Showing posts with label students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label students. Show all posts
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Last day at the English Centre
Some of our students presented their mini-projects and received their certificate on Saturday. They wrote about Democracy, Global Warming and Teachers' Self Training. We supervised their work, and it was nice to be there when they presented it. After we had a small "veloma" (goodbye) party, nice words, songs and even presents were offered... we also started a small "library" for the students... here some photos from the day:
Monday, October 12, 2009
Academic week
Toliara is slowly going back to the warm summer and we start to feel it. We had a weekend with almost no running water in the house (just in the night), and with numerous power cuts. However, we work on our researches (time has come to produce some text) and we teach English. So, lately our days are quite calm.
Birger had a different lecture the other day, as it wasn’t for our students at the University English Teaching Centre, but for law students following English classes. Solo, a colleague at the Centre, gave Birger the challenge of lecturing about the European Union to students with variable levels both in English and in law. Anyway, he did well and the students seemed to enjoy the challenge and the topic. They asked a lot of questions, from why Turkey is not in the EU to what’s the name of the Norwegian king (!?!?!) and how do you say hello and good bye in Norwegian. I guess it ended up being a quite exotic law/English lecture.
After giving “our” students a challenging lecture on “academic writing”, we attended a very interesting seminar on “Republic and Democracy” at the University (on a Saturday afternoon). The event was organised by an association of Phd students, where one of our students William is a member. The topic was particularly interesting given the political events of the last months, in the country. Three professors briefly exposed some concepts concerning the topic of the seminar, and then an interesting debate took place. Questions and reflections went back and forth in the crowded room. Most of the reflections involved the Constitution, the challenge of building up a functioning democracy in a country with many illiterate voters, as well as the problem of corruption. The dean of the university did a brilliant job moderating the debate.
But the day had still a lot to give, after the debate we were invited to a reception that turned into a small party with the professors and the Phd students. Tongues loosened with the help of Malagasy rum and the never absent THB (Three Horses Beer). It is impressive to see how, despite the poor facilities that this city offers, people with strong desire get informed about what happens all over the world. From the Italian and Russian mafia, to the role of the former Belgian Prime Minister, to the feeling of belonging in Madagascar, we talked about several things in French, English and Malagasy… always in the Malagasy way: a sip of rum for the ancestors first, and a speech to wrap it up!
Birger had a different lecture the other day, as it wasn’t for our students at the University English Teaching Centre, but for law students following English classes. Solo, a colleague at the Centre, gave Birger the challenge of lecturing about the European Union to students with variable levels both in English and in law. Anyway, he did well and the students seemed to enjoy the challenge and the topic. They asked a lot of questions, from why Turkey is not in the EU to what’s the name of the Norwegian king (!?!?!) and how do you say hello and good bye in Norwegian. I guess it ended up being a quite exotic law/English lecture.
After giving “our” students a challenging lecture on “academic writing”, we attended a very interesting seminar on “Republic and Democracy” at the University (on a Saturday afternoon). The event was organised by an association of Phd students, where one of our students William is a member. The topic was particularly interesting given the political events of the last months, in the country. Three professors briefly exposed some concepts concerning the topic of the seminar, and then an interesting debate took place. Questions and reflections went back and forth in the crowded room. Most of the reflections involved the Constitution, the challenge of building up a functioning democracy in a country with many illiterate voters, as well as the problem of corruption. The dean of the university did a brilliant job moderating the debate. 
But the day had still a lot to give, after the debate we were invited to a reception that turned into a small party with the professors and the Phd students. Tongues loosened with the help of Malagasy rum and the never absent THB (Three Horses Beer). It is impressive to see how, despite the poor facilities that this city offers, people with strong desire get informed about what happens all over the world. From the Italian and Russian mafia, to the role of the former Belgian Prime Minister, to the feeling of belonging in Madagascar, we talked about several things in French, English and Malagasy… always in the Malagasy way: a sip of rum for the ancestors first, and a speech to wrap it up!
