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| Explanation of what will happen. |
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| Gallery Walk |
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| Class X-3 |
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| Class X-6 enjoying their prize for participating! |
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| My gift from Class X-2 (basically my gift from the basketball team) |
The students with the top participation score from each class were invited to my house for cake, American cookies, and tea:
Saying goodbye:
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| You know you did something right when you get going away presents like this! |
... and my first and ONLY attempt at being a model:
What are my thoughts about leaving?
As usual, at the end of an experience time always seems to
speed up. Everyone wants to acknowledge your existence in their community by
inviting you places, talking to you more, and requesting more of you. All of a sudden
you have lots to do and only a few weeks to do it. However, leaving Indonesia
actually left me feeling a little confused and frustrated.
Unfortunately in many
places in the world foreigners teaching English in schools (especially
volunteering to teach English for an extended amount of time) are often treated
as “merchandise.” I am using the word “merchandise” as this was explained to me
by a local Indonesian professor conducting research on the treatment of
foreigners in Indonesia. And I hope people reading this don’t become
automatically offended by these words (although I’m sure a few will), as my
goal is not to offend but to encourage a dialogue that I think is often missing
in these types of cross-cultural exchange programs. And why do I mention this
at the end? Because at the end it becomes increasingly apparent about why a
school wants to host a native English speaker, why host country nationals want
to spend time with this foreigner, and why the foreigner has more requests to
do things at the end of a program.
In many places, mastering the English language is seen as a
way of increasing the standard of someone’s life. Although this can be true, in
many cases I would argue that it is not. Administrators at many schools openly
suggest that having a native speaker teaching at their school increases the
opportunities of the school’s students by giving them a skill they need to
succeed in the real world; in the global market. However, after teaching
English abroad for three years, it becomes more apparent to me that the native
speaker is really just becoming a necessity in many places to give a school
attention, admiration, and a reputation for having more resources, even though
anyone teaching abroad can tell you resources left over or skills transferred
are sadly often ignored or quickly dismissed. So really the benefit is not
going to the students but
instead to school administrators receiving a native speaker as they gain attention and more applicants wanting to attend their school.
Even if the school is public, having a native speaker somehow classifies the
school as being better than others, despite there being no long-term solutions
for improving the teaching of language lessons, increasing students’ critical
thinking skills, or improving students’ and teachers’ knowledge of a different
culture.
Instead the whole process
feels a lot more superficial. For example, the exchange becomes less and less
about truly learning and creating a mutual understanding of another culture, but instead a way to create
a false image that something exists that doesn’t. The reason I mention all of this is because I think at the
end of a program when the native speaker leaves, people are more likely to
expose their true motives. This was especially obvious to me with the awkward “goodbye” dinner my school had for me.
I truly care about service work whether that be in the US or
abroad and I just hope that one day people hosting a foreigner understand that
they also have an obligation to learn about the foreigner's culture, opinions, and traditions. Yes, perhaps I am too idealistic, and I know that many people are
probably thinking something like, “well as long as you reached out to one
person that’s all that matters.” But I am suggesting something much more than
that. For cases where a school requests to host a native speaker, there should
be more interest in learning about the “real” America, not just the America
that is portrayed on TV. Alas, I have yet to see this in more than three people wherever I go. I can only hope that the dialogue about true mutual cross-cultural exchange becomes more common in non-western cultures. Maybe
someday…
*Of course there is a lot of generalizing here, but if you want to talk to me more about my opinions on this you can come see me when I get back!
