So What Have You Learned?

   It's now been over three months since I left Indonesia and nearly five months since I gave my last lesson. As I'm settling back into life in the UK, I've realised how much I enjoyed my life out there and how much I enjoyed my job. Why did I come back then? The answer to that is complicated but regardless of that I can look back on my experience as a 'growing pain' of some description. Think about, how many of us have experienced life outside of the one that we know? I certainly wanted to do that after wasting my time in a desk job - that was an ongoing role rather than a permanent one -  that saw me being made redundant before Christmas 2011. That was final straw for me, I had enough of holding down meaningless jobs that I did not look forward to waking up in the morning for. I knew something had to change. In the weeks following my redundancy, I was given a healthy enough package for my services and I knew what to do with it. 

   ESL teaching was something that I found interesting but immediately dismissed as an option because there was no money in it and the good opportunities were abroad (although this was the basis of the appeal). Many of my friends had done it and had the time of their lives. So I was faced with the dilemma. Do I stay in the rut that I had dug myself or sign up to an online TEFL course that would be the start of something new. I choose the later. I signed up to i-to-i's TEFL online course and weekend taster. The weekend taster was an eye-opening experience where I was put on the spot a few times and was quite nervous when I had to give my own lesson. I also became dedicated to my online course treating it as if I was a university student again. While I was doing my course, I found work where the hours were from 3pm to 10pm so I did my prep and lesson work during the day. When I finally passed the course, I set about looking for ESL jobs abroad. I had a few interviews lined up in October and November for schools in Spain,China and Indonesia. Spain appealed to me because it was closer to home but the drawback of not making a lot of money quickly dawned on me and with China I was not in love with the city - Harbin which was not my first choice - as it was famous for its awful winters was a resounding hell-no! So that left me with Indonesia, admittedly it did not feel like an interview just a just with a nice old man. In the end the nice old man offered me a job and agreed to come at the end of January. The rest is of course, history.

I threw myself into the role and relished the challenge that greeted me everyday when working for a franchised language school. By throwing myself into the role, I had to adapt to certain situations that frequently occurred throughout my tenure and in that I learnt a great deal about myself. One of the things I had to deal with were my students' tardiness and lack of attendance.This had an affect on my carefully laid lesson plans as I had to switch things up in the way of activities and ideas to do with limited number of students, this would work most of times as I had ideas but sometimes did not come off as well as I had hoped.The thing that remained though was that I maintained  Therefore, I was surprised at how flexible and creative I was in my approach in teaching, this creativity manifested itself in some fun lesson like the one where I introduced the game of Pictionary for a production activity on modal verbs with my elementary  pre-teens or using flashcards as my sole resource in a Beginner Business English class for different presentation and practice games and  activities in learning office vocabulary. I was shocked at how well my moments of ingenuity turned out. I suppose I always had it in me.

I enjoyed teaching younger learners ( age 10 and under) because the classes were easier to plan and my students; were for the most part, willing and enthusiastic participants oh and not to mention stupidly adorable! These classes required a lot of energy and patience (qualities I thought I lost in my years as an admin worker) plus a love for children. I also had great time sharing my 'inner child' with them by playing ring games and singing songs from my childhood in Jamaica all in the name of learning English. Being around children made realize my latent desire at some point in my life that I want to be a mother. Doc and I have always talked about our future and getting married and starting a family are definitely on the cards. So watch this space perhaps the next adventure I'll be on is one down the aisle and starting a little brown tribe with Doc. But I digress, working with younger learners has made me realize that working with children is an option for whatever path I choose in the near future.

ESL teaching also allowed me to develop my interpersonal skills. I became friendly with of course my fellow teachers but most importantly the local staff and students. While it was great to have stuff in common with fellow teachers, it was my conversations with students and local staff I enjoyed. Why you wonder? Because we exchanged and compared life growing up in different countries and cultures which helped me gage a new perspective on how life is for Indonesians. Many of the members of the staff were not born and bred Jakartans, they came from all corners of Indonesia to make a life for themselves. I could relate to their struggles as this was how life was for my family and friends in Jamaica having to leave their lives in their villages to live and work in Kingston, Jamaica's equivalent to Jakarta.,same could be said for London as most of my friends headed there for work after university. Some of the stories I heard both astounded and shocked me in some respects but the beauty of meeting new people is that you become more sensitive and less judgemental towards the circumstances of others.

