Number two. -----Original Message----- From: Jaime R Vergara <pinoypanda2031@aol.com> To: editor <editor@saipantribune.com> Sent: Fri, Aug 22, 2014 2:54 pm Subject: August 26 for ST Shou Wang "Hang on to hope" is the name of the school whereI last taught children how to handle their oral English. They were thought to be too young to learn ontheir own. I remember parents anxious toget their children ahead of the curve so they rammed English lessons down theirthroats so they can qualify to enter the bilingual schools like Yu Chai. At first, the parents were belligerent about the no-textbookapproach their child's new teacher followed. After all, they invested heavily on many aids provided by theCambridge/Oxford/Princeton Press related publications that might have beenhastily copied by enterprising shops in Shanghai and Beijing. Besides, learning meant suffering. Parents came prepared to sit through the hoursession to make sure their child paid attention. The children were so fear stricken with sternMom's look in the class that their brain shriveled under the pressure of sessions. One mother even interjected herself in a classwhen her child did not answer fast enough, and responded as a matter of prideto a question for her "baby". I allowed parents to remain in the classroom, ever lookingfor the opportunity to hit "two birds with one stone" (an unfortunatemetaphor) until I reminded myself that my priority were the kids; the parents, onlya distant second. Not surprisingly, whenthe children were left to themselves with the teacher, the learning processaccelerated. Our method was simple. Students listened to what was uttered, and repeated them so they canhear their own vocal chords making sounds. We shunned reading; the focus was on hearing, so I got them to listen (ting) and repeat (chungfu). For a start, we focused on what they heard publicly. We had ample materials. They listened to English songs but they didnot repeat the words since mimicking is a gift and a talent. Not many claimed the ability to sing, thefirst balloon to be punctured since everyone can utter a sound. One song used was familiar, about butterflies (hudie), sang first in Chinese andlater, in English. There were three suchsongs. The translations were notstandard Oxford, but a Chinese singer sang them with "Chinesecharacteristics"! That's when Icame up with the Deutsch englisCHe wordto denote the British Isles' mixed Celt, Norman, and Angle tongues, now gettingglobal massaging including that of the Chinese (CH) with its own characteristics. The trick is to get the students to pronounce words, lettingthem hear themselves do so. They neededto hear themselves repeat the word. Thisseemed to be a step skipped in the classroom as the intent was usually to"understand" meaning; they were taught how to use the dictionary,write and recognize words, but for all practical purposes, retained the Chinesecharacters, and forgot the English word save when it was memorized beforetaking tests. We unearthed other songs inthe popular media, particularly from animated movies. I will get a lot of mileage from Frozen in the coming months to come. A recitation that I used with motion patterned after the tai-chi without bothering with meaning,is about a watermelon, Yi ge da xi gua,familiar to local audiences. We start withbreathing, deeply and continuously, sansstress or strain. The same goes with themovement of muscles and bones, where the stressed chop and jab, usually associatedwith martial arts, takes gracious form in fluid body muscle and bone movement,and heavy soul (breathing). I have one big watermelon. I slice it in half. One for you, and one for me. The motions are simple. We stand with feet slightly apart, childrenfacing teacher, beginning with a sustained deep inhaling through the nose andexhaling of breath through the mouth while arms are down; palms facing inwardare then lifted to the middle of the body trunk, palms now crossed and turned downand out to the top of the stretch and swinging outward to make the form of abig "O" ending with palms resting together in front below the stomach. This was done while loudly reciting the firsttwo lines above. The "slice" part began where the big "O"ended, the palms facing up, the right atop the left were raised just to thelevel of the chest, turning it so both faced in and then out until both palms reachedthe top of the stretch and with palms together like the universal gesture ofprayer were brought down to cut the front air straight down in half, palmspointing to the ground together. The "belonging" part had the hands with limpwrists raised back, the left above the right and shoving a cloud to the side,and doing the reverse on the right side. It was an uncomplicated exercise, with the students mouthingtheir English words to gestures they already knew on a ritual they alreadyunderstood. They listened and repeated,a lesson we wanted them to internalize for learning to learn on their own. Lessonsadvanced to describe sense experiences, express feelings, articulate thoughts,and declare acts. It followed a naturalprocess. That simple! j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031@aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!