Amusing moments at ACJ
These are some fragments of memories which
make up the picture of my time at ACJ.
Although I was only there for two weeks, it is the memories of these
small achievements or funny moments which my journal is crammed full with and
which I shall always think of whenever I remember GVI.
During lesson time, whilst having a break
and playing snap with Buntu, I asked him to find the four cards for each animal
and name the animals. He could not find
the fourth frog card and I told him to keep looking, it would definitely be
there. It wasn’t and I was consequently
reprimanded by him for not being able to count.
Whilst teaching Sinethemba the verb ‘to
promise’ from an extract, I said if he could think of an example sentence I would do it. In hindsight this was probably a mistake as
he demonstrated that he understood the verb and exploited it by picking up a
football story and saying “teacher promises to read me book now”, which I
obviously then had to do!
During the reading focus group session, I
reminded Sinoxolo of the rule about speaking English in the classroom. He corrected me on the pronunciation of his
name; I hadn’t put the Xhosa click in the middle. I said that I wasn’t programmed for Xhosa and
he smiled and said “I not for English”, and persevered in teaching me how to
make the clicking sound which I now think I have managed.
I thank the children for shaping my memories of South Africa as a place of discovery and meaning which I will never forget.
Emily Willis
volunteer
0 comments:
Post a Comment