The most natural job

After only waiting eight months into my time in Jambi I have finally embraced teaching English as a part-time income source.  The acute need for English teachers has fallen on me with the realization that I am now the only native English speaking resident of Jambi.  Carolyn as the other VIA volunteer left two months ago and the two English teachers I knew of finished their contracts a few weeks ago and immediately flew home to Canada.  As a result, I now carry the special honor as the city’s prized native English speaker: Jambi University English majors track me down at work to interview me for their class assignments, the private teaching center Richmond English where I have started is desperate to have me teach as many classes I can, and after taking on one private student, I have opened the floodgate to all others seeking private lessons with a native English speaker.

Well last week saw my first classes at Richmond English as the new teacher, Miss Jenny from America, and I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Both of my classes are a small mix of high school/university students and they are extremely friendly and interested in learning.  The other English teachers are really friendly also, and I am learning a bit about the unique characteristics between ethnicities within Indonesia.  Interestingly, much of the staff is Christian Bataknese from Northern Sumatra and Medan.  Bataknese are known in Indonesia for speaking loudly, I will confirm this, and also, as Christians they are more likely to be interested and skilled with English compared to Indonesian Muslims.  While I don’t have any facts to back up this generalization, just commentary from my Indonesian friends, but I do remember the one time I attended evening prayers at the mosque behind Sumi’s house during Ramadan and my ears pricked up when I heard the Imam say that for Muslims it is more important to study Arabic than English.  I would be interested to learn what sort of real implications this kind of belief has had and continues to have on Indonesian English ability.

But back to English teaching, the one private class I am doing right now is for a friend of my coworker who is preparing to take the TOEFL.  Indonesians that want to pursue higher education degrees are often confronted by the requirement for English proficiency- a skill the majority of Indonesians lack.  I see this with my coworkers at PKBI when they try to apply for scholarships to get a Masters degree abroad but then are refused because their TOEFL score doesn’t quite meet the standard.  I guess this is necessary to distinguish those who are driven and deserve such opportunities.  The woman who is currently paying me to give her private TOEFL lessons is clearly much more committed than my coworker who never tried to use me to study English before her test, even though that is one of my duties as an English resource, and she consequentially failed the test.