How KALDEN Taught Me to teach Idioms.

While trying to write this article, I am all on a sudden reminded of my  former class-viii student, Yonten Gyamtsho, at Chapcha Middle Secondary School. I was teaching Wordsworth’s ‘The Daffodils’. We had come to the last stanza which goes like “For oft when I lie on my couch/in vacant or pensive mood/They flash upon the inward eye/Which is the bliss of solitude./Then my heart with pleasure fills/And dances with the daffodils. ”I was reading out from the textbook and pronounced the word ‘couch’ like coach. Yonten was sitting at the back. Strikingly handsome and taciturn by nature, he couldn’t help himself from standing up and asking me politely, “Sir, isn’t that word pronounced as couch like in the idiom ‘ a potato couch’?”  I was stunned to say the least, but I had the good sense to tell him that I was not very sure about the pronunciation. I’d look it up and let him know in the next class.  Yonten was very correct and I was delighted in offering him one of those Cadbury’s bars the next day.

The point I am trying to get across is that during the course of the last two and half decades, I have learnt so much from the students, that there is no way I can express my indebtedness to them. (Should I be ashamed of myself for stating this plain truth? But a truth is a truth is a truth and has to be told. Nothing more, nothing less.)

Today, thanks to Kalden Drukpa of class-XII Sc.’A’, I was made to relive that unique moment. I had a class with them in the sixth period. …….. But let me get back in time to begin at the beginning. The Board Exams for classes X and XII were going on. As the language teacher of class-xii, I was waiting outside in the Assembly ground on the very first day of the exam for the exam to be over and to find out how they had performed.  I was therefore, quite surprised, when at around 4.30, I found some students reluctantly making their way towards me. Though they looked tired, they were not completely out of their tethers. On being asked about the language paper, one of them cut in by saying that though the question pattern was very different, they had tried their best. I was sure of that. But what rattled me a lot was the fact that for the first time in some years there were questions worth 10 marks  related to Idioms and Phrasal Verbs in the paper. In the last 24 years, I have never seen a Bhutanese student criticizing any of their teachers. It has a lot to do with their cultural and religious upbringing.

The reply made me far from happy. Though I had tried to teach them grammar to the best of my capabilities, I never bothered to teach them anything on idioms or Phrasal Verbs for the matter. Later, at the suggestion of the Supervising Examiner, I decided to pen a report to the English Subject Co-ordinator, BBE ( the erstwhile Bhutan Board of Examinations) about the injustice of the matter. I received a strongly-worded reply a couple of weeks later from the sweet but stern taskmaster. She informed me through her letter that idioms and Phrasal Verbs are taught to our Bhutanese students by the time they are in the lower classes. Besides, the idioms in the language paper were quite easy. But that is another story and something that may find a place in my Memoir, if I ever get to write one.

To come back to the incident of the day, Kalden had finished writing all the sentences on the board with some blank spaces followed by two idioms within brackets after each sentence. “ Let me set the fire. …………”. He then went on to instruct the class what he wanted them to do. Now to get back to my story regarding the teaching of idioms, in the course of the last 5 years or so, I have tried a few methods and strategies for teaching idioms to my students without much success. The problem arises from the fact that there are literally hundreds and thousands of them and there is no knowing how many  of them may be important from the exam-perspective.  I tend to avoid the topic, if I have the chance.  But XII SC’A’ has been adamant from the beginning, so much so that finally I had to spend some time on it. Luckily the little time I spent on Idioms was enough to make them realize the enormity of the problem of teaching idioms. Since then the students have been presenting idioms on a daily basis. Kalden in the meantime started asking the class about the meanings of the idioms from the context and choosing the correct one for each sentence from between the two given in brackets. The class was happily involved. When Kinley Sithup, after answering the question, sat down, Kalden rebuked him for doing so without his permission. “ You may park your ass now, Kinley and if you’re wondering about what I have told you to do just now, lemme tell you that this is another idiom meaning you may sit down.”

Later, while commenting on his presentation, I congratulated Kalden for teaching me so much within such a short time. Firstly, he exemplified the true meaning of the saying that winners do things differently.  Secondly, I loved the way he promised to reward the triers with the correct answers. The fact that he did not offer them anything other than verbal pats, is another matter! Thirdly. He had a steel edge to his voice when he asked Kinley Sithup to ‘park his ass’ with his permission after he had made the mistake of sitting down without. This single fact made the presentation so life-like. Fourthly, I could not stop praising him for the way he used a couple of idioms besides the ones on the board.  Finally, I gloated over the way he assigned Homework by asking his friends to find out the meanings of the leftover idioms in brackets and make their own sentences.

