The children have been teaching me some of their games - there is a simple skipping rope competition where boys but mainly girls take it in turns to skip as many times as they can - they draw a grid on the blackboard to record their scores. They are hugely competitive.
The girls also play a game with elastic bands which are joined together into long ropes. These are then threaded around two other girls and the one who's 'it' will jump in inventive ways as the rope goes higher and higher. It's a sort of obstacle high jump.
The girl who looks as if she is in pyjamas ... IS in pjs. They are normal everyday wear for children of all ages, and women. They are practical, colourful, easy to wash and cover up everything that you want to cover. I was doing some colours with one group and, not having something blue, pointed to one girl's bright blue patterned pjs hoping for a response and asked "what is this?" I'd obviously pointed to the cartoon character and not the colour because the reply was "Angry Birds". Which of course it was ... Silly me. I have to say, though, that is quite disconcerting to see a woman of my age in Hello Kitty pink pjs.
Back to the children's games.
The boys have a game with small gum cards which are avidly collected. Firstly a group decides who goes first by doing stone-paper-scissors, then the person who has won spreads out the cards on the ground with a sweeping motion.
They then bang on the ground behind the cards in a movement designed to create a wind wave - if they have done it correctly then the cards flip over with the winner collecting them (until the end of the round, that is, when they revert to the owner). I obviously did not have the right technique at all but they persevered because my feeble efforts provided much amusement.
When I go into the class, they all stand with their hands in the prayer position and chant "good morning, teacher how are you today?" I respond and then we can start the day by writing the date on the board - this is usually done by a child. I've given up doing the weather as the sun is either shining or not, so it's a bit pointless. The date is a bit of a red herring too, as when you ask the children to copy something in their books so you can go off and see the other group expecting completion on return, you find out they are still (as complete beginners) laboriously scribing "November". I should have come in May!
Today when I went in the children had written "I love you teacher Leseley" complete with hearts and stars on the board for me to see when I arrived.
I have one delightful boy called Cha Non who insists on tearing out the pages of his book each night to leave a brand new start to each day. I have explained to him I want him to keep his work - I have had Pisey and Mr J ask him in Khmer not to rip out his pages - I've tried giving him gold stars etc - I've got him (and the rest of the children) to stick work in their books but, nothing. It's like Groundhog Day - he starts from scratch every time.
When I call for break the children again stand and chant - when break is over they do it again. At the end of the day, after our final song they say "thank you teacher - see you tomorrow" as loudly as they can then they all rush forward and give me a hug, high fives/low fives/whizz bang fists or leave and then comeback for a extra cuddle. It really is very sweet. Then some of them walk me to the tuk tuk - today one girl asked if I could bring my grandchildren with me next time I come as they want to meet them.
I have probably only two of the children I started with remaining in my class - Pisey says this is the Cambodian way. One nice boy came to say today he wasn't coming again as he was going to computer class and handed me a picture he had drawn for me, but they mainly just drift away with new ones taking their places. Even with only one week to go I've got new starters who I suddenly notice sitting amongst the old hands. They will also mix themselves up because they think what we are doing in one group is too hard ... Then come back when they find the lower group is too easy. They are very independent minded.
One of my long term boys is called Reach and is very responsible, making sure the shutters are properly closed at the end of the session, he locks the door and takes the key back to the office. He is quiet but very good and attentive. Today I had him and two other children who have a comparative high level of language playing Junior Scrabble which I got a few weeks ago in one of the Siem Reap bookshops. They enjoyed Level One and mastered it very quickly so Kimlay (gir) has said they will play Level Two tomorrow.
She is one of the children who is having private English lessons and has access to a Khmer-English dictionary so, when we were doing Phoetic V this morning, came up with Violent which, as she has no idea what it means, was quite difficult to get over to the whole group. Another one was oo sounds when her examples were typhoon and tycoon. I can do words like chicken by squawking and flapping my arms about but those two - a bit hard!
The danger of not being able to explain what words mean to non-native speakers was demonstrated when the children were doing a crossword later and the whole row (as they all copy from each other) mixed up balloon and buffalo despite there being a picture to look at too!
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment