What do we get when we contribute to our community? Prosperity? Fame? Power? Wealth? Zilch!
So why do we do it? Why does anyone do it?
I guess it's nothing more than your own self worth. Only you and you alone would know why.
Me? I've never been a teacher in school, let alone teach English in my life before. But for the past 27 years or so, I have been delivering scuba diving and underwater photography training to trainers, the military, the marine police and newbies alike, whether in universities or on islands around the world, while my students would comprise mainly of foreigners, so I don't have any qualms whatsoever with English whilst teaching has been and will always be my calling. So, in order to give me an excuse to stay in Malaysia longer, more so than other countries, I've joined SOLS 24/7 (Science of Life Studies 24/7) and specifically BI1M (Bahasa Inggeris 1 Malaysia) to help improve the command of English in our community. That's all, nothing more, nothing less. But… surprisingly, after being in Johor's UTC (Urban Transformation Center) since July 2017, there's more to just improving English than that I've discovered.
There's the feeding of the homeless on Johor Bahru's streets through Kechara Soup Kitchen, which includes free haircuts by professional hair stylists, and medical scans by young doctors to check their well being;
Then there's the exposure of the use of English to an Orphanage (Rumah Barkat);
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| The orphanage, Rumah Barkat |
and as of writing this article, soon in mid-December, there'll be a blood donation drive which involves the Sultanah Aminah Hospital Blood Bank.
But above all and beyond were the feedbacks from my own students.
One in particular, out of the blue, a student suddenly stood up in class and at the top of her voice, exclaimed that her confidence in English had improved greatly, in fact she even got better grades in school ever since she completed her English stint here with BI1M. I guessed she must have been elated. What more could a teacher ask for than to hear those words?
She, was a secondary four student, whom initially had trouble speaking more than three English words in a row, let alone a whole sentence. Her name is Siti Nurul Syaqeera, and she enrolled in the Foundation English course accompanied by her mum Hasnah (probably mum was worried about daughter being out at night for classes). Eventually now, in the Special BI1M classes, Syaqeera is on her own, and doing her best yet to give speeches to a class load of people. She's taken to Public Speaking.
Then there's another secondary four student, Khalisah Gaous who actually uses English as her first language, had no problems with verbs or nouns or the like, in fact there was an occasion where she challenged the use of a punctuation. Here then, was where it became a challenge to me because it was I who actually learned from students who were supposed to be learning from teachers. But that's the blessings of a teacher or trainer, I believe if you're a passionate teacher, you, will be the one constantly learning to be taught rather than the other way around.
For the adults who were in my night classes, many have drawn attention to their stories which I think a short novel should be the order of the day. But to cut a long story short, with sheer difficulty of choice, I shall pick two that comes to mind.
First, there was Christina William. An Indian mother with 3 handsome sons, two in secondary school and one in lower primary, and a daughter, the eldest, who's already working. She (Christina) married very young by our present standards - sixteen - making her look like the oldest sister to them rather than a mother. She came to class with the two sons in tow, one in form two, the other in form four. The youngest, probably primary one, would hang around, and I'd assign him as the hero doorkeeper to our classroom. A good doorkeeper he was, nobody goes in or out without his permission.
But above all and beyond were the feedbacks from my own students.
One in particular, out of the blue, a student suddenly stood up in class and at the top of her voice, exclaimed that her confidence in English had improved greatly, in fact she even got better grades in school ever since she completed her English stint here with BI1M. I guessed she must have been elated. What more could a teacher ask for than to hear those words?
She, was a secondary four student, whom initially had trouble speaking more than three English words in a row, let alone a whole sentence. Her name is Siti Nurul Syaqeera, and she enrolled in the Foundation English course accompanied by her mum Hasnah (probably mum was worried about daughter being out at night for classes). Eventually now, in the Special BI1M classes, Syaqeera is on her own, and doing her best yet to give speeches to a class load of people. She's taken to Public Speaking.
