do with Spanish class but I cannot resist being a bit philosophical when it was being explained in class. Of course, I thought about my daughter whose 2nd birthday was just 2 days before I had to leave her in the care of my mother in laws and left for England.
(Sniff sniff.. Ah yes... life...  C'est la vie... Así es la vida)


As it is with our previous class, this class we play hangman (ahorcado). This is her way to get us to review the alphabet and the vocabulary. One thing for sure,  our teacher always tries to insert some sort of game or physical movements in every class. so far we have played:

• - pass the magic marker
• - team racing
• - Battleship
• - pass the 'ball'
• - hangman

The games helped the class to bond, to work with each other and it creates a great atmosphere for learning. o well, when I mentioned this to a friend of mine, he said that it's impossible, surely a competitive nature will make the class uneasy... well... that might be, but I feel that it is not the same in our class. We have those not-so-quick-to-learn students and what happen is the fast learner really helped them.


In the matter of game, Aydan Ersoz in The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 6, June 2000 taken from TeflGames website

'Language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be frustrating. Constant effort is required to understand, produce and manipulate the target language. Well-chosen games are invaluable as they give students a break and at the same time allow students to practise language skills. Games are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging. Furthermore, they employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts. They also encourage and increase cooperation.'

 During my BA study, we learned that games in classroom are useful and beneficial. and during my years of teaching, the choice of games to go with the specific focus on language and specific learner group are even more crucial. Teachers need to possess a pedagogical reasoning skill to sense and decide which games (or other strategy) is most useful in their classroom.
This include the consideration on
- what kind (of games or strategy)
- how often and how long will it takes up the class time
- how the class is divided
- age group and ability group appropriateness
- culture awareness (ex. don't put girl student with boy student together in a group where the local custom and religion says otherwise)

In my Spanish class, each games takes no more than 5 - 10 minutes, usually used for reviewing and/or summarizing the day's learning. Looking back at my own teaching, I know i tried to incorporate games or other fun activities and it always works beautifully. Last week, I chatted with a former student now studying to be a doctor in Japan and she remembers us playing 'word bingo' and 'word snake-and-ladder'. These 2 games are my adaptation from the favorite kids games during their time. (mind you, kids these days are all about computer games and console). She mentioned that it helped her to get over her shyness and helped her to remember the vocabulary. My other students, remembers the 'head-shoulder-knees-and toes' song and other physical movements songs and activities.

Prior to writing this post, I made an effort to contact my former students and managed to chat with 5 of them. I taught 2 of them when they were in Elementary and Junior high school, the other 2 was when they were in their high school and 1 of them was in her University years.
I asked them to think back at their studying days with me and mention the first memory they have on our study time. They said (in no particular order):

Student 1:  Hangman and scrabble
Student 2: Word and Letter Bingo
Student 3: Flash Card guessing game
Student 4: "who wants to be a millionaire" Game
Student 5: The songs and nursery rhymes.

I asked them to think why their memory sprung those activities that when I asked them the questions. They said:
1. It is simple and helpful and they can reproduce/play it themselves with friends outside class
2. Help them to 'use' the English they are learning
3. Help them with vocabulary learning and how to put the word into sentence. (in word games, the next stage is to put each of the word they produced into sentences).
4. Helped them to get over their shyness and to love the class.
5. (because of the game) The class is not boring

Another worth mentioning note is that the teacher begin to have us talk in Spanish only for 5 minutes or so during pair work and games. This is good. we are practicing.

Right, Now I know that using games, fun activities etc are helpful for me and the students. I feel touched that after all these years, they still remember (and remember them fondly) the games and our learning. Nevertheless, I myself still remember my failed attempt to apply certain games to class due to the violation and neglect to consider the points of consideration I mentioned above. Lesson learned for me. -

3rd Meeting: Word Order

3rd Class Meeting

I LOVE our homework from last week. We were to investigate a famous Spanish speaking person and describe them as much as you can in Spanish. I didn't choose any of the celebrities, although I must confess I wanted so bad to write about Javier Bardeem (I am a BIG fans of him). I did my homework on Mario Benedetti, an Uruguayan Journalist, Novelist and Poet - es de periodista, novelista y poeta. I googled Spanish Speaking Important People and choose randomly a name from the list that goodle provided. Reading about Mario Benedetti got me to appreciate the literary of the Spanish speaking country. I am especially taken by the poem he dictated to his secretary shortly before he passed away.

