Final Days at School and Saying Goodbye

During the last week of classes, my counterpart and I put together a "Gallery Walk" for the students to highlight what they did throughout the semester. We made them walk around the auditorium in silence for 5-10 minutes and then had them discuss what they saw that they liked. We talked about what they learned over the year as well as their favorite memories. In the beginning of second semester, every student wrote a letter to themselves writing abut what they hoped to accomplish in the second half of the school year. The last week of class, I gave all the students their letters, which they read privately. Finally, the class with the most participation points received a pizza party and the last day I asked the students to sign one of my school shirts. Many pictures were taken as we said goodbye.

Explanation of what will happen.

Gallery Walk

Class X-3

Class X-6 enjoying their prize for participating!

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:

You know you did something right when you get going away presents like this! 

Rainbow in Madura Island:

... 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!