My year in Indonesia has taught me a lot about myself as a person. I realized that I am a far more empathetic than I thought. I can be a cynical cow most times; however, by allowing myself to be sensitive to those around me as this helped me get to know people and their needs which made me a better teacher. I also found that when necessary I can be creative which will keep in good stead in whatever I choose as a career path. I always felt that my creative juices were stifled due to my years doing routine desk jobs but now I have found a new confidence of not being afraid to allow my creative juices to flow. I am sure that this experience has helped me grow as a person and will keep in good stead in whatever path I choose.




This is my last post as Chocolate Bule. Thank you so much for following and random ramblings. I hope you enjoyed it! Watch this space as I will return.

Friends - The Album (Part 2)

Meet Brummie A (girl) my former DOS (Director of Studies) and N (dude) former Senior DOS for the whole of the franchise group. Together they were an unstoppable ESL power couple, surely there has to be songs written about them?! They've worked for the franchise group for six years and together for roughly the same time. Seriously though, between them they have so much knowledge and experience within ESL. They gave me a great deal of encouragement and advice when I asked for it or after they had observed my lesson, they provided honest and detailed feedback which I took on board. A was the kids guru and N was the adult guru so together, I got top tips on how to approach both sets. They both are amazing teachers and I am forever grateful for their guidance. I hope I get to work with them again in the future.

Aussie R - This force of nature started the same time as me. She is a ESL veteran who brings a tons and tons of energy to her classes. You almost forget you are in a class if you are observing one of her lessons. She was a good work colleague who had ideas and gave everything creative flair. Did I mention she's fluent in Bahasa? I would hate her if I didn't like her so much. 

Withnail - My Mancunian brother-from another- mother he was in a strange, perverted  way (he nicknamed Tits Magee). Withnail was one of the loveliest guys you'll ever meet. Sharp-witted, well-read and Manchester Red like me; what more could I've asked for in a housemate? We got on so well and I was gutted he had to move back out to his old house. I enjoyed our group movie trips and our many drunken chats. He left on the day Doc arrived and is now living it up in Italy. We keep in touch mainly to commiserate at how fucking awful Man United are this season. Hopefully we shall meet up and have several bottles of wine, unlike old times where the wine was beer hehe!

My S**t Week at work!

I do not like being a negative Nelly, but deary me it is so easy to be one. Last week, I had my worst week as a teacher! I know it sounds melodramatic but seriously it really was. Two factors that made this week so unbearable were: illness and a change in my routine.

Towards the end of my holiday I was suffering from a nasty head cold - that as the week went on manifested into something worse - and a horrible case of PMS. Thankfully, this all took place on the final stretch of the holiday so I was not complaining too much. But I was in for a nasty shock when I got back to Jakarta.

When we finally reached home from the airport, C and I sat down in our living room and regaled our house mates with our holiday tales. T my DOS, then said to me that you are going to find some changes to your schedule. WTH!  'How so?' I asked. You will be working at another school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was relieved to know that the school was only a 20 minute walk from my house, but I hid my dismay from T. This meant that I will be missing my two favourite classes and having to build rapport with  new centre staff (luckily I know some of the teachers including Little C and Scottish J). Not only that, but I have taken on new classes at my base school teaching 4 year olds and adult Business English on Mondays and Wednesdays. At the other school, I am also teaching Business English in the evenings which means I finish at 9 Monday through to Thursday. 

I did the decent thing and begrudgingly said OK. 

As the week wore on at the new school, I took on moody 13 year old know-it-alls , disgruntled adults not happy having a new teacher for the fifth time in 5 months (which I don't blame them!) and precocious 6 year olds. All of this was coupled with my worsening 'ailments' previously mentioned and Little C has been off work because she has pink-eye (conjunctivitis) so not much moral and girly support at school that week. 

