A foreign visitor

A few weeks ago our International English class was honored to have Molihehi Sekes from Africa to visit us. Molihehi is a teacher in Lesotho, a little country in the south of Africa. She told us about how it was being a teacher in Lesotho, and about the opportunities and conditions of the school and her students. The presentation she gave and the interview we were privileged to have afterwards opened our eyes to the third world and we realized how lucky we are to live in a good country. Roshanak, June and I were excited about the interview that I have posted here for you to read.

How did you become a teacher? 

I got interested in becoming a teacher when i was in college. I had the opportunity to help children who were from Pakistan and wanted to learn English. Like I said, the schools in Lesotho teach in English, so their parents wanted them first to know English so that they can be enrolled in schools in Lesotho. After seeing myself being able to help those children, I developed more love to teach. Of course in Lesotho, before you become a teacher you have to go to school. Like in any other countries you go to school, you go to college and then you can go to the schools and teach. You have to get a diploma or degree before you can be a teacher.

Did you choose to work in primary school? 

Yes, I choose to be in primary school. And a little earlier you asked me how I feel about the way that I am teaching, and I think that in the situation that I am in, it becomes a little more difficult compared to it just being a profession. Especially at the beginning when you are trying to make the students understand and learn new things. But at the same time it is one of the professions where in the end when you see the results, you get happy. We have people who lost love and other important things in their life, so even in the circumstances where we do not have many resources, we do not have additional mentors. We teach in an environment that is not good, where the classrooms are not good enough for the children. But at the end we get good results which makes us happy, and that is when we forget about our crises..We completely forget about the situation that we are in. That is why we do not always take the situation as an excuse to not teach and learn.

Have you had any students who have been affected by HIV/AIDS? 

Yes, I have students who are affected by HIV and AIDS, and some of them are even infected. So we have those who are infected themselves and those who have parents who are infected.

How is it for you as their teacher to have students who are affected by such a disease, and how do you handle that? 

When you are a teacher in my country you often have to act like a parent, rather than just being a teacher. It is important to show them love, recognize them and show them that they are not abandoned, even though their parents are either sick or dead. We have to show to the children whos parents are sick, that we are there form them.  We go an extra mile compared to what a normal teacher would do. We have to show them that they are good enough and to make sure that school is a place where they can go when they have problems. Naturally, we are trying even though it is not easy. There are many students in one class, and when you sometimes discover a problem, it is a little too late. Sometimes it is hard to be supportive to every single student, because it is so many of them in one class. Often you discover a little late that some children are orphans, and since they are so many it is hard to comfort them the way we would do if they were not so many in one class.

How long is your school day? 

We start at quarter to eight and end at half past two. Every day except Friday. Friday we end at one o’clock.

So you have school every day? 

We have school every day from Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday we are at home.

What has been most rewarding for you as a teacher?  

To see, making difference in the lives of the children, that is really rewarding to me. Being able to see that through this task that I am making, I am making a difference in the lives of these children, which  is really rewarding. Like now; we have two computers and we have electricity in my school, those are the things we never thought that we would d have. They are there and we are using them to the benefit of the children. It is really rewarding to see a modern school because we want to be like that school. And it is through our hard work as teachers that we work to make our school a better school – a school where every student can feel free and have a good time when they are learning.

Shirin

Varieties of the English language

English is a worldwide language which is not only spoken in the Anglo-American core area. This is because there are many countries where English is the second of third language and have developed different varieties of English. You can almost compare the varieties with different dialects in a country. The reason that the English language has been an international language is probably because of the numerous colonies Britain established around the world in the end of the 15^th century. Today the English language is the gateway for communication between the countries.

An example of a variety of where the English language has been shaped by the culture and the main language is Hong-Kong English. Hong Kong English is one of the official languages in Hong Kong, and it is mostly used in business, academic circles and by the government. It is divided into two different concepts. The first refers to the variation of dialect in the English. The Second refers to the special accent and its usage.

Hong-Kong uses British spellings as well as pronunciations and vocabulary, although there are influences from Canadian and Australian English to be found.

Hong-Kong English has different spoken characteristics like for example in the voicing of the consonants where the sound "Th" like in three is pronounced as free or fee. Often confusion of "Tr" and "Ch" occurs and makes "train" sound like "chain". But there is not only differences in the pronunciation, also in the grammar differences occur. A contraction of two words which is mostly used in conversations, for example "aren't" is never used. This is because the English used in Hong-Kong is mostly used for formal writing. As well "there is/there are" becomes "there has/have". In the Chinese language there are no plural forms, so this tends to be confusing.

Many can be confused if they ask a person speaking Hong-Kong English about the time. Normally you would say four past three but this can be mixed with three past four in Hong-Kong. This is also the case with discounts where 10% off in Chinese is 90% of the original price.

These are only excerpts of English in Hong Kong. Most of the countries where English is spoken as the second or third language, the mother tongue and the culture have shaped the language. Outside the Anglo-American core area there are numerous varieties of the English language, and it is only growing.

Shirin

Gran Torino

Today in International English we watched the movie Gran Torino. The movie is directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. It is an American drama film from 2008 with great reviews. Clint Eastwood plays the main character, Walt Kowalski, a widower and a Korean War veteran who is bitter, rude, depressed and cranky. His neighborhood has changed into a violent place mostly inhabited by immigrants called the Hmong people.

Walt is now fighting another war than he has been doing earlier, this time trying to keep his friends in the neighborhood safe from the gang violence.

