I am certainly more relaxed going to the Phans than I was in the beginning. The family is more relaxed as well. Eight o’clock in the morning seems early on a Saturday to have a lesson, but the family is up and ready for me when I come. The first thing May does is spread out the large, woven green and white mat on the carpet as the classroom. We sit in a circle on it and someone retrieves the envelope with all the teaching props I have left over the last few weeks. Tomtom brought me some notices from his school to translate for him. One was inviting mothers to join a walking club. Nawmu, the neighbor, who speaks the most English, asked why the mothers walk. I explained that it is for fun and conversation, and to make friends. Nawmu, May, Jon, his wife Kueh, and Tomtom joined the circle. I noticed the illusive grandmother sitting in a plastic lawn chair in the kitchen. She looked like she was conversing with someone who may have been sitting in the part of the kitchen that I couldn’t see. When those in the circle noticed me looking at her, Jon got up and guided her to a bedroom. They keep her away from sight, which may not bother her because she doesn’t seem to have sight. I got the feeling that she was talking to an imaginary person.
I asked the children if they had homework. They all said they didn’t, which was a relief to me, since most of it is math that is way over their heads. Both Tomtom and Noah have fractions for homework, but to start learning fractions with exercises that are clearly for students who already have a foundation in fractions seems impossible. I have been doing a lot of the homework for them, because there is not enough time to help them understand a problem like this one:
Mark thinks 1/6 is larger than 1/3 but Barbara disagrees. Who is right? Draw it, write it in mathematical terms, explain it in a sentence, and write it in a different way in mathematical terms.
This was one of Tomtom’s fourth grade worksheets, of which he had four to do last Monday. It is way too much for ESL students who come from a completely different system and have not learned the basics of fractions. I drew a circle and divided it into thirds, colored in one third, then drew another circle and divided it into sixths and colored in one sixth. But to complete the homework would have taken hours of paring down words to try to explain. With their limited English and my limited experience teaching English, I don’t think we would have been able to get very far. I feel guilty supplying the answers with my brief explanations, but I hope they will absorb how to do fractions as they are absorbing everything else being in San Diego, California, United States of America, having just recently been uprooted from a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand, which is all these children have known.
Last night I printed out free flashcards from the internet for teaching English. Some of them were actions, like sleeping, washing hands, taking a bath, etc. Others were opposites, like dull/sharp, thin/thick, rich/poor. One of the action flashcards depicted a boy in shorts and shirt with a backpack on. I was going to say he is walking, but when I showed it, they all said “Going to school.” The character certainly didn’t look at all like they do, nor does it look like any of their classmates who go to school. It looks more like an English schoolboy in shorts with a book bag. How did they know this was a boy going to school? It must have been the backpack, or maybe they saw a picture like this in the camp.
When we were going over opposites, I showed the picture of Pretty: a blond girl with big blue eyes. On the other side was Ugly: a picture of a woman who looked like a typical cartoon witch with pointy chin and nose, replete with warts and squinty eyes. I asked everyone if they thought Pretty was pretty. They were reluctant to answer. Kueh squeezed Jon’s arm and laughed. Is blonde and blue eyes pretty to them, when they all have dark hair and brown eyes?
After we went through the two sets of flashcards, Kueh and May wanted to write everything down. It took a while to go through all the flashcards and help them write down all the words. As we were finishing that up, Nawmu said she had to go to pray with her friend. She is Buddhist. I wondered if the Baptist missionaries didn’t make it to her camp.
As she was leaving, the grandfather and his three granddaughters came in. We expanded the circle to include them. The youngest girl played, but the other two girls and the grandfather wanted to write everything down that I had written on the backs of the flashcards. While they were doing this, I passed a stack of the flashcards out to the Phans and had them drill each other. I’m working hard on getting them to speak in full sentences, not just answering with one word. As they were going through the cards, I saw that they were looking at what they had just written down in their notebooks, so I reached across the mat and closed their notebooks. They laughed.
Before I left, May asked her son to speak to me about going to the library, since last time I said that I would take them there. Her English is not as good as the schoolchildren. I explained that the library was too far away to walk and that it didn’t open up until 9:30. Someone mentioned the ocean. Only Tomtom and May had ever seen the ocean. I think Tomtom’s class must have gone on a fieldtrip, and May went along. Jon and Kueh were very excited to go to the ocean. In the end, we arranged that next Saturday, I would come with someone else and two cars, so we could take eight of them to the ocean. It is going to be exciting taking them to the pier, so they can see the surfers, the beach and the endless water. I’m going to have to find a car seat for Kay Lee, who is only four years old. The grandfather is going to come, along with two of his daughters. The oldest, who has always been the most outspoken and assertive, pouted and adamantly held her ground that she was not going to go. She is the one who hits her grandfather with impatience when he says the wrong thing. She bosses her sisters around and seems very self-assured. I was a little surprised to see her almost cry when asked if she wanted to go. Maybe there has been enough change in her life. Getting in a car with me and going away from what is now familiar to her may have been overwhelming.
By the time I got my shoes on and said my goodbyes, I noticed a couple of the boys had gone down to the parking lot and were hanging around near my car. One of them handed me my binder that I had forgotten in the house. The other gave me a bag of bananas and two liters of Coke. I refused at first, but decided that it might be rude to refuse their gifts. They have so little, yet they wanted to give me something. I was honored but felt a little awkward. Next week, I’ll give them the gift of the ocean.
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