This routine is going to be carried on for sometime 3 months to be exact.On the positive, it was only my first week and that is now out the way, so next week is a new week. Hedge your bets to see how long it will take for me to crack.

On Being an English Language Teacher

Since I started blogging about my experiences of living in Jakarta; I realized I have not done a single post about the job itself. Apart from the post about my first lesson; I have not really talked about how teaching English is going. It has now been eleven weeks since I switched countries leaving the cold and frankly horrible British winter for the hot and humid concrete jungle that is Jakarta. I have now adjusted to Jakarta and have been very fortunate to meet as many like-minded and interesting people not just Indonesians but of course all the other teachers within my group. I can almost call myself a teacher of English.

But I digress, what I really want to talk about is how teaching and I fit together. The truth is, I kind of enjoy it and rather like it! However, there have been times when my mind goes blank in the middle of a class when I am explaining the use of a grammar point, or miss out a word in a written sentence that I wrote on the board showing an example of the grammar point or new piece of vocabulary or write down the wrong form of a grammar point and then loudly chastise myself in front of the class (that happened only once). The mind literally goes 'Fuck this, I'm out of here' and I look like a fool. On reflection, I tend to just forget about it and move on hoping to God it doesn't happen again EVER!

I teach three classes a day Monday to Thursday and one on Saturday. These classes are of different levels (Elementary to High Intermediate) and of course different age groups (6 - 38). I have to plan different lessons each week bearing in mind those factors and choosing appropriate and fun activities to keep them engaged with language and the lesson. My lesson plans are never fool-proof but I like to think my students do understand what I am teaching; after all, they do produce the language or grammar point thereafter.

I gained a certain amount of confidence when my lessons were observed by Big J (soon-to-be ex DOS*) and T (soon-to-be new DOS) back in February and March. They observed my best and worst classes respectively, I was feeling apprehensive about being observed but they gave me some good tips that I have since taken on. I still feel there is room for improvement on my end to get students to talk more throughout the lesson (I know ramble on and increase TTT*), correct their own and each other's mistakes and all other things that should make a lesson go smoothly and effectively.

I am going to be observed again but this time by a new teacher at my school. She's called E and is from New Zealand via South Africa. Thankfully, she has taught before so this just the adjusting fortnight for her like I had,he he! She has been in Jakarta for just 72 hours and had a taste of Jakarta night life last night. She was carted off from Ladies Night to a Karaoke bar by yours truly and the rest of the crew. I'm sure she's still sleeping with jet lag kicking in and a wicked hangover,lol!

But to come back to topic, I like being a teacher of English and I am enjoying the variety of teaching as well. Who would have thought it eh?!

*DOS – Director of Studies

*TTT – Teacher Talking Time (something to be kept low,oops!)

My First Lesson

For those who've read my last couple of posts, I am a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher at a language school in Jakarta, Indonesia. Teaching was something that I never really thought of as a career option. Truth be told, I did not think I could teach a soul anything because I was a very average student. My averageness (if that's word) followed me to university where I got my average BA in an average subject and continued living a very average existence until I had an epiphany. I wanted more out of my life. I wanted to stop being average and try something new and completely out of my comfort zone. So I figured teaching abroad would be the way forward as the benefits are two-fold. First, I get to experience a culture that is so vastly different to my own and secondly, I can put on my CV that I did something other than admin jobs and had graduated from university so maybe I can get a decent enough job when I get back to the UK (I hope so at least).

But I digress, what I really want to rant talk about was my first lesson.This happened over two weeks ago on Saturday the 10th of February at 10 in the morning with elementary learners between the ages of 16-36. I had never taught before so I was nervous REALLY NERVOUS! I was nervous despite the fact that I had observed lessons all week and had gotten some great advice and tips for my lesson from my colleagues, I was still nervous! I was given less than a week to come up with a lesson plan which is plenty of time, right?! WRONG as I am a master procrastinator and only planned half of a 3 hour lesson. Not good.

Friday came and went, it was now Saturday morning. I woke up in my usual pool of sweat (Jakarta is hella hot!), turned on the room's AC, got out of bed and scuttled off to the shower. I then got dressed and waited for my ride to school. It was during my ride over that I figured if it does not go to plan, it isn't the end of the world. So I did just that, I went with the flow!

