Hey...this is a really long post, but full of lively info so enjoy...
HOLIDAYS
Hello, I hope everyone had a happy holiday season. Mine has been and continues to be quite enjoyable. For Christmas, some other neighboring volunteers and myself stayed at a very nice hotel in downtown Bishkek, called the Kyrgyz Alton (Kyrgyz Gold). We had planned to stay at the Hyatt but apparently there was some kind of reservation mix up so we switched. However, it turned out for the best because the Alton was much cheaper and our room was much larger. For Xmas eve we actually went bowling at this club called Fire and Ice (the sign is actually spelled in English). The club doubles as a bowling alley/night club, with about twenty-five lanes on the first floor and a hopping dance club on the second. We tried to get into the upstairs club after bowling but they wanted to charge us $15 to get in! (which I probably don’t need to tell you is outrageous in this country). We tried to explain to the bouncer that were just poor peace corps volunteers and that 15 dollars was a week’s wages, but to no avail. Our decision not to pay the cover was probably a good one, since it kept some money in our pockets for our visit to the Hyatt Xmas brunch the following morning. We dined on champagne, waffles, turkey, lamb, roast beef, trout, salad, and real honest to God cold cuts. It was pretty sweet. It cost us 20 bucks a person, but we stayed there for three and half hours so I think we got our money’s worth.
After Xmas on Sunday, I still had a week left of classes. Theoretically classes continue right up until the 30th of December right before New Year’s Eve, but really this last week of classes is plagued by poor attendance and school sponsored Xmas parties for each grade. For the last couple of weeks I had been asking other teachers, my host dad who is the assistant principle, and even students when the last day of classes was and I could not get a straight answer out of any of them. I see now it’s because there isn’t really correct answer. School just kind of fades out in a haze of parties and disinterested teachers. I’ve heard of exams being given during that week but one actually administered.
The school Xmas parties are pretty funny. Sunday and Monday are the parties for the little kids, then Tuesday for the 7th graders, followed by the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th grade party on Wednesday. The teachers’ party is on Thursday afternoon after what I’m sure were some very productive classes in the morning. I wouldn’t know because I don’t have class on Thursday. These parties are actually New Year’s Eve parties although they look a whole lot like Xmas parties since someone’s always dressed up in a Santa suit and they have a fully decorated tree. The Kyrgyz people are a little bit confused about Xmas. They know that Xmas is Jesus’ birthday because the Russians are Christians and they celebrate Xmas, although they celebrate it on January 7th, not December 25th. The Russian guard at the Peace Corps office explained to me why they do this but I didn’t really understand – something about the old Soviet calendar I think. Anyway, for the Kyrgyz, neither December 25th nor January 7th are celebrated holidays, but for both the Russians and the Kyrgyz living in Kyrgyzstan, Santa Claus and Xmas trees are associated with New Year’s Eve (Jange Jill in Kyrgyz).So, back to the parties - all the girls go to Kant and rent these massive evening gowns for the day while all the boys wear black suits. They decorate the gym and have a big dance party for a few hours. Sometimes the kids prepare skits or dances, and often times some girls get up and sing. In the morning before the party started, all the girls were in my and my counterpart Jazgul’s room putting on make-up and fixing their hair. This seems to be the closest thing to a prom that I’ve seen so far. The teachers’ party on Thursday was actually the exact same as the children’s party - minus the rented evening gowns, plus many bottles of vodka.
New Year’s Eve was fun. I just stayed at home with my host family but it was really nice. My mom cooked Ploaf with mutton (a famous rice dish, actually the national dish of Uzbekistan) and also chicken with potatoes. She also bought me a bunch of beer, a bottle of vodka, and a bottle of champagne. Remember, my family doesn’t drink but they expected me to drink a lot. I mean, it is New Year’s Eve, right? So anyway, we hung around the house, we set off fire works, ate a ton of food, watched the all night concert live from Bishkek, and I got pretty drunk. We took a ton of pictures which I’ll try to post as soon as I can.
The days since NYE have been pretty tame. I spend my days reading and playing badminton with my little sister Malika. She loves “tennis” so for NYE I bought her this little badminton set from the Kant bazaar. She’s wild about it. As I write this, the two of us are watching American cartoons dubbed in Russian in my parents’ bedroom. I’m not really sure when I go back to work. I’d ask someone if I thought I would get an answer. I figure I’ll just sit around and think of English lessons until my dad tells me I have to teach the next day. It’ll probably be another week or so.
TEACHING
I came to International Village on Friday December 2, and was supposed to merely observe the classes of the two other English teachers for the following first week, but actually ended teaching a good portion of my counterpart’s classes. Every volunteer, whether they are a teacher or a Business volunteer, has a counterpart – someone who works at their organization and speaks some degree of English. A 24 year old English teacher named Jazgul is my counterpart. She went to high school at which we teach and then graduated from a university in Bishkek. Her English is a little bit better than my Kyrgyz right now. She knows more words than I do, but has a hard time following a fast conversation by two native speakers. This is the problem that occurs when you have don’t hear native speakers on a regular basis. Anyway she’s a really nice person and I’m lucky to have her help.
