Oman- A very road trippy English class

12/4/2016 9:12:47 AM

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Recently, at a small all-Filipino expats' dinner in Ibra, Oman, I ran into Ahmed, a former student from a college I worked for some four years back. I vaguely remembered the guy; he never struck me as someone special.

government pours a huge amount of money into english education, bringing in qualified and talented teachers from across the world, too many students still have a negative attitude towards learning english, and thus, are unable to use the language accurately even in the most basic conversations.

immediately upon our chance meeting, ahmed had cooked up a secret plan. he had just found an instant private tutor in me. after dinner, he invited me for a stroll around town, and the chilly weather couldn't be more perfect for such a walk. he asked me endless questions – from colloquial words and expressions to grammatical structures that he had been struggling to grasp. he then proudly showed me his 'book', a list of hundreds of words (with examples and meanings) he had fully committed to memory. boy, he had fire in his belly!

i obliged. in my entire life, i have never met a student who had such an insatiable hunger for knowledge. in the 12 years of my teaching career, i have never come across a student brimming with purely intrinsic motivation to reach his or her goal. though exhausted from my trip from muscat, i felt i was morally bound to reach out to this guy. i was more than happy.

the next morning at five, with barely four hours of sleep, ahmed and i hopped into our mobile classroom – his car. he eagerly served as my tour guide to a wadi. i reciprocated by giving him free english lessons as we hit the road.

ahmed

it turned out to be some kind of carpool english-karaoke-class! listening to the '70s funk music and music from the 90s – he got the collection of songs from dhodz, a mutual friend and a compatriot. our communicative language learning picked up from where we left it the previous night. i was quick to tap into our immediate environment and the context of our trip as resource for idioms and collocations for our real-time, spontaneous lessons.

hit the road. pulled over. cliff diving. ravine. foothills. pool. fish nibbling the soles of my feet. boulders. hit the head. and many others. all these naturally sprang up from our conversations. he listened attentively, frantically taking notes on his samsung phone, afraid the words might slip away. he just couldn't afford to lose the words and the opportunity that came along.

from the wadi, he drove to sur, a coastal town, and then headed to muscat to meet with my two south african friends, heidi and darryl, a married teaching couple who used to be my colleagues back in ibra. ahmed was indefatigable. he had asked a thousand questions since dawn, and he had no plans of retreating. neither had i. (thankfully, i had answers to all his questions!)

still inside our mobile classroom, our conversations took a more personal turn. i then understood why ahmed was extremely motivated to be 'fluent in english'. with a taxi man for a father, he grew up with a lot less in life than the rest of the young omanis born to well-off families. now he works as a human resource specialist at oman's royal air force while doing his master's degree. he has too many aspirations to stop learning.

some roads in muscat that evening were congested. the shabab raucously partied in their speeding top-down cars, waving flags to celebrate oman's national day. i heard gun shots. i saw photos of his majesty sultan qaboos bin said posted and hung everywhere, whom ahmed described as 'very diplomatic'.

in between our lessons in the car were some quiet moments. i glanced at ahmed and thought about the future that lay ahead of him. he is his country's one unknown little treasure. and on its 46th national day, this country is lucky to have a citizen like him.

our final stop was at my south africans friends' house in the capital city. there he got reunited meeting with his former teacher, heidi. i couldn't contain all the excitement inside me: i bragged about this gem i stumbled upon, a human being with a heart of gold!

on the patio while enjoying his grilled fish, ahmed began telling his stories with the fresh words he had learned from me that day. to say that heidi and her husband darryl were delighted would be an understatement. they were blown away! impressed, heidi asked him if could give a talk to the students at the college she was teaching at. yes of course, he readily accepted the invitation.

two hours later, we said our goodbyes and headed back to his hometown. it was too late to meet his family, which was a real shame. it was my first time, sleeping in an arab's house. it was a rare honor to have been invited.

at five the next morning, we took off to muscat international airport, where i had to catch a flight back to work. in the back of his car was his wife who didn't speak english. on her lap was his six-month old son, sleeping, with whom ahmed speaks english every day. i was with the three most beautiful people in the world that dawn. what a rare privilege!

shortly the sun began to peek behind the seemingly insurmountable rock mountains. the egg shell-white-painted houses at the foothills started to emerge out of darkness. the village folks must still have been sleeping.

ahmed was already wide awake. i was leaving, and he didn't want to waste the little time left with his new teacher.

joan valenzuela

the author is an overseas english teacher, a backpacker, and a long-distance walker.

[the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of muscat daily or apex press & publishing]

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