Then there's another secondary four student, Khalisah Gaous who actually uses English as her first language, had no problems with verbs or nouns or the like, in fact there was an occasion where she challenged the use of a punctuation. Here then, was where it became a challenge to me because it was I who actually learned from students who were supposed to be learning from teachers. But that's the blessings of a teacher or trainer, I believe if you're a passionate teacher, you, will be the one constantly learning to be taught rather than the other way around.
For the adults who were in my night classes, many have drawn attention to their stories which I think a short novel should be the order of the day. But to cut a long story short, with sheer difficulty of choice, I shall pick two that comes to mind.
First, there was Christina William. An Indian mother with 3 handsome sons, two in secondary school and one in lower primary, and a daughter, the eldest, who's already working. She (Christina) married very young by our present standards - sixteen - making her look like the oldest sister to them rather than a mother. She came to class with the two sons in tow, one in form two, the other in form four. The youngest, probably primary one, would hang around, and I'd assign him as the hero doorkeeper to our classroom. A good doorkeeper he was, nobody goes in or out without his permission.
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| Christina and sons |
The story of Christina is of her daughter who is now working, but working with various tribulations. She was studying to be a chef but when she did her practical training, she found that she couldn't take the pressures and heat from a commercial kitchen. She quit the kitchen and headed for a training in physiotherapy. The thing was, after going through more than half of the course, she decided that handling or carrying old patients were too much for her. So now, she's lucky to be employed by a telephone company as a receptionist.
How does that story relate? The mother, was in class with her two sons to try to make amends with giving too much freedom to her daughter earlier. And during those times, her English wasn't so good compared to her daughter then, thereby giving the daughter freedom of choice. Now, she's polishing her English hoping that her sons would respectfully look up at her and follow her guidance in time to come. From the looks of it, she was coping well after graduation and she's commented that at least she could now help and guide her remaining children to not repeat mistakes. Why? Because she could speak English better? Well, that's what she said.
Then there's Mr Prem Kumar. My most senior student, 60 years of age, an ex-police inspector who spends most of his time tending to his health and his new young family of two children. He has a 30-year something son too but from a former marriage. Prem was the only one in class with that age because the rest were secondary four students. His English was already good, but so were those of his classmates. But being the class monitor that he was (he was treated as such that is) his presence in class assured good behavior of the other students albeit their youthful pranks.
How does that story relate? The mother, was in class with her two sons to try to make amends with giving too much freedom to her daughter earlier. And during those times, her English wasn't so good compared to her daughter then, thereby giving the daughter freedom of choice. Now, she's polishing her English hoping that her sons would respectfully look up at her and follow her guidance in time to come. From the looks of it, she was coping well after graduation and she's commented that at least she could now help and guide her remaining children to not repeat mistakes. Why? Because she could speak English better? Well, that's what she said.
Then there's Mr Prem Kumar. My most senior student, 60 years of age, an ex-police inspector who spends most of his time tending to his health and his new young family of two children. He has a 30-year something son too but from a former marriage. Prem was the only one in class with that age because the rest were secondary four students. His English was already good, but so were those of his classmates. But being the class monitor that he was (he was treated as such that is) his presence in class assured good behavior of the other students albeit their youthful pranks.
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| Mr Prem Kumar, spotting a hat |
But the best part of it all was, no matter how much I tried to find errors in his essay, there were none that I could find, he set his bar high for everyone else. They had to beat him because he scored the highest marks in his midterm exam (a 10 over 10 for his essay), and I felt compelled to buy him a reward, from my own pocket, a sort of incentive for all my other classes. So, eventually, in the finals, someone did reach his standards in class, and that someone was the same Khalisah in this story.
My concern for him was his health which prevented him from attending classes but even then, he found himself more in class rather than not.
He, and the rest of the stories here, surely made my job, that much easier. I'm grateful and it was really enriching to be with BI1M, with SOLS 24/7, although challenges in certain areas existed, that goes without saying, and hopefully, something of this would be repeated next year and the years to come and rest assured I’ll be honoured to be of assistance to this noble cause.
I believe this BI1M program is a tool, an inspiration, not only for language, but also of character.
Au revoir.
[Author's note:
This article was also published at BI1M's facebook
https://bit.ly/ET_at_BI1M]
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