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| Mach ado about participation Friendliness, hospitality and acceptance make teaching in Brunei a motivating experience, very different to 'back home'What keeps you motivated? Teaching wonderfully polite and co-operative students who respond well to innovation in teaching. I particularly enjoy teaching English literature. Students love adapting famous works to local themes and situations. For example, my class recently made a short movie of Much Ado About Nothing with Bruneian-Malay traditional dress and props combined with traditional Malay music.Best teaching moment Being given a "favourite teacher" award by the parent-teacher organisation at my school. Receiving congratulations from my Bruneian colleagues, students and parents was a wonderful moment for me and an endorsement of the friendliness, hospitality and acceptance that people here show to those from other countries.And worst Whenever I speak Malay. I learned to speak Indonesian in the early 1980s. When I speak to students I sound like an old man frozen in a language time warp.What have you learned? The ability to look at life with optimism and a sincere belief that life should be enjoyed. Most Bruneians have a magnificent sense of fun and love social gatherings. Students work so well together and in my school there is almost no bullying or fighting.Biggest challenge? Many students are second-language speakers, but do many of their exams in English at a native-speaker level. They face lots of difficulty in interpreting unfamiliar vocabulary and situations.What's next? I do plenty of research and publication work outside my teaching and have even begun dabbling in English language shows for radio and television.Top tip? It's so important for teachers in international environments to appreciate the incredible diversity of learning styles and group behaviours that may be encountered and to realise the enormous amount that can be learned from those who do things differently from "back home".Greg Keaney, 50, worked in universities, colleges and schools in Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and his native Australia before coming to Brunei 10 years ago. He currently teaches English language and English literature at a secondary school in Bandar Seri Begawan for CfBTTeflBruneiguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
A Firefight Exposes Afghan Weakness An account of a Taliban siege on the towering villa of an American development agency shows Afghan security forces that appear ill-equipped to take over national security from their foreign counterparts. online.wsj.com |
Nicolas Sarkozy in warning to pension reform protesters French president says strikers have no right to take population hostage with demonstrations and warns rioters of punishmentNicolas Sarkozy has sent a determined message to strikers attempting to paralyse France with protests over plans to raise the retirement age to 62.The French president, who until now has kept a low profile as protesters took to the streets, blockaded oil refineries and threw transport services into chaos, said the demonstrators "had no right taking the French people hostage".He denounced clashes between schoolchildren and police in Lyon yesterday as "scandalous" and said rioters would be punished."It's not the thugs who will have the last word in a democracy, in a republic," the president said."That is not acceptable. They will be arrested, found and punished in Lyon as elsewhere, without any question."He added: "In our democracy there are many ways to express yourself, but the most cowardly, the most gratuitous violence is not acceptable."Unions have put on a concerted show of strength as the upper house of parliament finishes its debate on pension reforms. But if they had hoped for conciliation and compromise from the French leader, they were to be profoundly disappointed.On a visit to meet local councillors in the central region of Eure-et-Loir, Sarkozy said the strikers had "no right to take hostage innocent people trying to go about their daily business" and criticised the opposition Socialist party for encouraging high-school pupils to join the national protests."It's hardly reasonable when you realise that one in two of them will live to be 100 years old. What they [the Socialists] are not telling the schoolchildren is that this reform is being done for them," the president said.Of the demonstrators laying siege to oil refineries and ports he said: "By taking hostage the economy, companies and the French people's daily life, they will destroy jobs. A business that has no more petrol, that has no more material when they are carrying out public works, that has no more deliveries, will close. And once again it's the small people who will pay the price."One of the main unions, the CFDT, called on members protesting to "distance themselves from all form of radical action" in order to maintain public support for ongoing strikes."Until now we have gained the battle for public opinion ... a majority of French people approve of our approach; we call for a just and negotiated response," a union official said.French union leaders are meeting to decide on another day of national strikes next week, possibly Tuesday, to prevent the industrial action losing momentum during the half-term school holidays.The government announced it was planning to use a constitutional clause to speed up the pension reform law in the senate. The clause would accelerate the discussions by allowing senators to vote on what has already been agreed, thus allowing key reforms to pass immediately into law.The government has said it wants the reform adopted by the end of the week. By midday today there were still 265 amendments to be considered.A university in the northern city of Lille was unblocked today after students voted 511 against 94 to return to their studies.Visiting Lyon where about 1,300 young people are said to have taken part in smashing up and looting shops, street signs and public property, the interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, warned against those who had "made a deliberate choice of the most extreme and gratuitous violence"."The right to demonstrate is not the right to smash up, the right to set on fire, the right to threaten or the right to pillage," he said.FranceProtestNicolas SarkozyKim Willsherguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Cameron Turns to Job Creation The U.K. prime minister will seek to shift the agenda to growth and job creation, including plans to inject competition into key corners of business. online.wsj.com |
MERILLAT'S NEW COREGUARD™ SINK BASE - Video Merillat Introduces the Revolutionary CoreGuard™ Sink Base feedproxy.google.com |