Mi vida ha sido como una farsa

Mi arte ha consistido

En que esta no se notara demasiado

He sido como un levitador en la vejez

El brillo marrón de los azulejos

Jamás se separó de mi piel

(Fragment)

A free translation into English of these few lines might be as follows:

My life has been like a farce

My art has consisted

In this not being noticed too much

I've been as a levitator in my old age

The brown sheen of the tiles

Never came off my skin

(Fragment)

(Source Wikipedia)

This class meeting we learned:

1. How to count to 10 in Spanish, the name of things around us (table, chairs etc) and colors.
2. We learn about the masculine and feminine attribution to nouns (el and la) and how it ended (-a or -o). Ex:  la mapa (map - masculine, end with -a) and la foto (picture - feminine, end with -o). But not to forget that there are the special words, the irrregular words that stays masculine etc and how the attribute change when they are plural (los - las)
3. We also learned more communicative phrases

Discovery:

The adjective+Noun placement in Spanish is the same as in my Language, Bahasa Indonesia.
    English -     Red Book
    Spanish - el libro rojo (book red)
    Indo     -     Buku Merah (book red)

Is it helpful for my Spanish learning when I find a similarity of pattern in my L1 and my first learned foreign language? Yes and No. In a way it is motivating because at least I have a notion of knowledge but it is confusing because my brain says foreign language thus i switched to English pattern and soon got tangled in my english-spanish 'transfer of knowledge'. (Note to self: train myself to approach the matter in a differnt perspective)

To Do: This is a good insight on the role/interference of L1 (or 1st learned foreign language) in L2 learning. --

2nd Meeting: Balancing Learning Pace in Classroom

2nd Class meeting

We started off with quick review of the previous class (greetings and alphabets).

The teacher had us to stand in the middle of the class in circle (or oval considering the class arrangement) and we did the 'magic marker' round. So who ever got the marker can ask the other to say the spanish pronunciation of their alphabet of choice. It was slightly nerve wrecking. It has been a long time since I do this 'testing-reviewing' game. It was fun, quick and I realized I got the alphabet covered. The alphabets are rather pleasant because it it similar to how the Indonesian pronunciation to the letters but they also have an additional sound for double l and the n with a mustache on top, that we pronounced as -nye. 

In the previous class, as to practice spelling, we dictate our Sussex email address and we were told to email each other after class and introduce ourselves in Spanish. It was fun to know we got several emails and even got more than 1 email. The idea of being able to write in Spanish is exhilarating even if it's only Hola! mi llama Helena. 

The big difference in this meeting compared to the first, is that the more advanced and 'noisy' students are no longer there. There are 2 students that are clearly not beginners level whom the teacher said had move to the more advanced level. Also, I hate to say this but there was a girl whom I will describe as 'noisy'. She always talks, commented on everything with high pitched chirping voice. I am sure she is more advanced than us. Perhaps, it is just me but she came across as a rather annoying personality.

Anyhow, we build up our study on Nationality and country and also a touching on jobs/occupations where in it we also learn how to use the ser (=to be) in a sentence. I think it is a very important basic knowledge on any language learning. I remembered when I first learn English, my teacher drilled me into doing many many sentences in where I learn how to use the to be in different sentence forms, different pronoun, different tense etc. I learn that Spanish language has different order of pronoun and they are even more gender grouping than English.

I thoroughly enjoyed my class. I think we are a very good mix of people now and our teacher came across as a fun, creative and resourceful person. 

