July 9th, 2008 - Chi-De

Location: Chi-de Children Home, Kaohsiung County.

Volunteers: Tim, Kasia, Anan, Diana, Julie.

We have spent the last four days with the children trying to increase communication in English and have achieved a large progress in that area. The children have become increasingly eager to talk and learn the English language (except for the preschoolers who are less successfully interactive due to their age).

We have noticed that English lessons performed in a classroom are much less effective than learning-while-doing. Teaching English while playing games, while taking a walk or even in the dining hall brings better results.
We were teaching songs to them today and tomorrow we will incorporate teaching into sports. We have prepared sports vocabulary that they will use immediately after lesson while using the items and performing the activities which names they will have just learned. They should be able to memorize them more easily and eagerly that way.

Two people in our group do not speak Chinese, and we try to overcome the language gap by, for instance, drawing and writing things down on a paper pad during every meal in the dining room. The kids are enthusiastic about exchanging drawings and new English words while they teach those words in Chinese to the volunteers as well.

We have taught them about foreign cultures and plan to keep increasing their interest in that area.