Here’s an idea to assess a foreign language learner’s proficiency—have the language learner teach children who speak nothing but the target language a new game. And I’m not talking about Snakes and Ladders here or even Dodge Ball. No. I’m thinking more along the lines of hmm, say…Ultimate Frisbee. If anything, it will be entertaining. Believe me, I should know.
It was innocuous enough at first. I was passing the Frisbee around with two students and after a while, when I noticed they were getting bored, I decided to teach them Frisbee Golf. I figured it would be a fun, easy game to explain…which it was. It was also tremendously boring given the fact that my two playmates had no idea whatsoever on how to throw a frisbee. Soon, a little crowd gathered to watch the foreigner and two of their friends throw the “UFO” at trees (yup, that’s what they called it. They don’t quite understand what “paper” or “blue pen” means but they all know “UFO”). Anyhow, I soon notice the energy level dropping again. So I get the brilliant idea of introducing Ultimate Frisbee. I figure since there’s a bunch of kids, I can get them all involved. I say the word “teams” which they all understand and they begin running towards me wanting to be on my team (I am the cool, UFO wielding foreigner after all). To be fair, I tell the 5th graders to go be on the other team and I stick myself with two 3rd graders, a 1st grader, a 4th grader who looked like he could be beaten up by the 1st grader , and a 6th grader (I wasn’t about to give away all the talent).
After 5 minutes (and a million gestures…think charades) of trying to explain the game in Thai, I noticed that the kids were getting antsy (I don’t blame them. I was getting antsy just listening to myself).
“Kao jai mai?” I finally ask them, “Do you understand?”
“Kao jai!” they shout, excited that we might actually get started before the cows come back to graze in the field (This is an interesting point. Not only is this field the school field, but also the community soccer field, and a popular spot for the cows to graze on.)
So we play. Of course, it becomes clear to me that I might have left out one not too minor detail when I gave the rules: that dropped catches are an automatic turn over. You’d think I’d pick up on this right away (I am a pretty smart guy after all) but I was just so excited to be expanding these kids’ cultural and physical horizons that it took three of my kids literally diving for the rolling frisbee and then wrestling each other in the ground for possession to make me realize I had missed a key rule. One very cool thing about Thai kids though (and I think this is probably true of kids everywhere) is that they just like having fun. And wrestling for a frisbee amidst a field strung generously with cow dung is…well, fun! Kids don’t like getting caught up in all the technical nuances of a game. Just let us play is their collective mindset. So play we did. And it was an absolute blast! Sure, some kids got pretty banged up and a lot of knees were scraped, but they loved it. Plus, my little rules blunder actually worked out because no one knew how to throw the frisbee anyway! The disc spent more time rolling on the ground than soaring in the air. As long as it got anywhere remotely close to the designated end zone, there was always a kid willing to take it for the team who would jump on top of the frisbee (thereby sacrificing scrapes and bruises and ensuring that their mother would have more laundry to do) thus securing possession and therefore earning a point.
It was an afternoon filled with fun and laughter and I was reminded of two facts of life:
1) Kids are absolutely fantastic
----------and-----------
2) I may have my work cut out for me when it comes to learning Thai but damnit, I make for an incredible charades player.
It was innocuous enough at first. I was passing the Frisbee around with two students and after a while, when I noticed they were getting bored, I decided to teach them Frisbee Golf. I figured it would be a fun, easy game to explain…which it was. It was also tremendously boring given the fact that my two playmates had no idea whatsoever on how to throw a frisbee. Soon, a little crowd gathered to watch the foreigner and two of their friends throw the “UFO” at trees (yup, that’s what they called it. They don’t quite understand what “paper” or “blue pen” means but they all know “UFO”). Anyhow, I soon notice the energy level dropping again. So I get the brilliant idea of introducing Ultimate Frisbee. I figure since there’s a bunch of kids, I can get them all involved. I say the word “teams” which they all understand and they begin running towards me wanting to be on my team (I am the cool, UFO wielding foreigner after all). To be fair, I tell the 5th graders to go be on the other team and I stick myself with two 3rd graders, a 1st grader, a 4th grader who looked like he could be beaten up by the 1st grader , and a 6th grader (I wasn’t about to give away all the talent).
After 5 minutes (and a million gestures…think charades) of trying to explain the game in Thai, I noticed that the kids were getting antsy (I don’t blame them. I was getting antsy just listening to myself).
“Kao jai mai?” I finally ask them, “Do you understand?”
“Kao jai!” they shout, excited that we might actually get started before the cows come back to graze in the field (This is an interesting point. Not only is this field the school field, but also the community soccer field, and a popular spot for the cows to graze on.)
So we play. Of course, it becomes clear to me that I might have left out one not too minor detail when I gave the rules: that dropped catches are an automatic turn over. You’d think I’d pick up on this right away (I am a pretty smart guy after all) but I was just so excited to be expanding these kids’ cultural and physical horizons that it took three of my kids literally diving for the rolling frisbee and then wrestling each other in the ground for possession to make me realize I had missed a key rule. One very cool thing about Thai kids though (and I think this is probably true of kids everywhere) is that they just like having fun. And wrestling for a frisbee amidst a field strung generously with cow dung is…well, fun! Kids don’t like getting caught up in all the technical nuances of a game. Just let us play is their collective mindset. So play we did. And it was an absolute blast! Sure, some kids got pretty banged up and a lot of knees were scraped, but they loved it. Plus, my little rules blunder actually worked out because no one knew how to throw the frisbee anyway! The disc spent more time rolling on the ground than soaring in the air. As long as it got anywhere remotely close to the designated end zone, there was always a kid willing to take it for the team who would jump on top of the frisbee (thereby sacrificing scrapes and bruises and ensuring that their mother would have more laundry to do) thus securing possession and therefore earning a point.
It was an afternoon filled with fun and laughter and I was reminded of two facts of life:
1) Kids are absolutely fantastic
----------and-----------
2) I may have my work cut out for me when it comes to learning Thai but damnit, I make for an incredible charades player.
2 comments:
Anton, you are so funny! Your blog is really fun to read, and I'm really glad you seem to be doing so well. :) Ultimate frisbee rocks!! Take care, Meghan
When I throw a frisbee sometimes it goes where I want it to (directly to my target), but most of the time it goes up in a tree or no so close to the target. I feel that!
UFO...Some of my second language learners know all the curse words in English but can barely speak simple sentences. That's frustrating too!
It sure is thrilling, though, when I am struggling to communicate with someone (a kid or a parent) and then all of a sudden I think of it differently and it just works. That's the beauty of it all!
Much love.
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