So by the beginning of my second week my dad, the assistant principle, had drawn up the new schedule for the school that included me and my newly acquired teaching hours. It was decided that I would teach 15 hours of class in the morning, which would then leave my afternoons free for different English clubs. English clubs have become a sort of tradition in Peace Corps teaching. They are good and for several reasons: 1) the volunteers may teach these clubs in a more relaxed atmosphere without the strict curriculum of the regular classes, 2) grades are not generally given, 3) the volunteer may decide which students may attend these classes, and 4) they provide extra hours of English lessons for motivated students outside school hours that would be impossible without the presence of a volunteer.
The 15 morning hours would be split among seven different classes within the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th grades. That means that six classes I would teach twice a week and one class (which lucky for me happens to be a very small and talented 10th grade class) three times a week. This fact is not good for me because 1) two 45 minute classes a week is not enough for anyone to learn much of anything, let alone a foreign language, and 2) it means many different faces and less possibility for me to get to know students on a personal basis – like for instance, learning their names.
Anyway, so the second week begins and I have my own classes. By this point, after a week of teaching during training, countless group presentations, and another week of teaching here in International, I was no longer nervous in front of the students (a fear that I’m sure most teachers will tell you is one you must quickly master). So with that obstacle cleared, it was on to a lesser problem – actually teaching the students English. During the previous week I had copied down Jazgul’s calendar plan for the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th grades and had scratched out some lesson plans. However, since I had never met any of these students and had no idea of their skill level, this was rather difficult. The teachers do have text books. However, they’re pretty old, in Russian, and teach British English. Oh yeah, and almost none of the students have copies of them. There are of course no copy machines either. All practice examples and homework examples I have to make up on my own. This isn’t really a major problem because homework isn’t that difficult to create, although it has gotten a little redundant. I feel so far the two things I’ve missed most from text books are 1) new vocabulary, and 2) passages for reading and translation.
After my first full week of teaching it became clear that I had a lot of work to do. Essentially, the 7th grade, 8th grade and one section of the 10th grade were on the same level, both the 9th grade sections were on the same level (a really really low level), and my favorite section of the 10th grade was on the highest level. However, I will point out that in every section of every grade the skill levels are extremely varied – I was making generalizations in the previous sentence.
This skill variance among grades creates problems because the curriculum for each grade is inflexible and must be approved by the Ministry of Education. In other words, these kids are expected to learn the material from the approved calendar plan. But in a cumulative course like English, it is impossible to teach some skills before others. For example, if the students don’t understand the Simple Present tense, I can’t teach them the Present Perfect tense. However, the other English teachers have been doing just that, which is why I have two 9th grade classes with a notebook full of notes on the Past Perfect Progressive tense but who can’t write me one sentence in the Simple Present. They have notebooks full of notes that they don’t understand - they’ve just copied them down from the black board like robots. While I continue to deal with frustrating problems such as these, I am comforted by the thought that I will be here for two years and that I am in no hurry. For the last three weeks of last semester and most likely for the better part of next semester, I will be doing extensive review and catch up on fundamentals and basic grammar. We truly are in no hurry, and if I force the students to move faster than they can, they will absorb nothing and it will be a waste. I’m taking the approach that it is better for them to learn slowly than not at all.
So far the English clubs I’ve instructed have been a delight. For right now I’m teaching 3 different clubs for one hour a week – a beginner’s club, intermediate club, and advanced club (this may change next semester when I’m may begin teaching fewer morning classes in order to open up more clubs because of such high demand – there are more talented and motivated students than I have room for in my current clubs). In the beginner’s club, which consists of 5th, 6th, and 7th graders we have begun from the beginning (numbers, colors, personal pronouns, etc.). The skill variance between the intermediate and advanced clubs is minimal (mostly just age difference) and so I do the same thing with both of them – debate. We’ve had one debate so far which was on the pros and cons of snow. I know this sounds elementary and arbitrary but formulating opinions and arguments and speaking aloud in front of people in a foreign language is quite difficult. Also debate encourages group work and critical thinking – all in English.
So that’s where my teaching career stands at the moment. I don’t claim to be the best teacher these students have ever had. We encounter problems on an hourly basis due to the rather large language barrier. While my conversational Kyrgyz has progressed quickly, I am a long way from being able to teach children in this language. However, I really do believe they benefit from listening to a native speaker, however little they may understand right now. Anyway, I know it’s a work in progress and I will continue to stay optimistic. I’ll keep you all posted on our progress next semester as we journey deeper (but probably not that much deeper) into the uncharted territories of the English language.
Peace for now,
Rick
