Postcard from...Taman Ayun, Bali, Indonesia

Hey all,

I'm sunburnt! Today I went snorkeling between Bali & Lombok - it was great :)

I've seen amazing temples & a palace; Balinese dance & gamalan; all kinds of animals including bintorung, and wonderful sunsets. Did I mention the food? It's so delicious!!!

Leaving tomorrow, and looking forward to hearing all your holiday stories xxx

Jim

 

Postcard from…Bali, Indonesia

Dear Jim,

I am travelling in Ubud, Bali. I’ve been here 10 years ago, but I’ve almost forgotten, though it must’ve changed a lot. I’m enjoying Balinese food, Balinese dance, and Jalan Jalan (taking a walk)

Best wishes,

Sari

Apostcard from...Indonesia

Yukari, Simon & Tomoko & all our students!

I've had a very quick trip to Indonesia - I spent more time flying than actually in the country! I enjoyed my presentation but had to sing. Indonesian people are lovely - always cheerful, just like me. The language is easy, and I can read more Bahasa than Nihongo. I'm transitting in Singapore, and I arrive in Osaka tomorrow morning.

I am sure you are not missing me?!

Do your homework, play nicely and share the toys!

Jim

Professional development in Osaka - Jim's other job

 If this is Saturday, we must be in Osaka!

I was delighted to be back in examiner training mode - it has been a while. New materials for 2011 to master - some late nights before I legged it to Indonesia last week - and a new city/venue to create a 'cell' in. Hopefully, not sleepers for long.

Discussing assessment - stand your ground

Welcome aboard UK Plus Osaka. Although things came together very last minute, I felt the teachers here handled the challenge very gracefully and professionally...two qualities the job rather demands! Thank you Tony and your staff for getting stuck in. MN, thank you for applying yourself to FCE and CAE - I know you were expecting KET & PET (me too).

It is always reassuring to venture into a school which identifies itself as British - map on the wall, a London bus picture somewhere, proper (Yeah, proper!) exam info and prep classes scheduled. A graded readers programme obvious, and even pictures of the school owner putting his own carpet down. Oh Joy! A fellow traveller!

Peer practice - take it seriously

Now, this won't sound like rocket science, but today I switched the running order of training modules. I have been annoyed that no matter how keen participants are, imagining oneself in the examinee role quickly leads to a breakdown in purpose. I've done it myself - glib, obtuse or daft answers make the trainee interlocutor's job impossible. Usually a colleague or respected peer, it is very hard not to join in with the tension relieving joke or interruption, aside, observation. The interlocutor needs to have a 'clean run' through the script. Using students as practice candidates at this initial stage for my money is unfair on all - reading a script and managing materials, time, assessment, interaction all off the cuff? On top of that, feedback from a hovering observer? No. Not workable.

I was surprised that this had not been suggested before though - after all, ESOL has been the market leader in assessment since whenever, right?! By tackling assessment first (which everyone always assumes is the 'bigger' or more professionally demanding aspect of the examiner's job) we get the serious hats on early. Everyone can impress the crap out of their peers with lofty discourse critiques, isolating grammatical nuances, announcing their experience with particular nationalities' pronunciation etc. Thank you for sharing, everyone! Now, let's look at the assessment criteria and see where everything you just said can be found...Oh dear.

Justify your assessment - refer criteria

Playing field, abracadabra, level. We are looking at "Can do" rather than "Can not". Nowhere will examiners find reference to accents, grammatical shopping lists or body language critiques. In no more than two sentences, assessors have the tools required to accurately 'nail' candidates performances within a mark. Examiners worldwide use the same criteria, watch the same candidate performances, and are required to come to the same conclusions. Like it, or lump it. The bottom line, is "Cambridge ESOL said so" (with apologies to Stone Cold Steve Austin!)

Clearly, watching a variety of examiners deliver the rubric to the letter, on time, neutrally, and professionally is a benefit. Trainees will have taken in the fact that regardless of the materials used, abilities of the candidates, distractions, personal preferences, each speaking test took approximately the same amount of time, each candidate had an equal opportunity and their was no horseplay. Part two of training = replicate that.

When you have no idea of the tone you are supposed to be presenting, I think it is awfully hard for even experienced teachers to switch into examiner role. As teachers, our natural default setting is "help". As assessors, it is perhaps counter-intuitive to focus on candidates abilities rather than the faults they may or may not demonstrate.

