Email at sekulah
As of yesterday, I can now check my emails at school. Why I was unable to do this before, I don't actually know--they were blocked for whatever reason.
The basketball schedule is like this: Primary 3 and 4 on Monday, Primary 5 and 6 on Wednesday, and Secondary 1-3 on Friday. There are between 24 and 28 kids at each session. I am now going to have a second assistant which should help. The practice begins at precisely the moment when traffic gets heavy. On the street behind the basket, vendors are set up and their carts play what I would call carnival music--the same strange tune over and over. On the other streets cars and becaks and motorbikes race around, and, of course, all around us are other kids running around being loud. In this environment it is nearly impossible to be heard, so the extra help is needed even if just to act as messengers. The new guy is an English teacher either from Singapore or the Phillipines, I haven't asked.
At the meeting last friday the principal directed the Filipino and Chinese teachers to converse with the native English speakers in order to improve execution of the language. I don't have any problem understanding them but the British fellow here from Birmingham is another matter. At lunch a few of the Filipino teachers asked to sit by me. I told them that are just as fluent as I am. The Chinese teachers are another matter altogether.
The Bahasa word for teacher is guru. Saya guru means that I am a teacher. In the West, of course, we make rather grand associations with that word. I am going to continue to do so. I might insist upon being upgraded to Maharajah.
The basketball schedule is like this: Primary 3 and 4 on Monday, Primary 5 and 6 on Wednesday, and Secondary 1-3 on Friday. There are between 24 and 28 kids at each session. I am now going to have a second assistant which should help. The practice begins at precisely the moment when traffic gets heavy. On the street behind the basket, vendors are set up and their carts play what I would call carnival music--the same strange tune over and over. On the other streets cars and becaks and motorbikes race around, and, of course, all around us are other kids running around being loud. In this environment it is nearly impossible to be heard, so the extra help is needed even if just to act as messengers. The new guy is an English teacher either from Singapore or the Phillipines, I haven't asked.
At the meeting last friday the principal directed the Filipino and Chinese teachers to converse with the native English speakers in order to improve execution of the language. I don't have any problem understanding them but the British fellow here from Birmingham is another matter. At lunch a few of the Filipino teachers asked to sit by me. I told them that are just as fluent as I am. The Chinese teachers are another matter altogether.
The Bahasa word for teacher is guru. Saya guru means that I am a teacher. In the West, of course, we make rather grand associations with that word. I am going to continue to do so. I might insist upon being upgraded to Maharajah.
posted by athensinternational at 4:58 PM
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