From Indonesia with Laughs

This story is about my experience when I taught English in Bekasi in 1996. Bekasi is located in suburban area of Indonesian capital city, Jakarta.

Bekasi had become a developing city at that time, the institution where I taught fully  depended on electricity supplied by government infrastructure. I taught my students as usual at that night, but the electricity suddenly went out. The students gave different reactions to the situation,  some became restless, some laughed and boo the class, and there were some who teased female students too by  imitating  ”ghost” noise. The lesson was still about an hour to go so I had to find a solution, and candles were the emergency exit !. Helped by students, I lit candles and put them on every chair where they sat. The students were happy to have this unexpected experience, and it had become memorable experience for me too: people have  it for romantic candle light dinner, my students and I had it for candle light studying.

Rooted man.

I just want to share a lesson with all of you. Although this man suffers from a kind of tumor (carcinoma) that makes his body “rooted”, but he still has optimism in his smile.  This man comes from a modest family living in West Java. Thanks to the simpathy from generous people that finally help him  go to surgery room in Bandung for cure.

This game might be applicable to your teaching english. You can use this game for testing your students knowledge in Irregular Verbs. This activity can be done by a class of 10-20 students. The equipment you need are a marker, a song, and a tape.

How to play: 

Ask   student A to pass a marker to student B, student B passes it to student C, etc. When they relay it from one student to others, at the same time of when the relay starts, the teacher also plays a song from the tape.  After it goes on for about  half a minute, the teacher pauses/stops the song. The student who holds the marker at the time the song stops must complete a verb’s past tense and past participle. They can chose the verbs alphabetically. So, if the first student  may chose , for example Awake-Awoke-Awaken, the next Begin, Began , Begun, etc.

Students who are able to complete the assigned verbs successfully may be paid compliments (you can write their names on the board pretended as “Board of Fames” or give them candies which they can enjoy after the class, perhaps ?)

Good luck !

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