This is another installment of Cedar’s Digest, a series of poetic stories about the experiences my husband, Ren Ruslan Feldman, and I are having living for six months in Central Borneo. We are volunteer teachers in a small, innovative Indonesian school. The school is child-centered with a focus on hands-on learning and character development. Classes are taught in English and Indonesian.
9 weeks at school
it’s been nine weeks now
next week is the last of the term
the 6th graders
at first shy and silent
now, arms around each other,
call themselves “The Famous Six”
(a play on a book they read called “The Famous Five”)
chalk it up to the natural result
of familiarity
and there are things they’ve taught me
about how to help them flourish
why are they reluctant to speak English?
their culture is naturally soft-spoken
they are afraid they will say things wrong
and, big one, their passive vocabulary
is sooo much larger than their active one
they know what they want to say,
they’ve read or heard the word
but they can’t pull it into voice
we go through the fabulous book “Anamalia” (by Graeme Base)
looking on each alphabet page for pictures of things
that begin with the letter on the page
they know things like: Roman numerals, raccoon, roller skates,
ram, rocking horse, rolling pin, rattlesnake, register
they pronounce these words in Indonesian (rom, peen)
so I know they have not actually heard the word
for Indonesians, English (Inggris) is very important
because it is their bridge to the world
and Central Kalimantan is one of the least developed
of the large nation of Indonesia
Reading is important, of course,
but clarity and fluency in speaking is at least as important
Monica wrote on a spelling word sentence
“When my family went to Hong Kong, we were frustrated
because even when we spoke English, they didn’t understand us.”
(the spelling word was frustrate)
So my focus has been on speaking clearly and fluently
one of the complications with this is
that they hear so many different accents:
Indonesian English, British English, Australian English,
and more rarely, American English, although
much of their passive vocabulary comes from
watching American movies, and they consider
American, the “coolest” accent
Here are a few of the things we’ve figured out
• practice reading aloud and pronunciation with
younger grade picture books (baby books we call them)
because the words and phrasing are simpler
• when one child says the word incorrectly,
they all practice saying the word
• I notice and praise
“You said the word, that correctly this time.”
“You caught yourself about to get too silly and stopped.”
One day after a multitude of asking them
to speak louder and slower
I tried inviting them to give suggestions to each other
“Can you hear Dion?” heads shake,
“Would you like to?” heads nod
“Could you make a suggestion?”
Bagus smiles and says in a teasing high voice,
“Just a leeetle beet louder.”
We all laugh as I realize he is imitating me
in an exaggerated way….new class joke
• we invent and play “famous person gives a speech.”
each student comes up with one sentence, like–
“My family went on vacation to Jakarta.”
I look at the sentence and then introduce the student:
“Our next speaker is a delight.
She is a world expert on family vacations.
I know you will totally enjoy her speech.
Please welcome Ms. Shila!”
Shila comes to the front of the room
and says her sentence
we coach her to be loud and clear
and confident
She says the one sentence over and over
emphasizing a different word each time–
“MY family went on vacation to Jakarta.”
“My FAMILY went on vacation to Jakarta.”
“My family WENT on vacation to Jakarta.”
We laugh and clap for Shila
• And then there’s the “yes and… game.”
One student begins the story,
speaking directly to the next student
(not to me, so we practice conversation style
rather than teacher to student style)
“Ale and Bagus went to the mall.”
The next student says, “Yes, and….there they met
and he pushed Bagus down.” “Yes, and…Bagus was bleeding.”
We go around three times and the stories that emerge
are funny, teasing, serious, fearful.
Full of the 11 year old psyche: vampires, blood, ghosts,
making messes with food, boy/girl antics and awkwardness.
They’re having fun, they’re talking as if in conversation,
they’re listening to each other, and they’re playing in English
instead of just studying English.
I’m happy too.
9 weeks at school
it’s been nine weeks now
next week is the last of the term
the 6th graders
at first shy and silent
now, arms around each other,
call themselves “The Famous Six”
(a play on a book they read called “The Famous Five”)
chalk it up to the natural result
of familiarity
and there are things they’ve taught me
about how to help them flourish
why are they reluctant to speak English?
their culture is naturally soft-spoken
they are afraid they will say things wrong
and, big one, their passive vocabulary
is sooo much larger than their active one
they know what they want to say,
they’ve read or heard the word
but they can’t pull it into voice
we go through the fabulous book “Anamalia” (by Graeme Base)
looking on each alphabet page for pictures of things
that begin with the letter on the page
they know things like: Roman numerals, raccoon, roller skates,
ram, rocking horse, rolling pin, rattlesnake, register
they pronounce these words in Indonesian (rom, peen)
so I know they have not actually heard the word
for Indonesians, English (Inggris) is very important
because it is their bridge to the world
and Central Kalimantan is one of the least developed
of the large nation of Indonesia
Reading is important, of course,
but clarity and fluency in speaking is at least as important
Monica wrote on a spelling word sentence
“When my family went to Hong Kong, we were frustrated
because even when we spoke English, they didn’t understand us.”
(the spelling word was frustrate)
So my focus has been on speaking clearly and fluently
one of the complications with this is
that they hear so many different accents:
Indonesian English, British English, Australian English,
and more rarely, American English, although
much of their passive vocabulary comes from
watching American movies, and they consider
American, the “coolest” accent
Here are a few of the things we’ve figured out
• practice reading aloud and pronunciation with
younger grade picture books (baby books we call them)
because the words and phrasing are simpler
• when one child says the word incorrectly,
they all practice saying the word
• I notice and praise
“You said the word, that correctly this time.”
“You caught yourself about to get too silly and stopped.”
One day after a multitude of asking them
to speak louder and slower
I tried inviting them to give suggestions to each other
“Can you hear Dion?” heads shake,
“Would you like to?” heads nod
“Could you make a suggestion?”
Bagus smiles and says in a teasing high voice,
“Just a leeetle beet louder.”
We all laugh as I realize he is imitating me
in an exaggerated way….new class joke
• we invent and play “famous person gives a speech.”
each student comes up with one sentence, like–
“My family went on vacation to Jakarta.”
I look at the sentence and then introduce the student:
“Our next speaker is a delight.
She is a world expert on family vacations.
I know you will totally enjoy her speech.
Please welcome Ms. Shila!”
Shila comes to the front of the room
and says her sentence
we coach her to be loud and clear
and confident
She says the one sentence over and over
emphasizing a different word each time–
“MY family went on vacation to Jakarta.”
“My FAMILY went on vacation to Jakarta.”
“My family WENT on vacation to Jakarta.”
We laugh and clap for Shila
• And then there’s the “yes and… game.”
One student begins the story,
speaking directly to the next student
(not to me, so we practice conversation style
rather than teacher to student style)
“Ale and Bagus went to the mall.”
The next student says, “Yes, and….there they met
and he pushed Bagus down.” “Yes, and…Bagus was bleeding.”
We go around three times and the stories that emerge
are funny, teasing, serious, fearful.
Full of the 11 year old psyche: vampires, blood, ghosts,
making messes with food, boy/girl antics and awkwardness.
They’re having fun, they’re talking as if in conversation,
they’re listening to each other, and they’re playing in English
instead of just studying English.
I’m happy too.
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