The first day of the training program

    This morning we were ushered into different classes according the interview we had yesterday. The four teachers of our school were in the same class. Our class was named after a state in America, Massachusetts. The other two were Iowa and sorry, I forget the third.

    I like listening to foreigners talk, and conversing with them. I like their sense of humor. However these teachers are quite old and not all of them have a good sense of humor I have to say. Anyway, their lessons are helpful. I would like to listen carefully and try to answer their questions. I explained several words and phrases as requested by the teacher and they were quite pleased with it. The words were discipline someone, toad, and separate. Very sadly I found a lot of my fellow learners’ report in English was simply Chinglish. I had no idea as to whether my report was the same.

    English is basically a foreign language. We have to practice, practice and practice. Nevertheless, lack of contextual language environment won’t give any help to our learning. That is just the reason why I treasure this opportunity so much.

    On the morning the teachers introduced themselves to us in their own way. We were numbered off and then divided into different groups. We had a survey. Each member of a group told stories of their role model teachers, their deeds, their words, and anything that made them a role model in our eyes. I was lucky enough to be chosen to the reporter of our group and reported to the whole class the survey we had made. The fellow learners gave their kind and warm applause for me and that gave me a lot of encouragement. I was thankful for them.

    On the afternoon, we sat in the hall to attend a lecture given by the foreign teachers. We were numbered off and put into different groups again, since all the learners were present in the hall, 100 learners in all. We had nine groups. We were led to sing, do all kinds of games, have a discussion, etc. Our group was the best in the game: making sentences. We were invited to stand up and the others clapped their to us for congratulation.

    All the teachers were kind, generous and helpful. I was amazed at their civil manners. They were all highly civilized people and I admired them a lot.

    I am anxiously waiting for the next day to come. I must be crazy about English.