''TARA, I THINK YOUR ENGLISH HAS IMPROVED THIS WEEK...''

I have just finished my first week of proper work.

I spent it working with 3 Ethiopian Colleagues delivering the start of a 3 week induction programme for 34 new university lecturers on teaching methodology. This involved four 90 minute interactive lessons a day starting at 9am and finishing at 5.30pm. At the start of the week I was mostly observing the lessons but from Wednesday lunch time onwards I taught 15 hours of lessons back to back. It was great having a chance to plan and deliver lessons again and it also gave me a chance to brush up on educational theory. With my higher diploma programme due to start next week it gave me a fantastic opportunity to ‘practise’ teaching in an Ethiopian context. I think one of the greatest challenges for me was the fact that I was dealing with a whole class of students where English is a second or third language for them.

The university requires all lecturers to teach their subject in English and yet the English ability of this class was very varied.

It took a while to get used to it and I found I had to slow the pace of my lessons way down as it took a lot longer than expected for the group to read and write in English.

I also found I had to slow my speech right down and repeat things a number of times. Sometimes I wanted to use more simple language, however, I found they were often more comfortable with more complex ‘formal’ language as this is the way they have been taught. Towards the end of the week one of my colleagues commented, ‘‘Tara, I think your English has improved this week’’!

I was really impressed both with my colleagues and the candidates for the induction programme.

Despite ‘active learning’ being a relatively new concept in Ethiopia my colleagues from the education department had planned excellent lessons for the induction. They were determined to lead by example and carefully planned lessons which would challenge the candidates and require them to take an active role in their learning.

I feel my role here (with these particular colleagues at least) will not be to educate them in new teaching methods but rather to support them as they go about trying to create a cultural shift in education from a lecture based approach (from primary right through to university) to one based on ‘active learning’.

The new university lecturers were equally impressive in terms of their work ethic and their willingness to work toward a new style of teaching in which they have no personal experience. They recognised there would be challenges in implementing a more active learning approach (particularly in a university setting with large classes) but they were also convinced by the importance of trying. On Friday they were divided into groups to ‘microteach’ a topic using an active learning method of their choice. I was amazed by the enthusiasm with which they approached it and their willingness to try some quite daring methods (given the fact that they have never seen them used before). Their mini lessons themselves were also very interesting as most groups had chosen current Ethiopian controversial topics to spark debate. I learnt a lot that day about the various issues facing people in Ethiopia today from contraception choice, to deforestation, to poverty, to a debate on agricultural vs industrial led development.

Spending 8 hours a day with my 3 colleagues and 34 candidates I also learnt a lot about Ethiopian culture and language.

Every day the canteen provided us with traditional food. Ethiopians are obsessed with meat and if ever given the chance they will take meat with their Injera rather than vegetables. Luckily the meat is quite tasty but the problem is they see meat and veg as an either or situation and so on ‘meat days’ there are no vegetables to be found. I much more preferred the meals on Wednesday and Friday. These are the orthodox fasting days where most people do not eat meat. Instead our Injera was served with a huge array of different vegetables. It was delicious!

I find most lunch times involve my colleagues laughing at my expense. Mostly when they try to get me to say different phrases in Amharic. I feel I am learning very slowly but if they keep making me speak Amharic and laugh at my mistakes hopefully I will get there soon enough. They also find my love of vegetables quite amusing and I think sometimes they ordered extra meat just to see my reaction! It has been really good getting to know my colleagues and having a chance to learn more about Ethiopia and the local culture from them. Sometimes I think they just say things to wind me up and often feel the need to get a second opinion. For example the other day they spent about 20 minutes convincing me I should put butter in my hair for 24 hours ... apparently it is really nice and can even get rid of things like headaches! It seems this story is at least true as other people verified later.

I had really enjoyed their company all week and so when the weekend came, although I was ready for a break, I was a little disappointed that I would have to wait another 2 days before we all get together again. I needn’t have worried... I decided to take a day trip to a local waterfall (about 11km away) today and when I got their two of my colleagues (Ali and Biruk) happened to be there with some friends. We had a lovely afternoon relaxing by the waterfall and it was great to have people to travel back with (my journey there had been a bit daunting as I navigated my way along local transport and ended up travelling perched on an awkward box near the front of the crowded bus). When I got back to Ambo I went to the University to check e-mails and was greeted by another colleague, Solomon, and so was able to have a quick cup of tea with him and his friends before heading home for the night. I feel very lucky to have such friendly colleagues (even if they do often laugh at me!).