english club

The Teacher Training College received its new class for 2012 a few weeks ago and, I was approached by one of the supervisors from the school to teach a club on Tuesday nights from 7pm-9pm. A common meeting was held two Tuesdays ago, with the students and the DI’s to discuss various types of clubs. This meeting gave the students an opportunity to converse with one another about potential clubs they would like for the college to have. The night concluded with the students deciding to have 8 different clubs and, I was elected to teach the English Club (the DI’s here are from Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Bulgaria and, South Korea) so English is a second language to all of them. I was delighted to take on this new task and have the opportunity to work with the college students.

 I had 34 students sign-up to join the English Club. I felt confident as I walked into the first meeting last Tuesday.  I greeted the students “good evening and welcome to English Club” and then they responded “good evening madam” ….boy-o-boy did that make me feel old!! I’m from North Carolina which we call the (south) in the states and we are taught at a very young age to always say “sir and ma’am” when speaking to our elders…it’s just part of the southern etiquette. The proper etiquette in Malawi is to say “sir and madam” when speaking to elders. I started giving the students a little background information on myself and my mother country. I was trying to make eye contact with every student during my introduction and it seemed my words just mystified the class. I asked them “do you guys understand?” and no one replied…then one student raised her hand and said “could you please talk slower” and then the club members broke-out into a quite giggle….I started to giggle too…I knew at that moment,  I was really going to enjoy my Tuesday evenings at  English Club.

English Club met on schedule last night; I was very touched by what the students shared with me and their fellow club members. I started the meeting by going over: verbs, adjectives, nouns and, prepositions. Then I taught them the difference between a formal and informal conversation. I picked a few students to come to the front of the class and give a greeting, introduction and, goodbye in each type of conversation…they had a lot of fun with this activity…

I chose to end the class by reviewing the public speaking lesson that we had at the previous meeting. I would call on a student and he/she would come to the front of the class to just talk about whatever they wanted. A lot of the students are very soft spoken and get really nervous when speaking in front of their peers. When we tried this lesson last Tuesday the students were all very fidgety and would either look down or off into a corner when speaking. I tried reverting back to my public speaking classes that I took in college to help prepare myself for the lesson. I was very delighted to see the club member’s feeling more comfortable as they practiced their public speaking.  Also, I was very moved by how the students chose on their own to speak about their personal lives. I sat back and listened to four different club member’s talk about their families and, a few of them incorporated god into their speeches. One of the speeches that really hit-home was given by a young man who is from Mozambique. Mozambique had been fighting a 16 year civil war that ended in 1992. The country has made much progress in economic development and political stability. About one million people died in that civil war and millions more fled abroad or to other parts of the country.He spent his primary years at a refugee school in Mozambique and then his family moved to Malawi. Listening to the different struggles he and his family encountered during this time period was heartwrenching. I was amazed by how he chose to share these details with the club. All of the English Club members are very appreciative of the opportunity they have been given to go to college... they have set very high goals for themselves….I just met these students last Tuesday and I am already very  impressed by them!!