Photo taken from http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/a/advanced_class.asp

Learning Thoughts:

1. I believe it is important for students to be grouped to their level of ability and knowledge. I am sure it is both and agony for and advanced student to be in a less ad advanced class. Vice versa it is also demotivating to the less advance student in the class to see that they are incompatible and unable to keep up. This situation is much easier to handle in private language courses or special language classes where they operate on level basis (beginner, intermediate, advance etc) where the learning experience is tailored accordingly. In government or public school institution, this is rather tricky. Advanced students need to just put up of learning in a slower pace which will then resulted in either:
• boredom that will resulted in them being the 'naughty' kid in class
• turning into the bully (thinking they are superior/smarter)
• Lost of interest in the subject
2. In some schools in Indonesia, they introduced a scheme called the 'Accelerated Class' or the "High Achiever Class", where all the advanced and superior student is put in one class and the curriculum is tailored to their ability. Nevertheless, this is only happen in perhaps less than 10% of the total public school in Indonesia. (Note to self: look up the statistic for this). Looking back to my school years, I remember struggling in the presence of these superior friends of mine. Then reflecting on my teaching experience, I can remember the fidgeting of the fast learner student and the timidness of the student who need to take time to understand the lesson. 
3. What did my teachers do in this situation, where you have 1 or 2 more advanced student in your class? My teachers asked the fast learner students to be quiet and be still when they are finished with their exercises. They are (in a way) discouraged to ask to many 'knowledgable' or 'challenging' or 'know-it-how' questions. Why? The teachers naturally felt threaten. They are avoiding the situation where you ended up not knowing what ever it is the student is asking and exasperated because they are lost for words in explaining things that they know they have the knowledge of. This is only normal. I do not blame my teachers for this. In our society, teacher should know EVERYTHING at least to the subject they are teaching. Imagine if a kid went home and said to the parents, I ask my teaching this and she didn't know the answer. In one occasion when I was in Junior high school, my teacher had the fast learner student in my class to go to the library and read something and report back in class. The class look at the student in a mix emotions of awe, envy and exasperation.
4. What I did in my class? Most of my fast learner students were nice kid. They are very considerate of the others. So my ways of handling things are to have them work in groups of 4s. I do my best to distribute the fast learners in each group thus they are able to help the others in learning. Having said that, this idea is not working simply because the fast learners are snobs who bully his/her friends, become bossy and resulted in rejection (or fight) by the group members. 
5. Teaching in a large class as in Indonesian classroom (30 - 40 students in a class) is challenging (and scary). There are vast range of personality, ability and motivation ranging from one end of pendulum to the other. Nevertheless, nothing is impossible. The teacher simply need to vary the approach and strategy in maintaining order in classroom, making sure lessons are being absorb and addressing the issues such as dealing with advanced/fast learner students. There are no 1 easy way of dealing with things in this situation. The strategy you use today might not be appropriate the next day. Many of my teachers or some will say the "old school' teachers, make sure they come across as a stern teacher and never restrain from using physical punishment. Yes, physical punishment such as a lashing of thin strip of rattan to our hands, calves and bottoms, Grinding our hand with jagged hexagon pipe, push ups to pulling the watter from the well to fill the school water container are still practiced and considered the best way to teach disciplined. In my case, I live in the province of Maluku. Our people are always stereotyped as tough, brave and hard tempered, thus needed to be restrained with force if you need to teach them something.
6. Therefore note to self for this meeting - Find out more about strategy dealing with advance student in classroom especially large classroom.

Curly Wurly: NOT the chocolate.. yet it's Bitter Sweet

Nope! This is not a post about the iconic Cadbury chocolate coated candy bar. The name just sprang to my head as I am about to write this. This is a post about curly hair... my curly hair... and all curly-ers out there. 

I changed my Facebook profile picture yesterday. It was my 2009 picture of me enjoying the sun and the wind on Brighton beach taken by my husband Simon. In that picture, my curly hair is glorified because it was taken as I stand sideways of the camera. And yes, my curly hair has drawn quite significant comments. In significant I meant 8 FB messages, 2 Text messages and a lengthy chat on Skype on that subject. The comments ranging from how much they like it to how hideous it is and how unsuitably it is on me. Hence, it prompt me to write this post. 

