I had a million ideas to write about, but of course by now I've forgotten them. One of them was a story about my K8-81 class which is mainly a bunch of junior high kids, except for 3 smaller smart kids. One of whom, Nick, cannot stay in his seat for the life of him. Anyway, they're a well behaved class but they just refuse to speak English. Anyway, there are groups of girls in the class and I noticed that although they aren't loud or throwing things like the boys, they are always talking to each other. So eventually I separated two of them, actually two pairs of them, and the girl I moved just sulked for the rest of the class.
There are some really good kids though, the smartest kids are actually the girls. I've found you just need to give them encouragement or they don't talk at all. Which can be frustrating because sometimes I don't understand and when I ask them again, they won't say anything. Hopefully this will improve. Actually I had a funny exchange with two of them. The boys, as always, are the most talkative.
Me: Why don't you guys speak English?
Ken: Because it is bad and terrible. And hard.
Me: What do you guys want to do?
Ken: Play the stickyball game!
Later, Ken's pal Daniel was still in the classroom after class.
Me: Daniel, you can leave, you can go home? Why are you still here?
Daniel: My mother says I have to stay here and do my homework.
Me: Why?
Daniel: She says if I go home, I will not do my homework.
Me: What do you do instead of doing your homework? Do you play computer games?
Daniel: No.
Me: Play basketball?
Daniel: Watch TV.
It's a pretty big difference between them and my K9 class on the same day where everyone is much younger and really likes speaking English. We were talking about "forget" What did you forget? What did you take? and one of the kids said "I took a shower." he looked very pleased with himself. It's actually pretty funny though.
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1 comment:
hey
kids arnt really taught to speak up in class...i mean, you will still get rowdy students who love to chatter, but i think generally education is seen in the strictist Confucian sense where the teacher does all the talking and students dont "talk back"
The "model student" is sometimes seen as a kid who doesnt talk a lot, answers questions only when asked, and gets straight A's.
I think education in Taiwan has been changing a lot due to American influence, but i think that there might still be undercurrents (and strong ones) of the traditional ways. Remember, its only been maybe 50 years since the time when teachers could hit students with bamboo sticks whenever they felt like it. That was only one generation ago...
but i think you are doing a great job. a lot of students (especially girls, i agree) need encouragement and praise, since they might not have gotten a lot of it in their whole educational exprience.
-Michelle
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