In context here in Japan, candidates do not get credit for "being ambitious" - rather, assessment tends to focus on any loss of control or inaccuracies. Net result = lame, middle of the road and 'safe' performances. Getting this single point across to my speaking test examiners is crucial. As soon as we can focus on ambition, development, familiar vs abstract, clarity to the untrained listener eg my mum...we are getting there.

Lady and gentlemen...Osaka is GO    : - )

Of low tech presentations and high expectations - Indonesia

I was delighted to be asked by my friends at OUP if I could help them out; so many times I have asked them to help us at Luna with presenters, events, materials etc that I was actually relieved I could return a well-overdue favour.

So I said “Yes, of course” before they explained what the favour was. Oli is a friend of mine, so he won’t be asking for anything too outrageous…

I write this from a bar (surprise!) in the departures area of Soekharno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta. I arrived here about 16 hours ago, having left home at 3am on Wednesday and flying via Singapore from Centrair in Nagoya. I love Singapore Airlines! Brilliant service, lovely food, gorgeous uniforms.

So what was the favour? They needed someone to come here and present about Cambridge ESOL examinations. All of the exams, and all of the papers. Their original presenter was no longer available ( I know what that is like) and they were stuck. So this morning I was picked up from my hotel before 6am (and breakfast) and driven an hour or so out of Jakarta-proper, to a very large school and a nice air-conditioned room where 43+ teachers were registered to hear FOUR presentations, back to back.

I had only finished writing the last one a few hours before having to leave; I hadn’t had time to practice with the Power Point I had hastily cobbled together. I had also had to prep and pack all the materials I need over the weekend in Osaka for two full days of examiner training. I was extremely unimpressed to get a call at the last minute trying to postpone that event, as I had spent the late nights after prepping my Indonesia presentations by working through my examiner updates online (being in a hurry seems to concentrate the mind nicely, as all my assessments were on the money).

On the flight I watched The King’s Speech, and sharing a name with our stuttering monarch I also understood his sense of dread about his forthcoming public performance.

I checked into the hotel after a nightmare drive through the ridiculous video game that is Jakarta traffic. Truly bonkers, near misses and polite toots of the horn the default setting. I’d missed dinner, but was tired enough duah Bintang = sleep. Bintang? Shares a trademark image with Sapporo Beer. Our first Bahasa word then: bintang = star.

Actually, Indonesian is a dead simple language, and I was remembering words from 20+ years ago all day. The guy driving me back to the airport said I had a very natural accent (think he was being very polite!). Signs everywhere I could read (unlike Japan) and start to understand. The city is a mass of humanity, people carrying on their daily lives literally everywhere. And a lot of people not apparently doing anything at all, lolling around in the shade or wearing uniforms and also lolling around in the shade!

I love Indonesia, and I always have (apart from the crass excuse that is Kuta Beach in Bali). The people are so genuinely cheerful and chatty, open and fun, I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to visit even if it is for such a short visit. I met some very nice teachers – and I hope they weren’t too critical of my pitch (I forgot where I was in my script, missed slides; forgot to review bits I really needed to highlight; I’d forgotten to attach speakers to my laptop for the speaking test; I misplaced my CD of one song I wanted to check the lyrics with; I couldn’t access the internet/only had one channel on the projector; I ended up having to sing a Frank Sinatra song as there was no cassette player available; my handout was too big for the recipient’s inbox and was not available to attendees until the very end; my ‘end’ was 10 minutes short and I had to waffle dreadfully….). I think OUP has some very nice staff here and that their distributor Limma is very professional. Good luck to both operations here, and if you’ll have me back, next time I hope I will be better prepared and less last-minute.

So I chance planes in Singapore at about 1am, and arrive in Osaka hours too early to do anything useful. “But I like it, how about you?” (Frank Sinatra still in my head!)

Postcard from Java, Indonesia

Hi Jim,

I bought this postcard at Jakarta airport at return journey. I had stayed at an apartment during business trip. The trip was very successful. I was able to teach our environmental activities to local members. There was no trouble during the trip. I enjoyed eating Japanese meals, especially sashimi, shrimp, tuna was pretty good! I surprised at such a good Japanese food in Indonesia. Unfortunately I didn't have any sightseeing. The journey was pretty tough for me - it took over 20 hours. It was midnight flight! I felt very tired, so I was not able to read book. Sorry.

Best wishes,
Masao

Poster project - Indonesia 1

Poster project - Indonesia 2