Sunday, August 24, 2008

English Honors



(Published in 2004 in FilamMegaScene, a Filipino-American magazine, based in Chicago, Illinois, USA.)


Wan an! This means “good night” in Mandarin. Echo, Vivian, and Selena had just dropped me off at my apartment near the gate of Da-Yeh University in Changhua, Taiwan. The three ladies are my students in English Honors IV. Our class had dinner at a steak house and the ladies gave me a ride home.

Did we have dinner because we were celebrating the end of the school year? No, we didn’t. We had a class, a regular class, in a real-world setting.

The Honors Program puts together the “cream of the crop” from the Colleges of Business, Design, Engineering, and Foreign Languages in my university. On top of their regular load, honors students take courses in English, culture, international relations as well as leadership and personality development.

Honors classes are small. A class is opened if there are at least three registered students. Usually, there are 10 students in a class. The honors students don’t pay any extra tuition fee although the university invests millions of dollars in the Honors Program. Teachers are paid, of course.
My English Honors IV class is the last of the required English courses for honors students. Only three are registered, but six more are attending the class to stay sharp in English. The other six have already completed the required English courses, in addition to having taken a winter course at Cambridge University in England this year.
At first, I wasn’t too eager to teach English Honors classes because they are scheduled in the evening. But the students are highly-motivated and always surpass my expectations. Let me show you what I mean.
For the English Honors IV class this semester, I prepared an integrated skills syllabus built around tourist spots in Taiwan. The idea was that we would read, talk, and write about one tourist spot every week.
Each student was supposed to bring one picture about the assigned tourist spot for the week. Instead of bringing one picture each, they brought albums, coffee table books, brochures, maps, posters, and sample souvenirs!
Our class is from 6:10 to 8:00 p.m. without a break. But we usually extend till 8:30 because they cannot stop talking. Once, I designed an in-depth self-introduction lesson. Instead of questions which ask for autobiographical data, I asked questions such as, “If you could become an animal, which animal would you choose and why?”
I got really interesting answers. Here’s an example: “I’d like to become an elephant. It needs very little sleep, it has no enemy, …” More than giving interesting answers, they really put their heart into getting to know one another more intimately.
They reacted to one another’s answers, asked follow-up questions, and offered their own opinions and experiences. They didn’t need me.
After the mid-terms, my English Honors IV students negotiated the syllabus with me by suggesting and voting on the class activities which they liked. Going to the night market and eating out were some of the activities which they chose.
They voted in favor of a “night market class” because they learned that I’d never been to one. So they took me. It’s a classic case of students educating their teacher!
The night market is like a wet market in the Philippines, but business hours are from 6:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. There are many stalls which sell novelty items, souvenirs, handcrafted goods, etc. in unbelievably cheap prices.
To cap the evening, we ate stinking tofu. The first bite was a little unsettling, but I swallowed it with a smile because they were all looking at me. Then I took a second bite, a third, a fourth… and then I got used to it and ate with a hearty appetite. I was tired and hungry from walking around.

For our “eating out class,” my students chose a buffet steak house. By the way, we go Dutch during our off-campus classes. After ordering our steak, the main course, we trooped to the buffet tables and helped ourselves to salads, soups, fruits, snacks, bread, drinks, and different flavors of ice cream. I simply loved the mint ice cream!

The food was fabulous, the conversation was crisp, and the interaction was intense. While eating with forks and knives nonchalantly, my students kept asking questions about my experiences in Taiwan and about life in the Philippines.
After four years in Taiwan, I have finally learned how to say, Ni jiao shenme ming zi? It means, “What’s your name?”
They were delighted to tell me their Chinese names and to teach me a few more Mandarin phrases like “Huang yin guang lin” (Welcome!) Our class had become a bilingual class with the teacher learning from the students!

I was talking to Vivian who was seated to my right when I overheard Erica and Selena mention someone named Larry. Always nosy, I asked who Larry was. Erica said, “He’s an English major. Do you know him?” “Oh,” I said. “Yes, of course, I know him.”

Then David who was seated to my left turned around as if to greet someone and said, “Hi, Larry!” I turned around, too, but Larry was nowhere. I asked, “Is Larry here? Where’s Larry?”

Everybody laughed and said, while looking at Selena, “In her mind!”

My honors students are not yet wholly fluent in English but they’re getting there. Although their grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax may not be flawless, they’re able to ask questions, comprehend what they hear, respond spontaneously, ask follow-up questions, and share jokes and laughter – all in English.

Their thirst for knowledge, quest for wisdom, and joy in learning are infectious. Their sense of humor, cheerfulness, energy, and high spirits amaze me no end. Truly, they belong to a class all their own, the English Honors!

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