The Ra-Ra School

All excitement all the time!! (With added exclamation marks.)

I’ve been doing some more wondering. This time it’s how to bring all that screaming excitement to class which the edutainment people want to see.

Speaking

We could have lively debates and discussions about matters of topical interest. Oh, hang on. Students know little or nothing about what’s going on in the big wide world (or even in the Empire; if I mentioned Bo Xilai there’s a good chance they’d think he was the President of Taiwan) and would soon wear out their English before the debate or discussion could even be described as lively.

Listening

I have every episode of A History of the World in 100 Objects from the BBC. It’s all fascinating stuff and not too long, but the content would probably fly over the heads of students without a great deal of preparation. The usual stuff they listen to is staged, slow, and practical.

Reading

There are all sorts of interesting things which students could read and which aren’t their usual diet of newspaper and magazine articles. But I’ve had enough problems getting Princess Kitty Cat to read a whole book with the usual complaints about new words. Then there’d be the discussion afterwards, and the fan-fic. Er…

Writing

What can I say? Originality? Imagination? As far as I’m aware, Godot never turns up, and nor do these two. Write me a story, I say. They hear, Write me a story with a minimal amount of effort, preferably regurgitating something you got from English First or New Oriental. I like writing for fun, but the imperial education system and culture are devoid of opportunities for creativity, and it’s really too late for them to foster originality and creativity in writing. Also, from a practical perspective, I don’t want to be lumbered with stacks of writing through which I have to wade.

At the end of the day, English is merely a tool. Forks and spades may be used in gardens to make something marvellous, but in the empire they’re used for digging holes.