I got to my classroom early to set up my 'getting to know you' and warmer activities. Then, they came in! Six students (four guys and two girls) sat down looking at me possibly sensing fear and trepidation on my part behind my smile and laugh. I introduced myself a little too quickly to my students, so quick that their faces said 'Apa?' (Bahasa for what). I took a step back and had a breather. I then wrote my name on the board and elicited the pronunciation. After that, I introduced the game 'Lie Detector', I had written statements about myself on the board some were true, some were false and the students had to figure which ones were what. The statements were:

1. I am from England.
2. I drive a car.
3. I am married with two kids.
4. I support Manchester United.
5. My favourite colour is yellow. 

To my shock and horror, they thought I could drive, LOL! We also played a ball toss memory game, where they had to say their name and something they like and toss the ball to the next person who said their name and something they like and repeat what the previous person had said and continues to the last student who has to remember everything what everyone had said. This enabled me to assess their speaking and listening. It was awesome to see them smiling and laughing and equally awesome that there are a few Manchester United fans in the class too, hehe! I warmed up the class with an game that was based on the grammar point they worked on with their previous teacher, which went down quite well.

As the class wore on, I grew in confidence despite my half-assed lesson plan. I knew who were the weak and strong students and most importantly got to know my students and what made them tick. After finishing my lesson, I sent the students to the computer lab to do some on-line work for the course for the remainder of the class.This allowed me time to breath and say to myself:

 'I could get the hang of this, if I write a decent lesson plan!' 

I have now taught six classes and each one is different to the other. I've written decent lesson plans for some and winged it other times, oh well! But getting my first lesson out of the way is like going to the dentist get a tooth pulled. Once it's done, your fine! Of course, there is room for improvement because I am new to this teaching thing so I can only give myself time.

What was teaching your first lesson like?

The First Seven Days...in fragments

Since I have now been in Jakarta for two weeks, I think it is fair that I give a run-down of what my first seven days were like so here goes:

 THURSDAY 31ST OF JAN - Arrived at Jakarta International Airport in the afternoon where I was picked up by my colleague - who I will refer to from now on as Irish C - who took me to my humble abode and gave me the low-down on Jakarta and school life. As soon as he left me to go back to work, I had a much needed nap in my room. When I woke up, I was greeted by one of my six house mates, Scottish J . Since I was still in a bit of a sleep induced haze and not to  mention the fact that I did not know much about my surroundings, J took me to get some money changed and got some beers. By the time we got back, a few more house mates turned up ( two Canadians girls, Girl J (who I will be working with at the same school) and Little C and another Brit dude, Big P) after their long day at work. We promptly went out for dinner with other teachers which  included my other two other house mates (English J, a dude and another British girl L) from other schools and two which was cool but then, the jet lag kicked in around Midnight. Got back home where I slept with my eyes open (I can't sleep in a new place) but drifted off eventually.

Indonesian Rupiah - Still trying to get my head around this currency

FRIDAY 1ST OF FEB - Woke up at 3 (yes 3 in the afternoon, jet lag claimed me!) and realized much of the day was gone ; regardless, I went out and got myself a cheap phone at a shopping mall called Thamrin City (cheap bazaar type plaza). I also got dinner with Little C at Grand Indonesia Mall (grand as it is hella dear). Spoke to my boyfriend via Skype to say I am good (I updated on Facebook the day before that I was OK) and people are cool. Did I mention, that I was woken by the Call to Prayer at 4:30 in the morning?! I think that was why I spent the whole day in bed.

SATURDAY 2ND OF FEB - Found my way back to Thamrin City to a supermarket to get some toiletries food, hangers and the like to set up home and finally unpack my bags. I also got my phone registered and got credit on it thanks to a Indonesian girl who spoke good English and two cheeky boys who spoke no English.

SUNDAY 3RD OF FEB - Went to a buffet with my house mates and other teachers. I ate and drank my weight in seafood, fish ,cheese, cakes and red wine. This will probably be the last time I eat this will in Jakarta. More on that in another post. I also found myself at a party with a few Jamaicans living in Jakarta, thanks to a couple of acquaintances -Jamaican D and American M- I made before coming to Jakarta (gotta love social media). The party was great with Jamaican food and music I was getting down to some old school Dancehall tunes like no one's business, why not?!

