Talk Time at the Indonesian Consulate

K was asked if she might in interested in teaching English to the ladies in a shelter for migrant worker women at the local Indonesian Consulate. Shocking to learn they have nearly 30 women taking shelter there, all with terrible stories, most involving lack of payment.  One woman has not been paid in 9 years!!  But what to do with a large group of varied English levels, mostly next to nil.  "Talk Time" came to mind, a group conversation focused activity that works well for intermediate level students.  Each session is based on a theme and the idea is to offer a safe place to practice language and have a little fun, rather than a formal lesson.  Definitely not designed for low level, even preliterate students, but...she decided to give it a go.

The theme for the first session was fruits, vegetables, and tableware.   Four fabulous volunteers made it happen, and K came laden with papayas and potatoes. We began with "Upset the fruit basket," which was a big hit.  The sight of the ladies smiling, laughing and having fun nearly brought one NGO worker volunteer to tears. In four small groups they learned some vocabulary (enter papaya and potato, with labels) and then we held a "market" (photo) with the fruits and veg, plates, etc. ("Please give me a papaya") and a cafe ("please give me tea"), for which the consulate provided tea and cakes--another big hit with the shelter ladies.

A second was held a couple of weeks later, on the theme of "body".  After introducing vocabulary we had half the group wear "doctor" tags and other other had large bandaid stickers and we practiced "My XX hurts". At the end we played Simon Says  and distributed sticky notes with body parts written on them, to place on selected volunteers (see photo).



The third was on adjectives (big, small, hot cold, etc.), including emotions (happy, sad, confused).  The object each time is to teach the most useful, basic language possible.  As usual we had some great visuals, starting with the basics and working up to "large nose" and my fav, "cold ear" (ice cream cone sticking out of ear), We tried a very simple writing exercise, with a simple illustration of an emotion and letter spaces below for them to write in the word. We ended with a tailored rendition of "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands."

One more is planned next week on clothing, colors and numbers. One group activity will be passing around a bag with a mystery object (e.g. brown shoe, red T-shirt) while music plays, and when the music stops the person with the bag has to put on the item and say what it is.  We shall see..

Once we have five or six planned we should be able to reuse them, as the population of the shelter is not constant, and assuming enough trusty volunteers are willing to participate.  It has been rewarding and fun.  Well, a lot of work and occasional stress, but definitely worth it.

volunteers with shelter worker