May 24th marked the end of our first 12-week term for Happy Happy English (HHE) at a dormitory for foreign workers. To commemorate this occasion, we held a graduation ceremony for the students.
Goducate started a program called HHE earlier this year after a riot in Little India late last year led to the restriction of foreign workers to that area. We started providing conversational English classes in a fun and unconventional way in the dormitory, focusing on building confidence in our students and making learning fun. There were three levels of classes. Over the 12-week program, we focused on workplace English, how to speak to supervisors, asking for directions, and talking about themselves and their families, among other things.
The graduation ceremony was preceded by a volleyball tournament between the dormitory workers and players from Goducate’s Connectayo program, a program for getting to know Filipino foreign workers through sport. The dormitory team thrashed the visiting team. We later found out that the dormitory had an Indian state player and a volleyball coach in their team!
The graduation ceremony was a chance for the students to showcase their talents in song, dance, and in a skit. They sang in their mother tongues as well as in English. The skit incorporated topics taught over the past 12 weeks. The students also performed a choreographed dance item. Some students also spoke, in video clips, or live, about what they had learned and achieved through this program. One from India described HHE as a “life-achievement program” where one can learn new things and feel good about them. The proudest moment for each of the students and for the teachers was when each student was called up on stage to receive the certificate.
After all the formalities, we had a time of dinner and catching up with the students. A young worker from Bangladesh told one of our teachers that this was the most memorable moment in his life so far.
Goducate is currently running HHE in 2 dormitories, each housing thousands of workers. We plan to start our program in a third dormitory soon.