The Mentioned curly hair Picture

To start off, my hair is naturally curly. That's what the Indonesian define my hair. My foreigner friends says my hair is actually wavy instead of curly. Which ever that is, the fact is that my hair doesn't have a uniformed patterned of waves. They are quite unruly, the front part is OK. It is wavy, quite nice and glossy, the side waves can be frizzy and twisted to totally different angle, the back waves are well waved (hehe) but always frizzy and curled uncontrollably. These are worsen by the fact that my hair is very thick and dry. Pheww.... Can you imagine analyzing your hair this early morning. 

Growing up, my hair had become something I am not proud of, quite embarrassed with it actually. I've been called names and such, not a pleasant memory. I was a tomboy (and to certain extend I am still am) so having to hacked off the source of my agony to a military cut came to no surprised at all. I sported the cut through out my elementary and junior high school. It went superbly with my tomboy demeanor, purple-black bike that never left my side, the endless collection of shorts and trousers and Karate classes I enrolled.

High school saw me thrown into whirlwind of trying to fit in. The other girls looked cute and pretty in their frocks and beautiful long hair. Thus, I grew my hair long in hopes to soften my tomboy nature. My hair had a mind of their own. Instead of beautiful thick wave of hair, I ended up in a mass of tangled, frizzed and unruly hair... (OK... I just laughed at this... The beauty of growing up). I braided my hair or tied it really tight that they sometimes hurt my scalp. My saving grace came in the form of permanent hair straightening product. it was a total craze in my time and it is still now. For the first time, I felt 'beautiful', accepted, belonged and 'worthy'. (Yes, please do not judge. This is what a teenage felt and the words I put in quote were the end of the world feeling so please forgive my superfluous words). Needless to say, the permanent hair straightening regime continued until now (every 6 - 8 months). Then I began purchasing hair grooming gadgets such as a hair straightener. This helped me to stretched those hair straightening regime to a year or so. It also gives me the freedom to be curly on days that I do not need to be presentable (a.k.a just being at home) and helped on those days where I need to look neat and presentable. 

2009-2010 were the years where I allowed (or challenged) myself to sport my glorious curl and have it without the touch of hair grooming device such as straighteners, curler etc etc. The experience is frightening and liberating. Despite all the comments that my hair looked like a floor mop, the 80s return etc, I kept the hair for 1 year. (Can I get a resounding WOW..please..). The only person who supported me all the way was my beloved husband whom I woke up everyday and have him said I looked beautiful (despite how unruly and ugly morning face and hair I had). He was there the day I cut all the remains of my permanent straightened hair thus let my curly hair emerged unbounded. He was also there helping me to choose the hair product to help tamed my hair. He was always the one who said 'You have to own your look. You are beautiful if you feel you are'.  In short he always said... if you feel confident... just go for it. That year saw me struggling between hating it and loving the liberated feeling it brought. 

I realized today how much I have been a victims of myself... Of course I am also a victims of the media and commercial stereotyping of what a beautiful someone is. But more than that I am the one who make decision to 'hate' my unruly curly hair to 'belonged' to that group of 'beautiful' people. These days I still straighten my hair with permanent hair straightener product every 6 - 12 months and still use the hair straightener device to tame my frizz and to look 'presentable'. Let us not go through what harm it will do to my hair and my health. It will be a loooong post. So why I kept doing it despite the enlightenment? Habit? Slaved by stereotyping? Well, maybe not the later but the first rang true. Nevertheless, more than just a habit it's a choice. Different from my 15 or 17 years old self, I now hold more control over who I am and who I wanted to present myself. The truth is, I still cannot win over my unruly hair but I have learned to love it and know that I can look good and feel good with it. I love my hair to look neat and not worry about whether my hair it jutted in 11 different direction every time I talk with someone. Do you call this a habit formed perception? or other smart terms? Anyhow, Me and any other Asian  or any curly haired women who straightened their hairs are not to be condemned. C'mon! It is not a good or bad and right or wrong thing. I certainly do not want to be judge over this post. I honestly still struggle with owning my curly hair. I am tainted by my own perception. The reality that I can only have the courage to sported my curly hair in UK instead in Indonesia, says a lot on my insecurity towards what my hair shaping who I am and projecting.