Friday, May 8, 2009
Crisis and University
Madagascar has now 2 presidents, 2 prime ministers, two of everything. What is not doubling is money, jobs, and resources for the people. Probably the university is not on top of the major worries during a political crisis, nevertheless students are suffering from this situation too.
The university of Toliara has very little means. Not sure if they are given very little means, or the money addressed to the university are getting lost on the way. The point here is that in order to study, to learn, to become the society of the future, you need some basic stuff; very basic sometime, nevertheless necessary.
Torun H. Rognes is one of our predecessors here in Toliara. Like us, she was doing a research. She decided to look into the work conditions of the students. Her article is not flattering, but it is published in Talily (special number 13-14-15/2008), a university journal.
The university campus is at about 5km from the city centre and is lacking the most basic facilities. It hosts about 2000 students, but there are NO functioning toilets or showers. The students are forced to go “in the nature” around the campus, even at night…
the campus:
The rooms are not sufficient to host the growing number of students, so rooms planned to be shared in two are shared in four or more (4 beds, all the personal belongings, 1 table in common, a cooking corner, in about 10-12 square meters). Some students are placed in rooms initially constructed for other purposes, they hang plastic foils to get privacy from other students, also because those rooms are often not divided by gender.
We visited some of them, the place to cook consists of small electric elements, with no switch; students have to very carefully connect the cables to use them to cook their rice.
The classrooms are not enough for all the students and the courses. According to Torun, the acoustic is not adequate, and there are not enough chairs for everybody: students have to bring chairs from their own rooms.
The teaching hours are also heavy: courses start around 7.30 and go on for about 8h, only interrupted by a lunch break of about 1h. The professors, don’t get paid very well, so they are often doing side researches to make a living. The result is that they concentrate their work with the students in few months or weeks, and they are absent for other months.
Furthermore, the university can’t provide professors for all the courses so some of them are just “missionaries” from other universities: they have 10-12 hour courses per day, for 7 days a week for a couple of weeks; then 1 or 2 days after the end of the course, the students have to take their exam.
Clearly, this rhythm is not allowing the students to have a normal learning process.
Torun reports also that the university library is small, with 18 tables and about 8000 titles, most of them quite old. A few other libraries offer some more titles, but have quite limited opening hours.
Without going too deep into the amount of computers and the access to internet, we can just say that they are almost non existent and that students write their papers and thesis by hand, so they have to pay someone to write the last version on a PC. With three main consequences:
-students can’t access enough resources (internet),
-they often don’t know how to use a computer (!!),
-and they miss the very important learning process that is done while revising a paper.
We could continue by telling that scholarships for students are few and small, and that many need to work beside their studies. We could tell about the danger of prostitution for the poorest girls (especially hoping to get a vazaha, maybe to marry). Or tell about the impossibility for most of the students to travel, in order to get material or do research. But you probably got the idea…
What we can add is that there is a crisis, and a lack of resources.
The problems described above are only getting worse.
Furthermore, the electricity is scarce in Toliara, and at the University campus it is often without it for many days, leaving the students in the dark…
How is the society of the future going to be, when even the privileged group that can go to University, are suffering from impossible working conditions?
Italiano: abbiate pieta' e' troppo lungo... magari tra qualche giorno. ;-)
The university of Toliara has very little means. Not sure if they are given very little means, or the money addressed to the university are getting lost on the way. The point here is that in order to study, to learn, to become the society of the future, you need some basic stuff; very basic sometime, nevertheless necessary.
Torun H. Rognes is one of our predecessors here in Toliara. Like us, she was doing a research. She decided to look into the work conditions of the students. Her article is not flattering, but it is published in Talily (special number 13-14-15/2008), a university journal.
