Model School

It's only Tuesday, but this week has already been full of "firsts." Yesterday was our first day teaching at model school after a week of observation, and today marked my first Fulfulde lessons.

Model school is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It's currently the summer holiday, but Peace Corps has organized a five-week program that will, in theory, benefit both us and the students, by providing them with supplementary courses and us with a chance to cut our teeth as educators. Most of us worked as teachers in the States, but a few have no experience, amend frankly, I'm glad to have this opportunity, as I've only taught adults.

Yesterday was my first time teaching at model school, and my responsibility was to reach English to Terminale students (the equivalent of seniors in high school). I think it went reasonably well, but I'm still trying to walk the tightrope between friendly acquaintance and authority figure, so my students probably think I'm bipolar. There are moments when I'm smiling and encouraging with one student, but suddenly turn around to silence another gossiping student with my Germanic ice-queen death-stare (or so I imagine).

I won't be so foolish as to feel comfortable already. The class I'm currently teaching has only 12 students, and the smallest Cameroonian classroom I've heard of so far had sixty. Plus, we're in the South, where girls marrying underage isn't as much of an issue as it is in the north, where I'll be.

Model school takes up the entire morning, from eight to noon, which leaves he afternoon for language and technical training. Five us who will be living in places with a large Fulbe population had our first Fulfulde lesson today. I suspect it will be fun to start a new language after staying French for about eight years, but it's also intimidating, especially since this is so different from any other language I've encountered.

It may sound far-fetched, but I think it's important to have at least a passing knowledge of a language to understand the people who speak it. Plus, it's fascinating to hear how different languages express the same idea. For example, in English, we say "I had a dream last night," whereas a Frenchman would say "I made a dream." (If I hadn't been in such a rush to finish university, I probably would have dabbled in linguistics.)

In any case, we don't know much yet, but here's hoping that two years from now, I can call myself somewhat trilingual. And if some of my students can say the same by the end of my service, I will leave Cameroon completely satisfied with my work.