Teaching ESOL to grown ups

Our International students from Sri Lanka, Russia and China. The man in yellow is Jon. He is practising to teach ESOL.This photo was taken after we baked a self saucing chocolate cake.


That year, we had Korean, Hong Kong , China and New Calidonia students.George from Tonga.


Mei, Chiang from China.















Eric and Mary are pastors of Renacer Church in Co'rdoba Argentina. 



"Bokko" with a Korean student, Celine.

"Bokko" the clown came all the way from Brazil to entertain us.  The children shouted "Eu te amo." It was sad that "Bokko"aka Marcelo will be returning home, but I am sure the children will remember him for a long time.

What is ESOL? It is English speakers of other languages. I have the privilege of teaching both children and adults. It is interesting and I love it.  Besides teaching them, I gain so much learning and respecting their  their culture.

With the adult students, I feel that they are my friends. These are my students at the ESOL school at the Mt Albert Baptist Church.

This photo of us dressed so formally was a Christmas function. The Korean ladies dress to their finest traditional Hanbok. I wore a Sarawak Sarong, Chinese Black frog button top and a yellow laced Kebabya jacket. I embrace the country of my birth and the country of my ethnicity. The man in the photo is from New Calidonia and speaks French.

The world is getting so easily connected by the ease in flying and the internet. It is so important to teach duality. The latest topic I taught was travelling and the students had fun learning to be polite when complaining about a faulty hotel/motel room.

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com/

http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com

Sunday Stills: Music

I am showcasing the music of the land of my birth. I returned to Sarawak recently and in 2009. I went to Mulu  and to long houses in Binatang and Sarikei.

When you visit Sarawak in Borneo, especially the week during the Gawai or harvest festival, there will be a lot of feasting and dancing. You will hear the music of the indigenous people.

The sape is one of the string instruments from the lute family, which has a short neck.

It is made from soft wood, usually the meranti's. The sape has quite an elongated body which is hollowed out and functions as a resonator. I was entertained by this musician when I went to Mulu Caves. Some one fondly dubbed it as the Sarawak guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGN50vL3OaAT

See a traditional dance from Sarawak.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrn_oGiq0DQ&feature=related

This last piece is played by a Kelabit, my brother in law K and Sis in law A are Kelabits from the Bario Highlands in Borneo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0qSPHqV9wU&feature=related

This is a Penan or Punan woman. The Penans are nomadic people in Sarawak,Borneo. Here she is using her nose to play a flute.

My younger brother, Dr Henry Chan, an anthropologist spent a lot of time in the jungle with them.

 These are repeats from the welcoming ceremony  by the Iban longhouse when we The Kai Chung school went to visit. The typical Iban agung ensemble will include a set of engkerumungs (small agungs arranged together side by side and played like a xylophone)

I asked my hostess if I could try, and she was happy to teach me.

I wasn't synchronized, but my mentor didn't laugh at me.

Sunday Stills, The Next Challenge – Music

This will be a fun challenge I think because music can be found in a lot of different people, places and things. Take some shots that reflect the music in your life.

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Sands Manukau

One of the things that Sands does is go visit families when their bSandSands goes to families whose babies have died.  

This post is by.Sands Manukau

Just home now from meeting a very precious angel. So bitter sweet as her twin sister lay in mums and dads arms as a healthy newborn. Such love in that room for 2 very special babies who will not as they should, grow up together. A tough night. xx

SV we know what that is like with our twin boys
Thursday at 6:35am · Like · 3

Ann Chin I experienced that scenario too. 
The good baby went home,

The sick baby was left in the hospital to die. 
She didn't become an angel straight away.

 More like 2 months. 
She was my Andrew's friend.

excerpts of Diary of a bereaved Mother, Good bye my baby Chapter 5.

