Playing teacher

After we were about to stop the observation process we also executed a few English and physical education lessons. By experiencing the teacher's perspective with our own minds and behaviour we were able to collect another important insight.

We found out very quickly that most students are not able to work individually. The majority is not able to talk about his or her personal feelings, habits and ideas. Instead they try to keep up a codex that seems to be ruling their class by copying the answers from others. To give an example: We asked the students to tell us what they like about school. Every time we told a student to answer that question he or she was turning around in class to catch up on a whispered answer given by another student. Further research proved that the students are afraid of giving a wrong answer when they are told that there is no right or wrong.

Observation

Observing a school class and sitting down in the class room without interacting can be quiet boring... NOT IN NEPAL... where everything is different.

So we started off working within the DACS school by observing teachers and students with the help of observation sheets we had prepared the weekend before. We soon found out that the teaching methods really differ from what we've seen during our work and time in German schools. The parrot learning method is dominating every lesson. It means that the teacher is giving a definition and all students have to repeat it as a group. We hardly never experienced any creative ways of teaching like group or individual work.

Another big Nepali habbit is the grading of students by marks and exam results. At the beginning of every day's first lesson each student is called by his/her name to check his/her attendance. Student number 1 automatically is the best in class and student number 12 the least talented one. Most less talented students can easily be recognized by their poor English knowledge. Some students read in 8th grade and can not say or understand a single English sentence while the best students keep up with our team's English.

We could also observe the signal that reached us back in Germany already. The less talented students can not follow class and participate in the questioning of the teacher. Therefore they receive bad marks.

Further down you will find a summary of all our observation results:
Observation of teachers
Observation of students
General observation

Fighting!

Conflicts might be supporting the team's ability to make the right decisions for some time. As soon as conflicts become personal though and affect everybody's mood the whole project can be at risk. That is what we all found out within the first week we had spent living together as a team.

We faced serious problems trying to find compromises for all our controversial beliefs. Nobody wanted to step back from his/her own way of solving things. And it's strange because there were times each of us forgot that we used to be friends before. The conflicts made us feeling annoyed about each other sometimes. The never ending fight made us go to bed with anger in our minds and wake up thinking in prejudices. We all especially remember one situation where everybody's patience and empathy had left. Two of us were crying and the thought of cancelling this whole project and calling it a failure was already mentioned in words.

It seemed to be a really bad start for our project but at the end it still proved to be necessary. Even if we still fight sometimes today everybody is more able to accept the other person's thoughts. We take each other more serious in our feelings and finally know again how to talk fair to each other. The first week turned out to be an intense experience. Let's hope this was enough of a lesson for all of us.

Arriving at our new home

The first days in Serachaur were the most challenging so far. For some of us it was really difficult to adapt to the every-day-life in our host family. The sanitary facilities, our rooms, the furniture and Nepali food were very different compared to Germany. Everybody finds himself/herself at least once a day missing out on something he/she got used to back home in Germany.

And still... Nepal has so many nice things to offer that we always experience new ways how to love and enjoy our stay in this country. The views and mountainous scenery are just stunning. The people are amazingly welcoming in every situation. And the time is ticking slower enabling us all to experience Nepal's peaceful atmosphere.

Thik-chha? La la la!

... and here you go! The first two Nepali "sentences" are learned (How are you? - I'm fine.).

Our 3-day-Nepali language class was a hit! The simple fact that our teacher Prem was welcoming us with a smile from ear to ear every day made us forget that we had gotten up way too early.

After we could fill out our exercise books with hundreds of Nepali words and sayings it's now up to us to improve our Nepali language within the community of Serachaur.