Morning of 26/07/10 by Everett

I went to sleep last night around one because I was working so hard on trying to get the photos up onto Facebook. The internet has been very fickle on when it will work or not. I am borrowing a neighbor’s internet, so it is nothing that I can really control. I got up at seven to get ready for the day. I did my own personal devotions and then when Mohit woke up, he told me that last night he woke up to me sitting on the side of my bed looking at him and then I said something like, “I have to work on the website and the Hindi.” And then I said something else about being wide-awake or something. I don’t remember this at all, but apparently I did it. Maybe it was because I was listening to music on my headphones or maybe I was just too tired to let my body sleep. Either way, it was humorous to hear about it.

At eight, I headed down to meet with Susie and Bryana and then we walked over to the school to teach English. Vanessa was there already having started the lessons and then she had us jump into it. Each of us had a group of either two or three people that we talked. It was very fun to be able to talk to these people since they all came from very different backgrounds, beliefs and educations. Because this was the Intermediate class, most of the students were very well spoken and were able to express themselves well. Some students were newer to the class and didn’t have the fluency or pronunciation that others had, so I found myself smiling and nodding a lot to pretend that I knew what they were saying after asking them a few times to repeat themselves.

I know this class is going to be a great, fun challenge to have in my life. I was talking to Susie this morning about how I would much rather be swamped with work than have nothing to do. The inspiration for my life has really been in creating things that are useful and that people are impressed with. Teaching the class will allow me to bring something to these students that they can use is so many ways, and that makes me very proud to be a part of this. One of the students was a housewife that said excitedly to me that she was learning English in order to get a job. Since a housewife’s life here is really very limited to the home, I think it is great that English will allow her to expand her experiences and her life to something that will bring her happiness.

After the class, Bryana and I sat down over coffee with Vanessa to go over some other lesson plans as Susie went to talk about her cross-cultural communications class. I ended up drinking Bryana’s coffee since she wasn’t feeling so good at the time. Man, I am all about black, unsweetened coffee.

Anyways, we were able to talk about the classes that we’re going to do. This afternoon, I am going to run the class for the beginner students at the school. They have been studying English for only a few months and will most definitely have difficulty with my accent. I’m going to try and soak up Indian English as much as possible so I can teach the class in a more understandable way while I’m here. I’m not doing that to water down the English; just to talk in a way that is used commonly here so that the English they are hearing from me will be understandable and not completely foreign to them.

Then Bry, Vanessa and I came back to the house in order to work with Susie on the lessons for cross-cultural communications. Bry still isn’t feeling good and I hope she is sleeping now. Sleep is one of the best medicines, laughter being THE best. Susie and I then covered some ideas for the class tomorrow on what we are going to make. We decided to make Mac and Cheese, sautéed veggies and either chilled chocolate dipped fruit or a fondue pot (that depends on whether or not we can find a hotplate to use).

Then, we stepped into the classroom with seven students that are here and for about and hour we talked about ways that cultures affect us, ways that we can better work with people from other cultures, and what it means to contextualize a message for another culture. Since I’ve been inundated with information on cross-cultural communications for the last nine months, it is a pleasure to be able to express the excitement and knowledge that we have about it to others. While some of the students don’t speak very good English, I think they are still soaking up a lot of the information.

I can’t imagine how difficult it is to be learning about cross-cultural communications through a second language with people from four different cultures. I say four different cultures because the seven students are from three different Indian cultures with their own language, ideas and concepts. Throw in the American culture that we bring, and it can quickly become overwhelming. However, I think it is better give them information that will stretch them then to water it down.

Well, it’s back to class I go! We’re going to do another half-hour or so of teaching and then head off to lunch. I’m trying to think of something quippy and funny, but nothing’s coming to mind. Oh well. At least I still have my good looks.

Everett