Early Learners

The earliest you can start coming to EF to bask in the English language from the mouth of native speakers is three. And at that age, basking is about all that you are capable of. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays my first class of the day is Early Learners. At about 1:25 PM while I am often still frantically palnning lessons, children come screaming up the steps, followed by their parents, to sit down in the lounge and wait for the parade of teachers to start down the hall at 1:30. If I'm lucky, four of these children will belong to me for the next hour and twenty minutes. (If I'm not lucky, I will have to give private English lessons to one three-year-old.) Jusuf, Intan, Rifki, and Adela are a lively bunch. Jusuf is the youngest (having just turned three), followed by Rifki, Intan, and Adela. Some days with this group are better than others. Wednesday was horrible, as it included lessons that did not match with the childrens' attention spans. Friday was wonderful. Here is what class was like on Friday: 1. Introductions with hand puppet- Students listen and repeat "Hi!" "How are you?" "Fine, thank you." "My name is Nick. What's your name?" "How old are you?" "One, two, three, four. Rifki is four years old!" "Yay!, Good job!" 2. ABCs- "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z... Now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me." "Yay" (clapping) "Good job!" 3. Color flashcards- "What color is this?" "Purple, good!" etc. 4. Jumping on color flashcards- "OK, where's blue!" (screaming and destroying the blue flashcard.) etc. 5. Scribbling- Each student received a piece of blank paper, and we all proceeded to scribble announced colors. "Blue! Blue!" "Good Jusuf! OK, Green!" 6. Cutting- Then we took some scissors, and learned how to cut. We all just cut up paper for about twenty minutes- just cutting- and then 7. Snack time- students hold hands and we parade out of the classroom to the kitchen. A glass of water and two biscuits (cookies) for each student. 8. Play Time- Time to play with blocks. 9. Class is over- "Goodbye! Goodbye! Thank you!"
Ealry learners turns out to be much more like a play group where I just sort of sprinkle English on them and hope the absorb it. I often come out of class thinking the same thing as Wade "Hey that was fun! Wow I'm exhausted!"

The weeks are going by faster and faster now. Lesson planning as well as teaching is starting to feel more fluid, and Hannah and I might finally be settling into some kind of regular meal schedule. Last night we got talking with Shayna over dinner, and ended up receiving a short lesson on the poilicts of Canada, which was very interesting. It got late, and Hannah and I crashed.

This morning Rani and her mom built a fire in the pit outside and roasted some fresh pig they picked up at the market. After they left I Bogarted their coals and built a little teepee fire around an improved clay oil lamp I had crafted. The wood was a little wet, and the coals were having trouble getting the wood to a combustable temperature, so I roamed around the neigborhood and tore a big leaf of a banana tree to use as a fan. Flames! Now I have a usable oil lamp with a handle, an improvement over my last one.

Now Hannah and I are at the Internet cafe, and afterwards we will ride our bike to a scenic overlook behind the "Jayapura City" sign. Later when the sun goes over the western hills I will take some vegetable scraps and seeds and begin planting for my front yard garden. This week: corn, potatoes, orange tree. If platning is succesful, I hope to plant new crops periodically so that I will eventually be able to harvest over an extended period of time. Wish me luck!

-Nick