I have been longing to write about my teaching experience to government school kids through teach India.But i seriously must say i had a long wait before i actually started teaching as those kids have holiday on 2nd and 4th saturday of the month and most of the other Saturdays were declared holidays for some arbit reasons. When it finally started just before going i was a little nervous as im not good with kids and didnt know how i would connect with them but was damn excited as it was an opportunity for myself to know how good i am as a teacher :P [I always thought i am the worst teacher with a bad temper i later realized i am not that bad after all :)].
Ya now i was told that i should introduce myself to them and ask them if they had any question and most important of all , i was asked to talk to them only in english even if they talk in my and their local language kannada.
But it was only after going there i realized how different the scenario was from the theory or advice given!!
There were a bunch of 5 kids all studying in 6th or 7th standard, in front of me and we were squatting on a mat and i gave a brief introduction of myself , i was shocked by the cold gaze i got and when i asked them to introduce themselves they were still blinking , and then finally i decided to go against what i was told(No talking in kannada) and i asked in kanglish ... finally they gave a smile and one kid among them told "hey miss is asking us to tell our names "[:D i found it very funny being called miss ;) !!] then one by one they gave out their names ,
there were 1 or 2 who were hesitant to even tell their names .After this i was a little more confident and did my second mistake by asking them in english , "You all are interested in learning and reading english right ???"
But was comepletely demotivated for a second when they told a big "NO" . It was only after i composed myself i asked them again in kanglish wondering what they meant , because a
negative answer to that question would defeat the purpose of my visit there.
Then Thank God !! they told in broken english that they want to learn english and read english books but they didnt know anything but to read alphabets and then try to spell it but didn't
understand the meaning of more than 90% of the words they read or heard , Adding to it they told that had not understood what i had asked them and when i told them what they had replied they shyly apologized for their impertinence. It was a breather for me.
It was then the reality struck me ! I have a bunch of grown up kids of 13/14 years and English is introduced to them as a subject only when they go to 5th standard! Thanks to the education system in karnataka,And also hypocratic bunch of so called " kannada Para"(For kannada) people who are strictly against introducing english to government school kids from class I , When they themselves send their kids to international schools , feeding them english in every walk of life . I dont understand what the hell they are going to achieve by not providing english as a subject for these poor kids who cannot afford a private school . Learning english does not mean forgetting kannada right ? And the irony is that all the office papers even in government are in english , if there were only such govt schools who the hell would understand it ?
When English is globally accepted language of communication [If china can start why cant we ?] aren't we cheating these poor kids , when all others have access to the language , wont these little one's feel left out ? I hope they act soon and not put these kids in such situation.
Ok i know i deviated from the topic but i couldn't resist making those comments. Ya then it was all smooth , I realized the real situation they were in and used methods with english mixed with kannada ,and it was real fun and was actually amazed at the rate at which some of them learn , its not that they are dull heads its just that they are not used to it . It was a relishing moment to see the gleam in their eyes with the satisfaction of they having learnt some thing new.
It was also funny the way 2 kids were trying to patofy ;) , In the middle of the session one girl was like miss[;)] i don't feel like going home only if u teaching LOL that was my first session girl! was my reaction , Immediately as though in competition the other girl is like miss if I read English book i don't feel like reading Kannada only !, to which my reaction was a little serious that it should be a balance of the two languages , as a wrong message would be conveyed otherwise.
Ya now i was told that i should introduce myself to them and ask them if they had any question and most important of all , i was asked to talk to them only in english even if they talk in my and their local language kannada.
But it was only after going there i realized how different the scenario was from the theory or advice given!!
There were a bunch of 5 kids all studying in 6th or 7th standard, in front of me and we were squatting on a mat and i gave a brief introduction of myself , i was shocked by the cold gaze i got and when i asked them to introduce themselves they were still blinking , and then finally i decided to go against what i was told(No talking in kannada) and i asked in kanglish ... finally they gave a smile and one kid among them told "hey miss is asking us to tell our names "[:D i found it very funny being called miss ;) !!] then one by one they gave out their names ,
there were 1 or 2 who were hesitant to even tell their names .After this i was a little more confident and did my second mistake by asking them in english , "You all are interested in learning and reading english right ???"
But was comepletely demotivated for a second when they told a big "NO" . It was only after i composed myself i asked them again in kanglish wondering what they meant , because a
negative answer to that question would defeat the purpose of my visit there.
Then Thank God !! they told in broken english that they want to learn english and read english books but they didnt know anything but to read alphabets and then try to spell it but didn't
understand the meaning of more than 90% of the words they read or heard , Adding to it they told that had not understood what i had asked them and when i told them what they had replied they shyly apologized for their impertinence. It was a breather for me.
It was then the reality struck me ! I have a bunch of grown up kids of 13/14 years and English is introduced to them as a subject only when they go to 5th standard! Thanks to the education system in karnataka,And also hypocratic bunch of so called " kannada Para"(For kannada) people who are strictly against introducing english to government school kids from class I , When they themselves send their kids to international schools , feeding them english in every walk of life . I dont understand what the hell they are going to achieve by not providing english as a subject for these poor kids who cannot afford a private school . Learning english does not mean forgetting kannada right ? And the irony is that all the office papers even in government are in english , if there were only such govt schools who the hell would understand it ?
When English is globally accepted language of communication [If china can start why cant we ?] aren't we cheating these poor kids , when all others have access to the language , wont these little one's feel left out ? I hope they act soon and not put these kids in such situation.
Ok i know i deviated from the topic but i couldn't resist making those comments. Ya then it was all smooth , I realized the real situation they were in and used methods with english mixed with kannada ,and it was real fun and was actually amazed at the rate at which some of them learn , its not that they are dull heads its just that they are not used to it . It was a relishing moment to see the gleam in their eyes with the satisfaction of they having learnt some thing new.
It was also funny the way 2 kids were trying to patofy ;) , In the middle of the session one girl was like miss[;)] i don't feel like going home only if u teaching LOL that was my first session girl! was my reaction , Immediately as though in competition the other girl is like miss if I read English book i don't feel like reading Kannada only !, to which my reaction was a little serious that it should be a balance of the two languages , as a wrong message would be conveyed otherwise.
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