Do you remember Dr Bobby Tsang? He was our friend who told me about this twin who was abandoned by her mum on the day. Baby Lo had spina bifida and had hydrocephalus. She was in Nursery 5, the cubicle just before Andrew’s. The cubicles were partitioned on the top by glass and her cot was diagonally across from Andrew. I could see Lo’s cot from my chair and the nurses didn’t mind me popping over to see poor Lo because she had no visitors. Like Sina, the fluid was building up some much that the head was very big. Unlike Sina, she had no operation to insert the shunt to drain the fluid to relieve the pressure. You might think she was a space alien or ET. Lo was just waiting like our little Andrew. The only difference was that Andrew was surrounded by love and lots of people. Lo had that wait alone.  Andrew and Lo were the two oldest babies there and were “hopeless” babies.

Each time I felt moody, the doctors and nurses told me to look up across to poor Lo and reassured me that I was a very loving mum and Andrew and the whole hospital knew it. Indeed, just looking at her gave me this warm fuzzy feeling. I did not abandon Andrew. I wasn’t self-justifying or glorifying myself. When you are in a disastrous situation, you cling to anything that gives you hope.

 When I went back to the hospital to say thank them after Andrew had died, I asked how Lo was. Though her mum had abandoned her to die, she still came to give her four woollen gowns. Most of the times she came in for a fleeting visit to pick up her soiled woollen gowns. They needed to be hand-washed and the hospital would not wash for her. I had seen her couple of times and I asked the nurses who she was. They told me she was Lo’s mum.

What’s the profile of a mother who abandons her dying baby?  Was she a grotesque person or an ogre? She was a slightly older Pakeha, not a young mum. No, she was your ordinary person who made her choice of not wanting her dying baby. Her reason, only she knew. But I think I had a good idea. She didn’t want to form an attachment and when the tragic time finally happened, the separation wouldn’t be so painful. Besides, God had given her a healthy twin. I am not quick to judge people now. She was also a kind woman. She told the nurses to give the knitted gowns that Lo had outgrown to another baby. Or was it? Was it that she didn’t want anything to do with things used by Lo? You wouldn’t know.

Andrew wore Lo’s hand me down knitted lemon gown to meet his coroner. Her head had grown too big for her to pull the gown over it. His nurse Daphne gave it to Andrew.

Lo’s short life impacted me in a way that nobody would understand. God put Lo in my life to gently remind me that I am not a failure. She constantly told me that I was a good mum, I did not abandon Andrew the way her mum had abandoned her.

During the Christmas holidays, Dr Bobby Tsang came to our house and told me that Lo had gone to play with Andrew in the Heavenly gardens. No more pain, no more big head. He said he knew I would want to know.

Photohunt: Sarawak Automobile

1. 

   Can't remember when this was taken. All I recorded in my archives is Sarawak Town. The years I returned for a short holiday were 1982, 1986, 1992.
   
   http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/list-of-photo-hunting-themes.html

   http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com  

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

Photohunt: Automobile

I didn't ride in this stretch limo. I saw this in Surfers paradise in Australia.

The first time I rode in a supersized automoblie was an outing of the Malaysian Indonesian Singapore students association. We went to the Southern tip of Canada. The organisers hired  Oldsmobiles. The year was 1975. We were on other outings.  They always rented an Oldsmobile. These cars were really big. We packed inside like a can of sardine. 

The other most remarkable trip was going to New York. I went with my fellow Sibu and Sarikei friends. Ning and Lee drove. My best memory was climbing up the Statue of Liberty. I met up with Wong Hung Yong, Ning and Vanny this July. We had great time of reminiscing.

 I went to this beach, at the lake at Sarnia. We all stood at this point to have our photo taken.

1. Sarnia, Ontario - Canada's Most Southern Point - Southern Ontario ...

   www.soto.on.ca/canadas_most_southern_point/sarnia.html

   Sarnia, Ontario. Sarnia is also one of Ontario's principal gateways to the United States and is located across the St. Clair River from the state of Michigan, just an ...
2. Canada's Most Southern Point - Southern Ontario Tourism

   
   

   http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/list-of-photo-hunting-themes.html

   http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com  

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

FSO: Get High at Nanyang Technological University.