Can anyone ask for more from a mini-lesson on Idioms like Kalden’s?

HAIL TO THEE - BLESSED BHUTAN.

I was in the bathroom when I heard someone knocking on the door. My wife informed me that it was one of my students with a request. I had hardly had the time to be angry with whoever she was when I heard someone pleading,” Sir, will you please give me a story? Any story will do. I will narrate it in my words.” Only after she had left, did I realise that she was Thinley Zangmo, one of my favourite students, asking for a story for the Inter-Class Story Telling Contest to be held after the second period today!

I was at school within no time. I hurried up to sign in the Attendance Register and was back in the Staff-Room even faster.  I am a very disorganized person by nature, therefore instead of tearing some pages off my LP Book, I desperately started looking for some loose sheets of paper. I found some crumpled papers and started scribbling :

Cring..cring …cring.  The phone started ringing.  Mr.Roberts, well suited and booted, hurried to answer it while fixing his tie.  Mrs.Catherine, his wife, in the drawing- room was busy supervising the breakfast. “Hello,Dad. It’s me Tom. How do?”

“ Hi,Buddy. It’s great to hear from you after so long. How’s Vietnam treating you?”

I think I should not continue writing any more of that popular war-story. Besides, the pages are left with Thinley and I did not even bother to ask for them back.

I could only finish it some 15-20 minutes into the first period. Thinley was right there in the canopy when I went down after the second period. Whatever was left to be added, was done in her presence. Before leaving, Thinley asked me if she could replace the names with some Bhutanese names. I wished her luck and she was gone.

Once inside the auditorium, Ms.Chencho, the Host of the Show, introduced us to her co-host and welcomed us. The Program was on. I was very surprised to find Thinley’s name being announced as the first participant for the Story-Telling Contest for Seniors. She is one energetic bundle of confidence. Save for the mistake of telling the climax _  where the son, Thomas, having heard his father’s reaction that his badly injured friend would be a burden to the family, decided to bring an end to his life, she really did a wonderful job. I felt so very proud of this vibrant, young lady.

Next a student of class-X taught me a lesson by reciting Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Patriotism’.  I had made a mess of the poem and myself, a few days back while conducting the Assembly.  I could not go any further than the first six lines and had to give it up in the middle of the recitation.

It was Rinchen’s turn then. Rinchen of XII Commerce. Someone I have always believed and put a lot of trust in.  I selected a Russian folktale called The Jar of Gold for her and having hurriedly finished writing it, decided to rename it ‘Greed” for her convenience. I had my doubt if she would like it.  She did, but when she tried telling it in front of me in the Staff-Room during the Lunch Break, she did not sound all that confident and convincing.  “Rinchen, try to conclude your story with the last  sentence ‘(In trying to play the Devil, the priest had turned into the devil himself’, which I thought was better than what was there in the original version). 

The way she narrated the story was simply mind-blowing.  There was no hesitation, no faltering during the story telling.  I would not be wrong in saying that she made me very proud indeed.  I realized at that time that no matter what happens, I have been able to make a difference.

Sonam Yangki was next.  She is a gifted student and her narration was as good as it could be.  Looking at Mrs.Heather, our Canadian colleague, I could see her shaking her head time and again in open admiration.

It was Karma Sonam Letshog from XII Science ‘A’, who enthralled the audience with what has become a very popular story the world over. The story of a boy called Ted, who from the dullard that he seemed to be the first time his 4^th grade teacher addressed the class, went on to earn the highest degree in the medical field under the motivation of this lady.  She remained Ted’s Best Teacher for life and taught her to teach in the process!

 The Contest was eventually won by a girl from class-XI.  Hers was a very sentimental story and there must have been many a teary eye in the audience. But for me, the winner was undoubtedly Thinley Zangmo.  When she came to my quarters in the morning, she must have known that she would not get more than an hour to spend on the story and be prepared for the contest.  Even then with her indomitable spirit and enviable courage, she wanted to give it a try.  People like Thinley are the real winners for their never-say-die attitude,if for nothing else   For reasons not very clear to me, I felt very proud at the end of the program. Thinley Zangmo, Rinchen, Sonam and the participant from class X, who recited Scott's poem, just to name a few, were all so brilliant that they brought tears to my eyes. This is what life has been for me in Bhutan for the last so many years.  So fulfilling and so enriching.