November 1, 2008 at 3:55 pm · Filed under Stuff
A few weeks ago I gave an essay assignment to all 4 of my ICT classes (which means I graded upwards of 180 essays; should have been over 200 but many students didn’t turn it in). The question was simple: “How do you imagine technology will affect your culture in the next 5, 10, and 20 years?”
My goal wasn’t to get anything from class regurgitated, but rather to see if they could apply what we’d discussed this term in a somewhat creative and self-aware manner. Reading all the responses gave me a whole new perspective on how the material I’m teaching will always be received in a fundamentally different manner from that which I originally imagine it is, due to our respective cultural filters. I ended up writing down quotes from nearly every paper I received; here are my favourites:
Doomsday and Roses:
- “Technology will destroy the world.”
- “Technology will make the world a peaceful and beautiful place.”
- “Technology will not allow us to live in peace in this world.”
- “The future will be very enjoyable due to technology.”
- “People use technology to tell lies, because of this in 5 years we will suffer a lot in the nation.”
- “Corruption and robbery all will end and it will be peaceful in the world.”
“…And get off my lawn too!”
- “In the olden days, you wouldn’t see West African young ladies wearing all this short dressing that we are experiencing nowadays. I suppose that it is the modern experiences that is affecting us all. In 10 years coming we will see that our young sisters will wear an underwear only and say that it is the modern thing.”
- “In the future man will leave the planet and build a mansion and stay there through technology, which is very greedy because God created men in His image and has given them the place to live and worship Him and you don’t want to establish yourself on another place which is very very bad.”
Reminders that I’m not in Kansas any more:
- In the next 20 years there will be a computer/laptop in everyone’s house. (similar statement was made in multiple essays)
- “Technology will help us to get off the planet and this universe in the nearest future. It will even help us get to the sky to see how the moon, the sun, and the stars look like from the sky.”
- “In 10 years communication will be easier and faster because at that time when you get your mobile it can call a person in America or any place you like.”
- “In the next five years cell phones will have special receivers which will pick calls and answer them in the owner’s own voice.”
- “In the future digital cameras will take pictures and print them at the same time.”
- “In the next 10 years I expect technology to be improved to produce automatic tanker systems which will provide every home with water.”
- “There will be robots and machines which will collect litters from the streets to improve upon sanitation and stop diseases.”
- “In the next 10 years mobiles will be cheap for even adolescents to buy their own.”
- “In 10 years the prices will be very cheap so that every individual can afford to get at least one computer in his or her life.”
- “In the future they will be sending text messages even if the person is just near you.”
- “There will someday be a new technique of teaching in the classroom by the aid of internet. Through the use of internet students will not find it difficult in learning and writing their notes, because theories and notes will be internetted directly into their various computers.”
- “In 20 years all feeder roads will be tiled.” (or “all minor roads will be surfaced”)
- “In 10 years time they will not use chalk to write on chalk boards because there will be a flat screen for teachers to use with the computer instead.”
- “Students will not go and sit in class to learn but rather use the internet from home.”
- “In 10 years time people will no longer need cash but can simply use an E-Zwitch card whenever they make a purchase.” (E-Zwitch is an independent debit card provider emerging in West Africa)
October 19, 2008 at 12:21 pm · Filed under Stuff
Mind dump, because I’m too spastic to type a real entry today.
- The time/season-disorientation I expected has finally hit. It’s almost Halloween, and my mind is still stuck in June. Very strange.
- Met & chatted with a random Obruni in Cape Coast on Saturday; he’s been overlanding all over West Africa since June. Definitely fueled my ever-changing COS-trip dreams.
- I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast today - with no fridge, no milk, no oven. I am awesome.
- On an unrelated note (really! My food is safe, my water yesterday wasn’t), it’s been an “ORS-tastic” day. Fun.
- It’s amazing how such days have become just another part of living in Africa.
- I’m trying to dry limes, and I think it’s working. YAY!
- I’ve felt very MacGuyver this week: added a spring and latch to my screen door, built a drying rack, and made a bunch of new candleholders with nails and tomato paste tins. All materials cannibalised from rubbish heaps on campus. My housemate is in awe of my hammer+leatherman+recycling skills. I’m changing the world one trash pile at a time!
- My cat eats too much sugar. This is bad for her teeth and my sanity. I can has hyperactivity?!
- Every line of poetry, every awestruck utterance, every attempt at descriptive language, that has ever been meant to describe a starry sky: was written with last night’s sky in mind. It was awesome in the best sense of the word.
- Speaking of hyperactive cats: there’s a gecko on my wall right now, and Yosh is trying to attack it.
- I walked out of every class this week either immensely happy with the world, or completely crushed and disappointed. Very Six Flags.
- More on class drama in a future post. I really do have about 3 half-written entries, so I’m not completely full of you-know-what.
- Photos uploading as I type this - busy day at Cape yesterday.
- I. Love. Maps.
- Long hikes. I’ve been obsessing on them for a while. Originally considered either the LT or possibly the AT as viable post-Ghana options. Now I’m thinking a little more exotic. Too early to plan, you say? Never!
- Obviously, I’ve been doing a lot of travel-dreaming this week.
