Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Posted in Sharing at 2:18 am by Patmacng
Hello All,
I've been teaching in Taiwan for quite a while. I teach at a school were most are in grade school, but I have one class that is all teenagers. I thought these guys would be much easier to teach. In fact it is not. They have been a bit quiet in the beginning but now they have became my favorite class. My boss sits in some of my classes, at first it made me a bit nervous, but she is great at communicating her ideas and feelings toward my work.
Recently I taught class while she was there. I thought I did an okay job that day, but after class she congratulated me on how well I was teaching. She got lots of comments from the students as well. The were pleased with my teaching. We have been talking and having meetings about once a week. She mentioned that I should challenge them a bit more, especially since they are teenagers.
After I did this to this class and to all my other classes I received a lot more respect from the students. The Taiwanese are very hard workers and are constantly challenging you to be a great person. They want you to succeed too that is why my boss helps me even though she has other work she could be doing.
I am very satisfied with where I am in life right now and if it were not for the TESL training I would have never been here in Taiwan right now. Traveling is in my blood right now and I've already been to four different countries in the past three months!!! Good luck and contact me anytime for questions.
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Monday, November 27, 2006
Posted in Sharing at 6:50 am by seanny
While I sit here trying to think about what to write, I realize that the word "trying" is key. I have no idea what to write because I am trying to hard. Just stopping thinking led me to write what I am writing now. I didnt think about it, it just came out. The reason for the title is because I wanted to write something that everyone else hasnt written about. I wanted to write something that maybe would inspire, or at least inject a grain of minimal understanding into how best to approach many things in life.
I taught my students recently about the way a child learns–how they don't try to think about what they are doing, they just do it. And if they can't do it immediately, they continue to go for it, or they ask for help. But in asking for help and seeing how it is done, they quickly learn how to do it for themselves and don't require another person's assistance. By not trying and not thinking too hard I don't mean to imply that we shouldn't make use of our brains when learning something new, like language for instance. But, rather, we should strive to be a like a little kid and just do it.
I think I had some sort of epiphany a few weeks ago when I recalled a similar sentence uttered by so many people. I have been learning Chinese for quite some time but it has only been recently that I have started to get the hang of it. People ask me, "Do you know Bo Po Mo Fo?" "Do you know how to write?" Can you find characters in the dictionary using the radical index?" "Can you read Chinese characters?" To each of these, I answer "Yes." I am not fluent by any means, but I never stop. The common sentence uttered by all of these people was and is, "That is quite difficult." They say this to me as if learning the language is something that can't be done because it is supposedly difficult.
I believe that if at the time a child is learning to walk, and the parents continually told it, "You know, walking is quite difficult. You have to get used to moving both legs at the same time, while maintaining your balance. You have to get used to walking on uneven surfaces and different textured surfaces, while at the same time, performing complicated tasks like brushing your teeth or catching a train." The child might never learn how to do it. I say this because of the little thing called negative reinforcement. Continually telling someone that something is difficult or very hard to understand while that person is learning it can be very disheartening.
My students often ask me, "How can I improve my English?" I tell them that living in Taiwan and not having access to daily speaking opportunities, it will be difficult. But I do believe that if you are serios about learning, you will make every effort to find chances to use the language. My point is this, when learning a new language, new skill, new instrument, new anything, don't "try" to learn it, just learn it. Let your mind go and pretend you are like a young kid who has just gotten on his first bicycle. His parents don't tell him anything technical or confusing, they just help him to get on it. They guide him, letting his feet push the pedals, let him watch them ride a bike, etc. If you fail the first time, just persevere. If we stopped learning English when we were 6 because we couldn't understand what our new grade 2 teacher was talking about, we would all be a lot worse for wear today.
The thing I told my students is this:
We learn the most when we try the least.
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