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Waking up early on my 'supposed to be day off' but it seemed to be worth it!
I arrived at the classroom at my work placement, not knowing what to expect. I knew it was an adult class so I expected people around the ages of 20-30.
But it wasn't. 4 Filipinos, 2 men and 2 women were sat at the desks in a classroom.
"They must be older than they look." I thought to myself.
The teacher mentioned there were supposed to be 7 adults in the class but they didn't turn up. She then handed me and Phoebe (my work colleague) the keys and said she was going home. Without even mentioning what we should do or teach.
I started a basic conversation with the adults and they seemed very friendly and happy. But then to my shock, the ages ranged from 42 - 60. Still in education.
I had absolutely no idea what level they were working at, I didn't want to make things too hard or easy.
"I'll start with something easy, just to be safe." I thought to myself.
I began with the topic of family, and wrote down words such as mother, father, uncle, auntie, cousin, relative, and so on. I then rubbed the words off the blackboard and wrote the words with gaps in them so they had to fill them in. They found this a real struggle. They couldn't spell, they didn't even know what the words mean.
So I asked them if they knew Tagalog (language spoke in the Philippines). Maybe English wasn't the language they use.
"No, I speak English." They all said.
So me and Pheobe taught them words, their meaning. We went on to plurals, man/men, woman/women and so on. They all seemed eager to learn, copying down words.
For the second half of the morning, I taught them maths (Pheobe wasn't keen on maths), and taught them how to multiply and divide by 10 and 100. They eventually got it but I'll test them again next Saturday!
This makes me wonder what they have been taught all their lives. Most deaf people in the Philippines have been neglected, and I assume it was worse back a few years ago. They are lovely adults, they deserve to have education - none of them work. I was absolutely overwhelmed when the class was over, to see adults at that age sitting in small chairs and desks, writing on the blackboard really amazed me.
If anyone is in Ayala Mall in Cebu on a Saturday, they should definitely check out the Zumba class placed outside! An amazing atmosphere!
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