Others – Page 14 – Goducate … Go And Educate!

2015-11-272016-01-16

Happy Happy English program in Singapore has run for 2 years

The Happy Happy English program that Goducate has been running in dormitories for foreign workers in Singapore has been running for 2 years already. It’s a program to teach the workers functional English. It’s also intended to extend a hand of friendship to these people whose lives here consist largely of extremely long hours of work. Very often the students are just arriving back from work when our classes, held on Saturday nights, are ending at 10 pm.

The program has been running in three dormitories since last year, and in a fourth starting this year. Last week, students in the first three dormitories who had attended at least 60% of the classes this year received their certificates of attendance. This end-of-year event was an informal one held in the various dormitories, with fun and games, chat, and food.

The volunteers have been privileged to be accepted as friends with whom the workers are willing to share their ups and down. Sadly, they have more downs than ups, and one of the worst situations they face is sudden termination of their work projects, and hence their jobs, within months of their arrival, long before they have earned enough to pay for the fees they paid their agents to get a job here.

Goducate hopes that the Happy Happy English program will at least give these workers the idea that there are people here who are prepared to be their friends, and we are thankful that modern technology enables us to keep in touch with them even after they return home.

Students in Tuas dormitory demonstrating good coordination

Students in Mandai dormitory in team game.

Certificates and eating time for students in East Jurong dormitory.

2015-05-012015-05-04

Schools in Indonesia hold Sing Your English culminating activities

Sing Your English (SYE) is a Goducate program for teaching English through song. It was launched in two schools in Batam, Indonesia, in August 2012. It has since been introduced in more schools not only in Batam, but also in Pekanbaru, Medan, Bandung, and Jakarta.

Last month, all the schools offering SYE held their culminating activities for the program. The culminating activities showcased what the students had learnt in the previous 8 months. The students, who came from levels 1 to 4, performed in front of their parents as well as students from higher levels. They sang their songs and impersonated the SYE Phonics characters. Games were included as part of the event.

The atmosphere was joyful. There was much laughter, and teachers could be seen enjoying the presentations by mimicking the kids’ actions. One parent who spoke on behalf of other parents said in her closing remarks, “Thank you SYE. Thank you for the facilitators who patiently teach our child English. My kids are enjoying the class and even speak English at home”.

One of the strengths of SYE is that students lose their inhibitions about speaking English and use it outside of the classroom. Students enjoy this fun-filled and exciting program and bond well with the teachers.

Students in Batam singing phonics adventure song

*Our guest writer is Cindy Presquito, an SYE teacher

2014-12-122014-12-16

Goducate’s Happy Happy English program is featured in newspapers on anniversary of Little India riot

Monday Dec 8 was the first anniversary of the riot in Little India that prompted Goducate to set up the Happy Happy English program in foreign workers’ dormitories in Singapore. Little India is a district in Singapore where Indian shops are concentrated and where foreign workers from the Indian subcontinent congregate on their days off.

Over the weekend and on Monday itself, Singapore newspapers commemorated the anniversary with reports on how the riot developed, the repercussions of the riot (such as the restrictions on sale and consumption of liquor in the area, and the restrictions on movement of foreign workers into the area), the findings of the committee of inquiry, and how foreign workers and locals have responded to the riot.

Two newspapers reported on Goducate’s Happy Happy English program. They reported on how the volunteers teach the workers functional English, but more importantly, as the name of the program implies, bring some happiness to these people by becoming their friends. These foreign workers have to leave home to live here in quarters that are generally in isolated parts of the island, and to work here for very long hours just to pay off debts and make ends meet at home. An equally important point made in the reports is how the program has helped to dispel some of the misconceptions that Singaporeans have about foreign workers—namely, that they are a group to be feared, when in fact they are very normal people like any of us.

Happy Happy English has so far been operating in three dormitories. We hope to bring happiness to workers in other dormitories as well.