These Chinese structures are icons in Singapore. For a long time, Malaysians were not allowed to visit China. Coming to these Yunnan Garden served to kill two birds with one stone. They were in the university they funded, and they got a feel of China. I felt the same too, as I am 4th generations removed from China, and this is the closest I been to China.

NTU, Nanyang Technological University was originally privately raised by the Chinese people of South East Asia, including my grand parents. When I was growing up in Borneo, my grand parents and parents donated to build the Chinese University outside China. I was told that many of our Chinese ancestors owned a brick. We teased our grand dad if they gave him a number and the coordinates of his brick.

The Nanyang university of Singapore transitioned from a Chinese University to an ultra modern one funded by the Government.

When the Water Engineer went to teach in the University in 1990, it became NTI and then NTU, a fully fledged university and he became an associate professor. To date, of all the children in the Chan clan, only my daughter D attended the university.

I spent sixteen of my adult years here, and the best thing is I made many friends from all over the world. This year, after leaving 6 years ago, I went back and my friends made me as welcomed as though I never left.
http://annsnowchin.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/international-day-of-kindness.html



These two photos were taken from the 11th floor in the university accommodation at Nanyang Meadows. These are for this week's meme, Get High.

The first ever Youth Olympic Games (YOG) was held in Singapore from August 14 to August 26 2010. Athletes range from 14 to 18. New Zealand has participants.

This event is close to my heart. The Youth Olympic Village is located in Nanyang Technological University. For more than half of my adult life, I have lived here as an ex pat faculty wife. The campus is full of greenery. I planted many trees that is now given a number.

The photo shows the university's oval, and on the right the swimming pool. It was here, I trained for my 10 km Marathon running. My friend L. trained with me at 6 am in the morning, we added 800 metres per day. Later, we did our circuit of running round the university campus. The day, we completed our 10 km, we High 5ed. We ran 10 times before we ran the real thing, among the Marathon greats from Ethiopia and Kenya.

It was all worth while. I show my students my medal, especially this year during the Olympics games. They fight over the medal, and some kept asking it if really was mine. "You ran the marathon?"

Get High

...with your camera.

As in shoot from above.

link to Mr Linky at the Friday shoot out link below.

http://mytownshootout.blogspot.com

I walked/peddled to school today: World Car Free Day:Alphabe-Thursday R for Ride

Before there were gas power cars, there were peddle powered trishaw. When I was young ,like my older daughter, I won't be seen dead in one of these. My great grand ma would go round town in what we call SA KA LIN or SAN LUEN CHUR. Our school was in town, and when she sees us, especially when it was raining, she would call in our dialect our Chinese names and talk to us in Cantonese. We would talk very fast away from her.

The Changi airport in Singapore used to have a trishaw for tourists who want to have a bit of nostalgia. Take a trishaw ride in Downtown Chinatown and enjoy a ride down memory lane.

In Auckland, they have a modernised contraception for the tourists.

Hope you've all survived the cold, rainy winter term.  As part of the school's efforts to support World Car Free Day, they are encouraging all kids to walk or ride to school for the next two weeks.  We thought it may be a nice idea to get the Moa Road Movers going for just ONE DAY to support this kaupapa.

三輪車 Shan Lun Che

A chinese nursery rhyme with many different variants, some comical.

 The trishaw goes very fast,

Inside sits an old woman.

The fare is 50 cents, 

She gives him $1.

Isn't that strange?

My aunt who was a teacher added this two sentences:

Not strange?

If you ride the trishaw,

And don't pay money, that's DUE LIAN, ( shameful) 

and we kids changed the DUE LIAN to DURIAN, which is our infamous king of fruits.

三輪車
三輪車跑得快 上面坐個老太太
要五毛 給一塊 你說奇怪不奇怪

For all my Chinese speaking friends who probably sang this when they were young in kindergarten or from the TV in Singapore.

http://youtu.be/eUd2NpQgAoU

http://thursdaythemesong.blogspot.com/

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/Alphabe-Thursday

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/