September 20, 2008 at 12:05 pm · Filed under Stuff
Thursday, 18 September 2008
It’s 6:45am, and there is a girl scrubbing our bath. I’m not sure I’m entirely comfortable with this, but I must admit… she’s better at it than I am.
Let me explain. I’ve been told before, by other PCVs and by Ghanaian teachers alike, that student labour on a teacher’s behalf is not only common, but expected - by both teachers and the students themselves. Apparently there is some sense of duty and honour conferred upon the students selected to be personal housekeepers to teachers, ranking them up there with class leaders and prefects. Even so, when the knock came at 6:30 this morning, from a female student (males don’t do housework…) with broom and scrub-brush in hand, I was still a little shocked. Her name is Irene, and she told me this is “her job;” she works for my housemate. She seemed surprised when I thanked her for coming, saying simply “I do this… that is why I came”.
It’s an infinite collection of small things like this that contribute to my utterly complete, albeit cliche, “culture shock.” Floundering around and trying to make sense of things, while still regaining my sense of self, is a constant struggle. Where do I stand, where should I stand, on an issue like this one? It’s not as clear-cut as student caning (which is an entirely different issue; one which I will gladly discuss in another arena), but even so I don’t find myself able to mentally resolve it easily. Disregarding the fact that this wasn’t my arrangement at all, but that of my housemate, I am still at a loss. The cultural and moral construct that formed who I am finds itself caught between repulsion at the idea of the Mistress (as in female teacher; me) being entitled to unpaid student labour — and knowledge that to refuse would be seen as a gross affront, by and towards both the student body and my fellow teachers. I, who leisurely sipped a mug of coffee in my pajamas, watching a student who has long been out of bed rush through sweeping, scrubbing, and water fetching in order to make it to morning assembly on time. Yet all the while, I am told, there is a sense of pride enjoyed by those “selected” for such extracurricular duties. Irene told me more than once about how kind my housemate is, how glad she is to work for my housemate, how she considers the woman a mother, and how much she has learned from her. Indeed, the woman whose house I share is an incredibly kind, caring person - and I have no doubt what Irene says is true. In fact the issue my subconscious has is not with my fellow teachers at all, but rather with the system in which we all find ourselves. When all’s said and done… it’s just plain “weird” to me when I see students labouring intently for teachers, and to have all parties involved accept it with ease. And that, in a nutshell, explains the feelings that I’m trying to resolve.
…and on a slight tangent, I find myself just at this second wondering what, exactly, contributed to my present-day mindset: the country I grew up in, sure; the family into which I was born; the beliefs that shape my perspective; the experiences that I’ve encountered. And then… I wonder how much influence the fact that I never actually attended school in my life, before university, comes into play. Is the student-teacher relationship in this country something that shouldn’t strike me as so adverse after all? I don’t know. I do know that my lack of formal “public school” experience does still contribute to how I approach teaching and what I put into - and get out of - the classroom now. (On even more of a tangent, I also must admit that learning the basic structure/order/schedule/idea of a Secondary School - not just in Ghana, but in general - during Training scared me silly. It was all so completely foreign; I felt totally out of my element and actually doubted my abilities as a teacher. ‘No one else is having trouble with these ideas, what’s MY problem?!’ Which, in retrospect - considering some of the arrogant ideas I had during my self-possessed, pompous years as a teenage homeschooler - I find very funny. :) )
Anyway. Ultimately I’m not going to change the system, and that’s not my intention in any case. Maybe what bothers me most is that there are actions I don’t like, whether from a cultural or personal standpoint, that others don’t even notice enough to mind. It doesn’t matter if it’s student labour, school caning, bureaucratic corruption, or blatant sexism. Yet my mind sees the possibility of morphing slowly into one of “them” - other PCVs, other teachers - and accepting what once appalled me without a second thought. Maybe I can see that happening… and I’m not sure I can accept what it means.
October 5, 2006 at 9:56 am · Filed under Stuff
This is why ESL is perpetually awesome… as evidenced in class last night.
Learning new vocabulary; the next word on the list was “Approach.” Example sentence in textbook was “During the trial, the lawyers were often asked to approach the bench in court.”
The first student asked for a definition of “trial”.
After that, we discussed what a judge’s bench was, as compared to a park bench — which a student said was like a “couch for outdoors”.
Then, we delved into “court”. What is a court, how is “court” in this sentence different from “court” in a sentence we might have read earlier, and how many different meanings for the word do you know? We came up with “court” as in tennis-court, basketball-court, courtyard, and then… “court” as synonymous with “dating”.
So… what is “dating”? Dating, then, is when a boy and girl are together because they like each other. Oh, so this is a very special meaning of “court”, says one student! Yes, usually so.
So, says one teacher, courting couples are dating each other, or going out together. This is very, very common in America.
Oh yes! Says a student. He has heard of this on television — Americans come out all the time… it is very common today.
No, they go out, says the teacher. Ah, sorry, yes, they come out. He says.
And the original vocabulary word was what again?
I think part of the reason I like ESL so much (well, aside from the people) — is because it reminds me of the way I grew up learning: officially-acceptable tangenting, with oftentimes-hilarious results.
