Calling on students to answer questions about plural nouns at Kokkuvil Namagal.
Tomorrow’s the big day. Although it doesn’t seem like it’s been a month since we drove around the peninsula snapping photos with the kids, our work on the “I Love Jaffna” project will finally be coming to fruition, as we kick off our exhibition with the opening ceremony tomorrow afternoon. We reached our goal of having 30 kids from Kokkuvil, Kondavil, and Chavakachcheri participate in the “I Love Jaffna” project. The photos have been printed, framed, and hung at Swamiji’s home (a.k.a our venue for the photography exhibition – 9 Chetty Street Lane off of Temple Road) and we also decided to include some of the artwork from the Sunday art classes held at the CORD office. It’s really quite amazing what a ten-year old can produce with the proper guidance!
I also wrapped up my English classes so I could spend more time with family before I head back to the United States & focus on finishing up the “I Love Jaffna” project. Even though it’s an incredibly cliché saying, my students really did teach me more than I could have taught them. I realized after the first day that having that desire to learn something new, namely English, is far more critical than actually learning it. Many of the students I taught lacked that motivation to learn English because for nearly all of them, there was no need to know English. In fact, outside of class, they were barely exposed to the language and if they were, it was unfortunately often incorrect. However, since a basic understanding of the alphabet is needed to send text messages or use the computer, they all were experts on the 26 characters in the English alphabet…but that was it – all their SMSes were sent in Tamil using English letters. Identifying those motivators, like the computer and cell phone, was my biggest challenge during my time here. I decided to take advantage of their curiosity about my life back in the United States and created PowerPoints depicting different aspects of life in America and how English is essential to do anything back at home. But more importantly, I also showed them how English could improve their lives, future employment prospects and open up more doors for them even here in Jaffna.
Tomorrow will mark the end of my time with CORD in Jaffna. It’s been a memorable seven weeks and I will miss working with the students and staff dearly. Thanks again for the great opportunity and I hope I’ll be able to come back in the future.
– Jega Vigneshwaran