The university campus is at about 5km from the city centre and is lacking the most basic facilities. It hosts about 2000 students, but there are NO functioning toilets or showers. The students are forced to go “in the nature” around the campus, even at night…
the campus:
The rooms are not sufficient to host the growing number of students, so rooms planned to be shared in two are shared in four or more (4 beds, all the personal belongings, 1 table in common, a cooking corner, in about 10-12 square meters). Some students are placed in rooms initially constructed for other purposes, they hang plastic foils to get privacy from other students, also because those rooms are often not divided by gender.
We visited some of them, the place to cook consists of small electric elements, with no switch; students have to very carefully connect the cables to use them to cook their rice.
The classrooms are not enough for all the students and the courses. According to Torun, the acoustic is not adequate, and there are not enough chairs for everybody: students have to bring chairs from their own rooms.
The teaching hours are also heavy: courses start around 7.30 and go on for about 8h, only interrupted by a lunch break of about 1h. The professors, don’t get paid very well, so they are often doing side researches to make a living. The result is that they concentrate their work with the students in few months or weeks, and they are absent for other months.
Furthermore, the university can’t provide professors for all the courses so some of them are just “missionaries” from other universities: they have 10-12 hour courses per day, for 7 days a week for a couple of weeks; then 1 or 2 days after the end of the course, the students have to take their exam.
Clearly, this rhythm is not allowing the students to have a normal learning process.
Torun reports also that the university library is small, with 18 tables and about 8000 titles, most of them quite old. A few other libraries offer some more titles, but have quite limited opening hours.
Without going too deep into the amount of computers and the access to internet, we can just say that they are almost non existent and that students write their papers and thesis by hand, so they have to pay someone to write the last version on a PC. With three main consequences:
-students can’t access enough resources (internet),
-they often don’t know how to use a computer (!!),
-and they miss the very important learning process that is done while revising a paper.
We could continue by telling that scholarships for students are few and small, and that many need to work beside their studies. We could tell about the danger of prostitution for the poorest girls (especially hoping to get a vazaha, maybe to marry). Or tell about the impossibility for most of the students to travel, in order to get material or do research. But you probably got the idea…
What we can add is that there is a crisis, and a lack of resources.
The problems described above are only getting worse.
Furthermore, the electricity is scarce in Toliara, and at the University campus it is often without it for many days, leaving the students in the dark…
How is the society of the future going to be, when even the privileged group that can go to University, are suffering from impossible working conditions?
Italiano: abbiate pieta' e' troppo lungo... magari tra qualche giorno. ;-)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Photos 2
This is the english course, electricity is no longer stable in Toliara.
Questo e' il nostro corso d'inglese, l'elettricita' non e' piu' stabile a Toliara.
How many people do you think are needed to fix a car?
Quante persone pensate occorrano per riparare un auto?
Il nostro "antipasto" di Pasqua... mmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Our starter for Easter.
Maki:
Baobab sulla pista per Andavadoka:
Non e' un effetto ottico...la parete e' inclinata.
Qui siamo con Børre e Annelise:
Questo e' il ciclone che ha sfiorato Toliara alcune settimane fa:
Questo e' il nostro corso d'inglese, l'elettricita' non e' piu' stabile a Toliara.
How many people do you think are needed to fix a car?
Quante persone pensate occorrano per riparare un auto?
Il nostro "antipasto" di Pasqua... mmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Our starter for Easter.
Maki:
Baobab sulla pista per Andavadoka:
Non e' un effetto ottico...la parete e' inclinata.
Qui siamo con Børre e Annelise:
Questo e' il ciclone che ha sfiorato Toliara alcune settimane fa:
Photos
Here some photos from the last months (ecco alcune foto degli ultimi mesi):
Birger and Christine:
Andavadoka
Quando trovi un'auto con un guasto... la devi spostare!
La spiaggia di Ambatomilo, nord di Toliara (il posto dove Serena potrebbe aprire il baretto). Ambatomilo's beach, north of Toliara.