Therefore, why writing this in the first place? Well.... My 2 years old daughter has a curly hair. Both my husband and I are curly so it is only natural that she is. But what we wanted is for her not to get 'stuck'.

We began to teach her to love her hair from a very young age. We cannot shout and shun every other people/friends (ours and hers) who called her Kribo (a slightly mean way of calling someone curly in Indonesian language) or any other mean words related to curly hair. But we can helped her to deal with those intentional/unintentional comments and still to lover herself along with the curls. We wanted her to be proud, to own her look. More than just a matter of hair... it is for her to be proud of who she is, where she comes from and what she can contributes to the world with the qualities and talents that God puts in her. 

Ending this with a line from Christina Aguilera Song (twisted the pronoun to "you"), for my beautiful daughter,

You are Beautiful, no matter what they say

Words can't bring you down

You are beautiful, in every single way

Yes, Words can't bring you down

So don't (let they) bring you down today! 

When the nature whisper...

Nature has its way of awaken the poet within me.
Perhaps its because the liberating feeling after the mid-term essays
Perhaps it's the climaxed of feeling and thoughts left bottled up
during my cognitive/academic phase
Perhaps it's because I miss my family so much
But this morning stroll at Sheffield Park and Garden, Sussex, UK,
brought out the poetic side of me...
It was like ... the nature whisper... thoughts... reflections
Luck was on my side and my faithful pocket camera didn't fail
to help capture those thoughts
as they ran wild and perched on the dancing autumn leaves.

These following pictures and poems are originally posted on my Facebook Photo Album

"Majestic Red flame
on the bed of green
where I lay and the tower gaze
Toss a dime
to the mirrored lake
and see me ripple as the season waste"

 "..and I changed color and dance in the wind
before you come and swept me of my feet...
before my fall and life will begin...
always in that crisp autumn day..."

'Beneath that tree where we sat... 

where the leaves canopy shield the sun. 

The crunching sound of the leaves 

under my shoes 

as we toast the flag of red and blue"

"Cherry Blossoms... Cherry Blossoms
It's autumn morning and you're in your glory
Hang on tightly to the naked branch
when all around you the color fall"

"Ducks at Sheffield Park
Sunbathing by the bank
Quacking their way to the visitor glance
Hoping to catch crumbs from their hand"

 "To the fading sun my beloved...
We shall walk to the fading sun.
Take my hand as I take yours
And we climb that hill to the fading sun"

"Look inside the mirrored lake
where color trapped and image last
make a wish but do not haste
for dreams will paint you future fast"

"The pond where the trees and grass meet
they keep secrets no one could tell
when a sweetheart wonder by chance
to drown the sorrows of love and life"

Note: Pictures and Poems are mine. Please ask before using any. Thank you

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A Day to Remember

picture from http://www.heruni.com/111111/

Today is the 10th of November 2012. It is the Indonesian National Hero day.
Tomorrow is the 11th of November 2012. The Remembrance Day...
TV is showing the BBC Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance
Tears flow freely on my cheek, my heart trembles in prayers not just for soldiers those who are serving, but
... to family who lost their loved ones... wives, husbands, children, parents, friends and community
... to the places on earth where conflict rage
... to those we call 'enemy'
... to men women and children who fell victims and who are left with no options but
to carry on living in those war torn country

I saw veteran soldiers in their old age, stand proud
   their muscles remember the drill,
   their eyes remembers... 
I saw the young soldiers in their youthful spirit
   strong build, gaze steadily for the future
   they too shall remember...

My second Remembrance Day in UK
My heart pines for peace
My prayer goes for each poppies and crosses bearing the name of the fallen ones
My heart breaks in solidarity with every war torn place

Red poppies rained down on TV
Red eyes and little tears on soldiers eyes
Trembled  lips on the young and the old soldiers
Two minutes of remembrance for heroes that will never be forgotten

I sat watching this as it happen on TV
In my cozy and warm bed
In far away places, there stood those that my prayer will touch.

"For your tomorrow, we gave our today"
We remember ... you will never be forgotten
For 10 Nov 2012 - Indonesian National Hero Day & 11 Nov 2012 - UK Remembrance Day
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