January 30, 2012

What had started out as plain rain had turned into slushy snow by the time I left my apartment complex. There seems to be an unwritten rule these days that stipulates we must have snow every Monday. On my way to the training center and while cutting across the lovers’ lane park, I ran into one of the teachers who seemed to be completely lost. I pointed her in the right direction, but was unable to talk to her, as she didn’t understand a word I was saying.

 Caroline had gone to the Kazakhstan’s embassy to retrieve both of our passports and so I got started by trying to elicit a definition for “idiom”. Even the few teachers who had brought a dictionary along could not provide a complete sentence to define the term. After giving them the definition and two examples to go along with it, I told them I was going to give out three sets of cards: one with an idiom, one with the definition and one with the illustration and they were to get into groups once they found all three of them.

Caroline called in the meantime to let me know the embassy had refused to hand her my passport and she was on her way to the Indian one to pay for her visa. I told her not to worry as I still have a few days to deal with that process. In the meantime, the teachers were making no progress in identifying the idioms and corresponding cards. Their matches were totally unrelated such as “barking up the wrong tree” and “getting your ducks in a row”. Realizing how futile this activity was, only two groups found their corresponding cards, I asked for the cards back and read all of them while passing them out for them to write them on their notebooks. I had them practice teaching idioms on a particular topic such as food and gave them a worksheet to select the meaning for several of them. Zhulejo acknowledged teachers are not instructed on this particular topic while at the teachers’ college and they have a difficult time presenting it to their students thereafter.

Caroline came in before the break and presented a session on writing poetry. She brought in a handout she had been given by her high school teacher 15 years ago and demonstrated writing an acrostic poem, using my name as an example, and subsequently a cinquain, something I had never done with my students and which I plan to add to my presentation on teaching poetry taking place in March. Teachers demonstrated that they have no knowledge about parts of speech and thus kept using verbs, nouns and adverbs when we called for adjectives only. When told the cinquain required a set number of words for each line, they violated the rule and tried to use whole phrases. Caroline quickly gave up and let them do whatever they wanted as she has pretty much come to the conclusion that English teachers in Tajikistan are hopeless anyway.

One of our teachers showing off the Pamiri socks and rubber shoes worn during the winter season.

When we left at 11:45am, the snow had accumulated significantly and continued to fall in thick drops that looked like cotton balls. I immediately made up my mind to cancel the class at Caritas and stay home for the rest of the day. Caroline suggested going to the usual bistro for her borscht soup, but quickly changed her mind when I reminded her I had leftovers from the meal I’d cooked on Sunday. I made a pot of tea and reheated the food after firing an email to Takhmina informing her of the cancellation. The food tasted just as delicious as the day before and after several cups of tea we settled down to deal with my upcoming presentation at the NELTA conference. Caroline convinced me to just do a straight lecture on the topic with a subsequent Q & A period. We don’t really know what to expect in terms of audience unsure as to how “international” this conference might be. We then discussed the impending changes at the institute and how to phrase my email to the respective parties at the embassy regarding the dean’s proposals.

When Caroline left, Elbek came in for his class. He’s a quick learner, but tends to rush through the material without paying attention to the details. I do love to see the enthusiasm in his face when he comes in.

When I had already gone to bed, the phone rang and thinking it might be Nigora, I got up to answer it. It was only Pariso following her typical M.O. of calling me, letting it ring once, and then hanging up so I have to call her back. I ignored her call. She is holding down two jobs and can’t afford to make a phone in the evening? Tough.