The STAR Mariachi Van

We were on our way to Perlis for the SBP School Northern Zone English Drama Competition. We were heading north up the North-South Highway, following the bus from Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK), which is only about 25 kilometers from our school.

Each SBP school usually has three school buses: A small van for getting sick students to the clinic or going to town, an older bus to get more students around, and a traveling bus. The traveling school buses for the SBP schools are not your normal yellow school buses. They are comfortable, with air conditioning, captain chair type seats, and a TV and dvd player. They are more like the overnight buses that go to Singapore or Thailand, than a school bus. Here in Malaysia, appearance is everything, and you want to make a good impression when going to a sister school.

One of the kids brought along a DVD of "Ghost Rider", and everyone settled in to watch it. Me? I was more interested in reading the Malaysian Star newspaper, and doing the Sudoku on the comics page. I did see enough of the movie to see that it wasn't worth the six Ringgit ($1.75) the student paid for it.

When we got up around the tollbooths near Butterworth, I put down my paper, and noticed a strange little vehicle between us and the bus from MCKK. We seemed to be in a convoy. It looked to be a van from another SBP school, but I couldn't really be sure. If it was, it was barely big enough to hold the fifteen students that would be taking part. There was absolutely no room for any props or backdrops. Hell, if they had any luggage, they would have to be holding it on their laps.

The paint was worn and faded, and the windows were open because there was no air conditioning. I was surprised that the back tires weren't wobbling like drunken belly dancers, or that there wasn't thick black smoke pouring out of the back.

In the back of the vehicle were a couple of signs: One saying, "Go Pablo", and the other, "Wowee" or something like that. One of the guys in the backseat was playing a guitar, and either had a big curly hairdo, or was wearing a wig. The others were dressed in colorful shirts. It gave the rather startling impression that we were following a destitute itinerant Mexican Mariachi band up to the Thai border.

We pulled up next to the poor little van during a rest stop, and it was from another SBP school- STAR (Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman), in Ipoh. This is a picture of it after we reached our destination.



STAR is an all boys school, like MCKK. That luckless group had to endure a four hour ride through tropical heat in a bumpy little van, with no air conditioning.

Once we got into Kangar, the driver from MCKK got lost, and we had to travel around on some dusty dirt roads while finding our way, and the poor guys from STAR had dust pouring in their windows. By the time we pulled into the school in Kangar, those poor guys really needed a nice long shower, and maybe a nice long hug from their Mommy.




Just to give you an idea of how small the van was, here is a picture of it sitting between the traveling bus, and the everyday school bus from the school in Kangar.

It was only after saying something to Mr. Wong, that I found out that we very well could have been doing the same thing. I didn't know that we had to sign up to use the school buses. Luckily, Mr. Wong has been at SERATAS for twenty three years, and knows how everything works. He reserved the nice traveling bus as soon as he knew when the competition was taking place. Otherwise, there would have been two van loads of dirty, sweaty students pulling into the competition, not one.

All I can say is:

Thank God for Mr. Wong!

He saves the day once again.

My Saturday Workshop

Here is a picture of the students for the workshop I had to teach today. I had to teach "Communication English". At least that was what was written in the meeting room when we had the ceremonial pre-class meeting. I didn't know that was what I was supposed to teach. Lucky I didn't know, because what the heck is "Communication English" anyway? I think they meant was "English Communication". It's hard to break the Manglish habit.

The two Indian guys are technicians, and the rest are office staff. There were supposed to be 21 in my workshop, but these 8 brave souls were the ones that showed up. The gardeners, cooks, and other workers were supposed to be there, but they stayed away in droves. They were obviously very self-conscious about their level of English. One of the gardeners did show up for five minutes, but obviously understood nothing that was going on. He discretely slipped out while my back was turned.

The level of the students varied. The Indian guys English was very good. The rest ranged from okay, to "I can understand most of what you say if you talk slow", to "I can't understand almost anything but I have to be here anyway because the boss says so".


I spent all week getting ready for it. Since I was busy getting ready for the English drama competition since the beginning of April, that was all the time I had. Now that it's over, I wish I had more time to get ready for it. It was kind of fun, and the students seemed to enjoy it, but I know if I had more time, it could have been even better.

I did some work on pronunciation, using a Powerpoint presentation I spent days working on. It explained the sounds of English, and had tongue twisters and jazz chants, and poems for us to read out loud together. After that, we did a running dictation, and some mime activities, which everyone enjoyed.

So what did I get out of it? An envelope with a nice ribbon on it. Inside? 100 Ringgit! (About $30), which was nice. All I expected was a fancy certificate of appreciation. I have about six or seven of those sitting in my desk drawer. I would rather have 100 Ringgit for each one of them instead of the certificates. The money is alot more useful!



(I gave him the award as the best student in the class.
He also got a fancy little envelope with a nice ribbon on it,
but I don't know what, or how much was inside.)

My Student's Rugby Haka Youtube Video

This is a video I made of two of the students at my school, SERATAS (Sekolah Menengah Sains Raja Tun Azlan Shah), in Taiping Perak, Malaysia. I am the Project English Teacher there. They are members of the debate team, who were bored and didn't have anything else to do. So they decided to do their version of the New Zealand rugby team Haka. I guess they are practicing it so that they can do it before the debate, and scare the hell out of the other teams, or make them helpless with laughter!

I told them I would put them on Youtube, but I don't think they believed me. They will crack up when they see this!!!



The next video I made by accident. These are some of my form 2 students. They were in class waiting for the parent-teacher meeting to end, and are dressed in the batik uniform shirts they have to wear when they leave the school. You can see the school name in the design of the shirt. When the meeting is over, their parents will meet with the teacher in charge of the class, pick up their test scores, and then the students will go home for the weekend. Our school is a boarding school, and the students, except for emergencies or special occasions, only get to go home once every couple of months or so. So these guys are excited to be going home, and anxious for the meeting to end.

In the clip, they see me and come out of class to have their picture taken. I forgot I had the camera on movie mode instead of picture mode, and took a couple of seconds of video instead. There's not much there, I know, but since they always watch Youtube, I figured I would put it on there, and see if they find it.




This is how the picture came out:



The kid on the left of the front row, I can't remember his name, is a real wiseass with a smart mouth. I've had to throw him out of class a couple times and make him stand outside against the wall. Meor, the chubby kid in the middle of the front row who looks so serious, is actually one of the jolliest and most easy going kids around. He always has a smile on his face, except for this picture. The one on the right of the front row, well, seems to be in a permanent narcoleptic state. According to the kids, he even falls asleep at the mosque during prayer time.

The kid on the back row left, is a quiet, easygoing joker. The other two next to him, they are too quiet. It's hard to get them to say two words in English total between the two of them.

So yeah, these are my students, some of the top students in Malaysia. They are under a really rigid schedule that leaves them no free time, and lots of pressure to perform well by their families. That's why I'm not a real hardass in class, unless I have to be. I never give them homework, because they already have more than they can handle from their regular teachers. They already have it tough enough, without me making it worse.