In the beginning of the movie I get the impression that Walt is a cranky old man who hates everyone who gets in his way, even his own family and friends. Through a series of events Walt gets to know the Hmong family living next door to his house, and he develops a relationship to Sue and her brother Thao. Eventually Walt gets attached to this family and we get to know how he is behind the rude and bitter facade.

The movie addresses issues regarding cultural differences and the challenges arising from this, in addition to relationships between the young and old generation and how they show respect for each other. Like many other grown up people Walt has decided that there is no hope for the young generation because of lack of respect and manners for other human beings. His neighbors Sue and Thao prove him wrong about this statement.

Conflicts that arise in the beginning when Thao is pressured by the gang to steal Walt’s beloved Gran Torino, even though Thao wants nothing to do with these people. When failing his assignment Thao becomes their target. The gang members are determined to continue the harassment until Thao joins their gang. Which he doesn’t do. The turning point is when Sue and Thao’s house is the target for a drive by shooting and Sue is nowhere to be found. Later on she comes home beaten up and raped by the gang members. This is where everyone understands that someone needs to stop this gang before they hurt someone again and Thao is determined to do this. But Walt is also determined. Determined not to let Thao get near the gang members, and the other way around. Walt risks his own life to save everyone else from this gang. He had sought out the gang members and made sure witnesses were watching and that every single gang member had a gun pointed at him. They were all sure that he was reaching for a gun himself when he went for his jacket pocket after asking if anyone had light for his cigarette. All of the gang members fired their gun directly at Walt who was only reaching for light, without having a gun on him.

I would highly recommend this movie. It brings up themes that are relevant in today’s society in an emotional and powerful way.

The Other Hand - Pt. 1

In the English class a few weeks ago we got an assignment to choose a novel to read in class. I chose to read "The other hand" by the British author Chris Cleave.

In this novel we get to know the Nigerian girl called Little Bee and a British magazine editor named Sarah. Little Bee is an asylum seeker and while being in the immigration detention centre she learns to speak fluent English. She has figured out that if you want to survive in England you must either be really good looking or speak like the Queen of England.
Sarah is a British woman who is married to a man named Andrew and together they have a son.

When Little Bee finally is released from the immigration detention centre, she calls Andrew to find him. After that call Andrew commits suicide, and Sarah is left alone with their son. Then Little Bee comes knocking on their door.

This is all I have read from the book so far, but I like it already and sometimes the novel is quite funny written, so I catch myself laughing sometimes when reading. I am looking forward to reading the rest and hope that will be as good as the reviews I have heard.

Shirin

Megacities

The 2006 statistics show that for the first time in human history, more people were living in cities than in rular areas. Research says that the migration to megacities will only increase. In the US 80 percent of the population already live in cities and in 2006 New York is listed as number two in the statistic for megacities. Number one is Tokyo with 33.4 million.

In the 1800’s it is estimated that only 2% of the population lived in urban areas, further in 2000, 47% of the population was living in urban areas. The percent has only increased, and it is estimated that in 2030, 60% of the population will be living in urban areas. People’s lifestyle in the megacities is far more different then the urban lifestyle of television series and movies. Many migrants in the city are poor and end up in slum areas. In the countries Ethiopia and Chad 99 per cent of the population live in slums and the per cent is increasing globally. 

Shirin

091101

9/11/2001

In class this week have seen the movie 9/11 which is exactly about what the name implies. The date 9/11 is very memorable to every person in the entire world, this was the day when the world trade center fell, and thousands of citizens died. The terrorist attacks came unexpected, and two planes crashed into the twin towers. The first plane crashed into building one, and the second plane in building two. 

The film was originally a documentary about firefighters in NY. Two French brothers had a project to tape the average day in the New York fire department, and they were following one person, Tony, who had just started working in the fire department. An average day was quite boring and nothing huge was happening, but this was before 9/11 when something that no one would predict happened. Now the firefighters who were used to not having much to do, had no idea what to do at all. How could they be prepared for something like this?

In the film you get a real close up of what happened on this special day, and how the firefighters were trying their best to save as many lives as possible. Something that became almost impossible. The days after the attack the firefighters worked hard on trying to find survivors in what was left of the building, which was very difficult since both buildings were turned into ash.

Something that is quite interesting is how this attack not only affected the United States, but also the whole world. After 9/11 all of the security has been much stricter than before, espesially in airports all over the world. I also believe that most people who are traveling have been more careful and maybe afraid to go by plane. No one of the passengers in the two planes who crashed into the world trade center survived. What if something similar would happen again, and this time you were inside the plane yourself.

Shirin

Narnia - C.S. Lewis

Today we saw the movie Narnia in class. This is a very good movie although this is not the kind of movies I personally enjoy the most.
The chronicles of Narnia consists of seven books written by the author C.S. Lewis, and the movie (The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe) is the first book written in 1950. The book is about four children: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucie who is sent away from their family to Professor Digory Kirke, because of the war. In the professor's house Lucy finds a hidden wardrobe while playing hide and seek with her siblings. This seems like the perfect hiding place and which Lucy discovers the wardrobe leads to the magical kingdom of Narnia. Immediately when all of the four children arrive in Narnia they have a mission to help the lion Aslan to save the kingdom from the evil white witch. Edmund meets the evil white witch before knowing who she is, and the white witch uses him for her advantage. The story ends with the children becoming kings and queens of Narnia.

Clive Staples Lewis is the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, as well ass many other books but those are not that well known. C.S. Lewis was also known as a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist. He is well known for his fictional work.

Shirin