Buffet Food

MONDAY 4TH OF FEB - First day at school I was picked  up from my house and taken to school by a driver; who will all also drop me home (this is just for two weeks though *sad face*). I was introduced the school's Director of Studies Big J, an Englishwoman who just came back from compassionate leave. The electricity also went out at the school for a LONG time, but in that time I became acquainted with the local staff and a warung (Indonesian eateries) where I got my lunch. But regardless, I got to meet my fellow teachers and observed a couple of classes. One with pre-schoolers and the other high level teenagers (taught by Girl J). This showed me the stark differences between teaching kids and older kids.

TUESDAY 5TH OF FEB - Spent another day at the school observing a couple of lessons taught by time with senior teacher, London boy T and Irish C.

WEDNESDAY 6TH OF FEB -A day of firsts - Indonesian rain and Indonesian traffic. The latter is something that will irk me on no end. I also co-taught a class of intermediate girls. I planned the lesson with one of the local teachers -there are three at my school- and added a Taylor Swift tune to the lesson to teach the 3rd Conditional because pop music in English lessons always translate well. This class will be mine to teach for the coming weeks so it was nice to get to know the girls.

Jakarta Traffic

THURSDAY 7TH OF FEB - Finished work early.One observation and going over lesson ideas with Big J because I teach my first class on Saturday *biting nails* *silent scream*. I also did another observation of a lesson with Brighton A , a dude from Brighton.

FRIDAY 8TH OF FEB - Day of rest (no school!) but planned my 3 hour class for Saturday and went to another part of Jakarta known as Kelapa Gading and met my acquaintance from the Jamaican party. I got there by taxi in Jakarta traffic at a tune of 50,000rph ( £3) which made my soul cry as it is pretty steep. Kelapa Gading reminds me so much of Croydon near South London, a city within a city because it was PROPER busy! I also tried Nasi Goreng- the Indonesian national dish- for the first time at a restaurant there and it was DELICIOUS!

One of the many shopping malls in Indonesia. This one is in Kelapa Gading

Roundabout in Kelapa Gading

Yummy Nasi Goreng and Chicken Satay 

So there you have it my first few days. Stay tuned to find out how my first class went.

Are you an expat living or had lived  in Jakarta? How did you find it?

Hi, I'm New Here

Hi my name is Chanelle - like the fashion house but spelt differently - and I am a first time teacher of English living and working in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. How the hell did I get here? Simples, I did a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course in my 'home' country of Great Britain and looked for opportunities to teach. I knew that my level of qualification was not good enough to teach in England or Europe for that matter, so I decided to look further a field into Asia.

As a continent, Asia has always fascinated because of the diversity of its people, history,multitude of cultures and warm weather. I figured if I was going to start my TEFL career somewhere why not in an Asian country?!

So I began looking and doing research on a couple of Asian countries that interested me namely China, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. After crossing off Thailand and China of my list, I decided to apply for the EPIK programme in Korea and also apply for a couple of jobs in Indonesia (one in Jakarta and the other in Cirebon). To cut a long story short, I did not meet certain criteria for EPIK thus my application was rejected *smh* but, I had an interview with a Jakarta school and will here I am!

                                                 No I did not take this photo

It's nearly been two weeks since I got off the plane from Soekerno- Hatta International Airport, cranky from lack of sleep after flying for over 15 hours and also for not having a shower since I left London that Wednesday afternoon (I arrived on a hot ass Thursday afternoon). I am still adjusting myself to this new life in a culture that is as strange to me as I am as strange to the locals, LOL! But I digress, I have now thrown myself into my new role and loving my colleagues and the people I have surrounded myself with since arriving in Jakarta, if this is a path that is right for me then I will surely know sooner rather than later.

So join me as I natter on about my triumphs and tribulations of teaching and living as a bule* in Indonesia.

* Bule - Indonesian for foreigner but normally for those of the fair skinned persuasion.