Food for Thought

Hey y'all.

Clearly I suck at blogging.  It's been a busy month of December...a trip to Trujillo and Lima and the beach (!), teaching English in Chicon, working on a world map mural in a school in Media Luna, planning for the start of our projects in 2011, and lots of cooking!

Recently, at a Friday session, we revisited several different cultural spectra which we had discussed during orientation.  I thought it was really interesting to reflect on my time in Peru so far with those spectra in mind.  I am by no means in a position to speak for Peruvian society, but I have some interesting anecdotes that provide indications one way or the other.  Maybe you'll find it interesting too.

The Concept of Self: This spectrum ranges from Individualist to Collectivist.  In societies that lie to the Individualist side of things, people identify primarily with self, seeking to meet personal needs before those of a group.   The philosophy is that looking after and taking after oneself, being self-sufficient, guarantees the well being of the group.  On the collectivist side, societies believe that one finds identity in his or her membership/role in a group.  The survival and success of the group is believed to ensure the well-being of the individual...so one considers the needs and feelings of others, and by default, those of him or herself.

While teaching English in Chicon, we had the kids partake in various activities in which individuals had to do something in front of the group; usually it was as simple as asking students to answer questions individually.   But whenever we'd call on a student, and that student took more than a second to answer, the others around him or her would immediately start helping.  "No les ayuden!" we'd say at least a hundred times a day [don't help!], but our efforts were more or less for naught.  It just seemed natural that the students should work together to come up with the answers.  Could this be a collectivist trait?  Maybe.

We also took a glance at the Concept of Time spectrum.  This one ranges from Monochronic to Polychronic.  In Monochronic societies, time is perceived as a limited, quantifiable thing, which must be worked around through schedules, deadlines, etc.  Time is given and people must change to suit its demands.  Polychronic societies, on the other hand, believe that time is adjusted to meet the needs of the people.  There is the feeling that there is always more time; you are never too busy.

Well I have to say that I certainly feel that sense of "you-are-never-too-busy" here in Peru.  In reality, I am pretty busy.  My schedule is full, mas o menos, and sometimes I don't have enough time to do everything I want to do.  But I have the perpetual feeling that "there's time!"  And I find that to be extremely liberating.  Unlike my life in high school, I don't find myself constantly rushing around to finish what needs to be done.  It's like I said in one of my first posts upon arriving to Urubamba.  Tranquiiiiilo.  


Considering we're on the brink of implementing our new projects (women's groups and English classes in both communities, as per the results of the vote), I remind myself how important it is to keep these spectra in mind, in order to prevent imposition and preserve cultural values.   Alex brought up a great point in our discussion that really got me thinking.   As part of our community diagnostic, we conducted "focus group" discussion sessions, to which we invited members of the communities whom we'd deemed "positive deviators."  They were people who had done something particularly credible, like sending all of their children to college or starting their own business.  We thought it would be helpful to get their opinions on what projects would be best for the community.  But as Alex noted, we were using a Western definition of "positive deviators."  Would the Peruvian definition be in accordance?  Positive deviance is, after all, somewhat subjective.  It depends on your perspective, which depends on your values.  Which often vary by culture.  If nothing else, these values are what I am most eager to understand about Peruvian culture...and really any culture I have the opportunity to conocer (get to know).

Food for thought.

Peace.

Teaching English

Hey y'all.

Last week, Rachel and I started teaching English to a sixth grade class at the Chicon primaria.  It's a short course--just until mid-December--that is just one of the mini-projects we're working on until January, when we begin our heavy duty projects.  I'm astounded at how much I've learned after having taught for only a week.

The day before Rachel and I were scheduled to begin, we had no clue what we were doing.  Steph sent us a lot of helpful materials for teaching English--lesson plans, tips, games, puzzles, activities--but we had no idea where to start.  We had only a vague idea of the students' current level ("basic," we'd been told).  Despite that, we threw together a lesson plan, which was actually more of a diagnostic in disguise.  We'd both had a good deal of experience teaching, but strictly violin, and strictly individual lessons.  We were therefore pretty nervous as we entered the classroom for the first time.  But as we soon found out, we were more prepared than we thought.  The students didn't know much English at all.  But they did have what I think is the key ingredient to a successful learning experience: ganas a aprender (enthusiasm for learning).

The first day was smooth sailing.  We taught for just over an hour, and didn't get much farther than halfway through our lesson plan.  But when it was over, the director dropped the bomb and asked us if we could teach the full day--English from 8 to 1.  We couldn't say no.  So here began the challenge: figuring out how to hold the attention of 11-14 year olds while teaching the same subject for three blocks.  Here's what I've learned.

• I think one thing Rachel and I do well is that our plans are pretty rough and leave room for deviance.  Sometimes the best ideas come to you on the spot.  You can plan for hours, but you never know just what to expect, especially when you're teaching kids.  
• It's imperative to vary the lesson plan.  We do best when we have a nice balance of review, written independent work, interactive 'lecture,' and games.
• In my humble opinion, the hardest obstacle a Spanish speaker must overcome when trying to learn English is pronunciation/reading.  In Spanish, each letter has basically one sound and one sound only.  Also, as they say, Spanish words utilize natural letter sounds.  For this reason, reading English is extremely difficult.  Many letters have multiple sounds, or no sound at all.  And even though there are rules, such as "magic E causes the vowel to say its name," they are as often void as they are valid.  But in an effort to aid pronunciation, we dove right into the alphabet, especially vowel/consonant combinations, and have been focusing heavily on this topic.   It's especially important to me that students learn to read and pronounce English, because this skill will allow those who have ganas to advance on their own in the future.
• Teaching is exhausting work.  If you thought high school was a little too much at one time, try teaching for a full day.
• Peruvian schoolkids are nuts for singing.  So far, we've sung 'I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas," "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," the alphabet song, and the Hokey Pokey.  If you're ever teaching here, be sure to incorporate songs.  I also bring my violin, which the kids go a little crazy over.  
• I've noticed that the students in my class are really detail-oriented.  This is an asset in many respects; for example, most of what they write in their notebooks is neatly and uniformly organized.  But at the same time, their attention to detail can be a hindrance.  Today, after reviewing our unit on description words (such as tall, fat, intelligent, clean, etc.), we had the students play a modified Pictionary--meaning they had to choose a word and draw clues on the board for their classmates to guess.   Rachel and I were shocked at how many times many of them erased and started over after drawing merely a head.  I think they were so preoccupied with trying to make their people look perfect that they neglected to add the features distinctive to the particular adjective.  Therefore, there were many 'tall' people who looked just like the 'clean' people who looked just like the 'intelligent' people.  They seemed to have trouble thinking of other ways to portray the adjectives...for example, drawing a person next to a tree to indicate "tall."
• The kids give us a run for our money, but they are adorable and I am enjoying the experience.

That does it for the time being.

Peace.