“I am truly blessed to have the opportunity
  to work with such dedicated, enthusiastic
  and highly motivated people.”

Courses in English

Now Over 100 regular students of English a week. At present 193 students are enrolled in one of the seven courses offered. Last week 136 students attended at least one English class. Numbers have dropped in the last two weeks due to the recent High School exams, rice planting time and Lent (no classes on Friday afternoons).

Thanks to FPET, Atabae is now running an additional seven English Language courses each week. This is in addition to the beginners and post beginner's youth classes run by Jonh and Afonso.

Classes are held for:

1. The Clinic. This a mixed group including Clinic staff, Primary and Junior High School teachers and students. The age range of this class is 8 to 58!
2. The Community Health Centre;
3. Advanced students-twice a week
4. The Atabae Community.
5. Recently we began teaching in the church at Sililaran (near Biacau, about 10 mins away by motor bike),
6. Tasimean (in the chapel, about 5 kms away in the opposite direction) and
7. Miguir, (under the big bougainvillia outside the Chief Of Village’s house) which is about 20 mins further inland.

When Maria and I went to Miguir for our first lesson we were initially disappointed as there were only two students and no black (or white) board as promised …but not for long. It was quite a momentous occasion as we watched about 10 tiny primary school children process up the hill, arms stretched out above their heads, with a well loved black board above their brown arms and grins from ear to ear! The teachers walked alongside. We had a great lesson.

These classes are extremely well attended. There was a unanimous request last week for the (chairless) Sulilaran class to be extended from two hours to three and to four times a week. Demand is high! It is sheer joy watching the faces of so many eager young adult students as they get their tongues around our tricky language, enjoy many games including ‘Eye Spy,’ ‘Bingo’, songs, ‘The Hokey Pokey’, card games, stories and activities . It is also very satisfying to see experienced employed teachers learning English from my assistants!

Motivation

I am constantly amazed by the Timorese dedication to learning English. When I first arrived I asked people what they liked to do on weekends. Students go to school for six days a week and attend church on Sundays so weekends are relatively short. The responses from the few students I asked were: ‘to study English’, ‘study’, ‘study on the beach’ and ‘learning English is my hobby’. Wow! Only one student said ‘play football’.

In the Advanced Course we have discussions on a variety of topics. One of them is my favourite book or movie. I get the same response every time. The favourite book is the English Language Dictionary. I have now been here for 2 ½ months. I now know that the huge motivation to learn English is general, across generations and in all the areas of Atabae I have visited. The adults, children and youth are driven to learn. All students now learn some written English at High school and many have learned to speak with a relatively high level of accuracy simply by studying at home independently. To put this into perspective: students also speak Bahasa (Indonesian), study and speak Tetun, speak Kemuk,(the local language) and study Portuguese (with its conjugated verbs its not very popular!)

So…. teaching is easy! I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to work with such dedicated, enthusiastic and highly motivated people. Thankyou FPET for initiating this venture and giving us this wonderful opportunity.