We taught a combination of Entrepreneurship (in French) and English to around twenty 18-19 year olds in a town called Joal-Fadiouth. Obviously, I was in the English department. My experience affirmed what I already knew: teaching is very difficult. In fact, I definitely learned more than my students.
I discovered that teaching is all about balancing. It’s about balancing between making sure it all sinks in and dwindling on a topic for too long. It’s about balancing between playing games and going through vocabulary. It’s about balancing between making sure everybody looks engaged, and persevering with the lesson anyway.
This last one was difficult, because our students looked like they’d been taught by Medusa during the previous format. They showed no emotion whatsoever, and spent most of their time staring rigidly at their desks. It was like teaching an orchard on a very un-windy day. My friends assured me this was in part because the Senegalese school system is entirely rote learning, but I was certain that I was equally to blame. It turns out I wasn’t too bad though, because this was how the first lesson went:
Rima and I were demonstrating directions, and we tried very hard to be animated.
later....
The hardest part of teaching is reading your students’ emotions.
Living in Joal was interesting because the whole town is located along one coastal road. Taxis operated one-dimensionally, and for a flat rate of 100CFA francs a ride (roughly a quarter). It was in fact the closest thing to lineland that I have ever seen.
Anyway, as the week went on, we tried a variety of lessons. We played hangman, had one-on-one conversations, and even attempted tongue twisters. I thought it couldn’t get any better than Doctor Seuss, but then we decided to use the last lesson to teach our students a song of their choice. They voted for Black and Yellow by Wiz Khalifa, which I thought was brilliant until I was in turn chosen to teach it on the grounds that I am American. Wiz Khalifa and I have nothing in common.
On the bright side, the song is simpler than the new Transformer’s movie, which is saying a lot. In fact, it too is entirely about cars (or a car), except Wiz Khalifa’s doesn’t change into an awesome robot.
This is not to say that the song isn’t excellent; I hate music snobbery, and I don’t believe that anyone should ever say, “No, those are the wrong sounds to have in your ears!” But let’s face it; Black and Yellow isn’t high art. There is however one deep hidden meaning, and that is that Wiz Khalifa is from Pittsburgh, where all of the sports teams (Pirates, Penguins, Steelers) wear black and yellow. But I glossed over that in the real lesson.
Instead, I focused on explaining where there were missing articles and conjunctions, translating words like “suede” and “whip”, and in general pointing things out. This was a lot funnier to me than it was to my students, because I soon realised that the entire first verse and chorus could be paraphrased as “I’m the bees knees, and my car makes girls want me. Then their boyfriends get covetous.” The morality of the lesson was dubious, at best.
For those of you who wish to relive the lesson though, here is a more detailed version of some of the things I said (without most of the nitty gritty bits):
The rest of the song is mostly "Black and Yellow Black and Yellow Black and Yellow Black and Yellow Black and Yellow Black and Yellow Black and Yellow Black and Yellow Black and Yellow Black and Yellow..." on repeat.
There must be something to it though, because one of our group of nine, Malick Sarr, promised us that Black and Yellow will be played at his funeral. He also has plans for a dress code requiring everybody to wear only green, yellow, red, and pink. What a way to go.
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