DAY 7: Mission Impossible

Today I (who can't speak Chinese) had to teach English to some kids who can only speak "yes/no". Well maybe more than that, but they are just too shy to speak English. Luckily, zhe ge lao shi (me^^) is super patient, hehe. Also, I had Xiao Hei as my assistant which help me a lot with conveying the messages to the kids. She, just like many other girls, has a natural ability to get along with children. That's really the skill that I need to learn.

Teaching kids are tough job, and it's more difficult than teaching junior or senior high school students. Kids keep on losing their interest and there's just no way we can be so serious with the study. Here is the video that really help me with teaching English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_barTKxikvA .

The teaching went quite well, thanks to some idea from the video. The responded well to movements and gestures. They were excited to move their body, play games, draw pictures, and answer quizzes. But, to my surprise, they got bored with learning an English song. I guess, one of the reasons is because, they can't read English, and it's just too hard for them to remember all the lines that they've just heard. Even they couldn't sing simple song like Old MacDonald.

But there are things that I like about these kids: first, none of them are naughty. I don't know how to deal with naughty kids and thank God, they were not there. Second, they are cute! They have shy looks on their faces which make you want to pinch them.

The kids were really good with the names of animals. They quickly raised their hands to give answer when we gave them pictures of animals. Their pronunciation? don't ask..

This is what happened when we showed them the picture of frog.
Marsel: What is this?
Kid: f**k.
Marsel: Sorry? (got my ear closer to the kid)
Kid: f**k.
Marsel: Frog,.. Okay?? Yi, er, san!
Kid: f**k.
Marsel:....

Anyway, it was fun and a little tiring. Apau Jie asked me to teach English every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening to a few kid and to a class every weekend. I'm gonna be doing this a lot and I really hope that I can improve my Chinese along the way. Here's the picture.



On the night we ate steamboat together with Apau Jie's family.. Well, it's kinda similar to the steamboat we usually ate in Malaysia. The difference is, we eat little vegetables while they eat with a lottt of vegetables.