Birger and Christine:
Andavadoka
Quando trovi un'auto con un guasto... la devi spostare!
La spiaggia di Ambatomilo, nord di Toliara (il posto dove Serena potrebbe aprire il baretto). Ambatomilo's beach, north of Toliara.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Arboretum d’Antsokay
Few days before Christmas we visited an arboretum with the students at the English language centre. This is a botanical garden established by a Swiss man who collected 900 different species of plants, 90% of which endemic to the Toliara region. This place is full of beautiful cactus, and exotic trees, all amazingly growing and flourishing from a ground of sand and rocks.
This interesting trip was arranged for those studying English at the University’s Language Centre. The purpose of this type of excursions is to give the students the knowledge and the vocabulary about touristic places around Toliara. In this way, those who want practice their language with tourists, or even work as tourist guides will have the tools to do so.
For us it was a great experience. We have long planned to go to visit the Arboretum, which is only 12km out of town. And this was a very nice way for us to do so. The students are very motivated; they took notes of everything they could grab from the English-speaking guide. They followed all he said, and tried to learn as much as possible from the experience. The Language Centre is ran by some very motivated and skilled people, who give their spare time to the students. The means of the centre are very limited; nevertheless the students are remarkably motivated. They have a very tough life at the university, yet they follow the 6 weekly course hours at the centre, and ask for more… like having extra activities on Saturday mornings!
We really hope to help with our work at the centre, and we invite those of you interested, to come to Toliara and have some special activity for the students, or held some guest lectures. We are also thinking to try to give the students access to some extra material, as simple English literature books or movies and documentaries in English (preferably with subtitles in English), so if you are planning to come here, don’t hesitate to bring novels from high school…
Italiano: Pochi giorni prima di Natale, abbiamo visitato un arboreto con gli studenti del centro d’inglese. Questo giardino botanico, creato da uno svizzero, contiene 900 specie diverse di piante, 90% delle quali endemiche della regione di Toliara. Il posto è pieno di meravigliosi cactus e alberi esotici, che sorprendentemente crescono rigogliosi dal suolo sabbioso e roccioso.
Questa interessante escursione è stata organizzata per gli studenti d’inglese del centro linguistico dell’università’. L’obiettivo di questo tipo di attività è di dare agli loro le conoscenze (ed il vocabolario) relative ai siti turistici intorno a Toliara. In questo modo, quelli che vogliono praticare la lingua con i turisti, e persino lavorare come guide turistiche, hanno accesso alle nozioni necessarie per farlo.
Per noi è stata una bella esperienza. Avevamo a lungo pensato di andare a visitare l’arboreto, che si trova a soli 12 chilometri da Toliara. E andare con gli studenti è stato uno splendido modo per visitare il posto. Gli studenti sono, infatti, molto motivati, hanno preso appunti di tutto ciò che era possibile catturare dalla guida in inglese. Hanno seguito tutto ciò che diceva, e hanno provato ad apprendere il più possibile dall’esperienza. Il Centro Linguistico è gestito da alcune persone motivate e capaci, che mettono a disposizione degli studenti il loro tempo libero. I mezzi del centro sono molto limitati, ciononostante gli studenti sono eccezionalmente motivati. Infatti, nonostante la loro difficile vita all’università’, ed il fatto che già seguono 6 ore di corso settimanali al centro, chiedono di più… come avere attività extra il sabato mattina!
Noi speriamo davvero di essere d’aiuto con il nostro lavoro al centro, e invitiamo quelli di voi interessati (e capaci), di venire a Toliara per organizzare qualche attività per gli studenti o sostenere qualche lezione al corso. Stiamo anche pensando di provare a dare accesso agli studenti ad un po’ di materiale extra come semplici romanzi in inglese o film e documentari in inglese (preferibilmente con anche i sottotitoli); pertanto, se stai pensando di venire a Toliara, non esitare a portare con te i romanzi in lingua letti alle scuole superiori…
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