Spotlight News

I had a special request to give an update about Spotlight and the work I'm doing.  :)  I suppose since this is the main reason I am in Thailand, it is a very reasonable request.

First of all, I have to make the comment that I feel like my life is so different than a month and a half ago.  I was saying good-byes, eating too much at dinners and lunches with people, packing, praying, and just thinking about the future and what it might look like.  Now I am here and I have a space of my own and know how to navigate the public transportation, am involved with church and can call people to do something.  I've taken a month of language already (although I am a slow learner!) and see my Spotlight students all around town even though I only teach 1-2 days/week.  Just today I was in a BOOTS pharmacy and one of the people behind me said, "Hello Miss JoAnn."  So cute. 

Updates about Spotlight:

Just to clarify/recap the vision--Spotlight seeks to give English language learners the tools to become proficient by listening to a slowly-spoken, limited vocabulary, 15-minute program.  These programs began through radio, but now are mainly accessed online.  There is a script to follow along and we encourage English learners to read along aloud with the program so that they can hear their pronunciation.  I'm finding that there are a lot of people who have studied English for years, but usually only with teachers from their countries who are also secondhand speakers, so they get into ruts of being able to speak and understand only with people from their culture.  For example, one of my students understands everything I say and translates for his peers, but when he speaks, I have no idea what he's saying because his accent is so thick.  These are the students we want to help.  It would be difficult to listen to the program if you had no basic understanding of English vocab.

The program is produced by people in the US and the UK.  They seek to put out programs that are globally-focused so that people from different cultures feel connected to the programs and in general the rest of the world is much more interested in other countries than the US seems to be (at least if you watch our news and read our newspapers...).  I have been very impressed by the quality of these programs--which always have a positive spin and never degrades other cultures or religions.  All programs are written from a Christian filter and occasionally there are explicit Christian themes/values.

From these programs, it became clear that students wanted more than just reading along with a script--they wanted real interaction with English speakers.  What we are seeking to do is find people to host groups both in person and virtually through Skype.  The in-person groups are generally internationally based with expats leading (although they could very well be pockets of people in the States).  Just this week, someone in my Thai class found out what I was doing and he said he would be more than happy to volunteer 2 hours a week to get to know English speakers in the area and since he's not working right now, he has time.  This is way more common than you might think--people who live internationally and have time on their hands who want to "do something," but don't know what to do.  Spouses of embassy workers, stay-at-home moms who want to get out of the house, and adventurous retired people are a few of the recurring themes I see.  One of our goals is to connect with these people and give them the resources to conduct clubs that lead to relationships and maybe even an opportunity for spiritual topics.

Obviously, not every English speaker is living abroad or has the time to get to a club, so with the opportunities internet provides, we are looking to reach even broader and recruit English-speakers who are willing to host a club virtually.  The possibilities of this are potentially endless.  I mean, right now there are tons of people who want to join a club but we don't have the volunteers or great systems for coordinating volunteers virtually.  This is something I am focusing on and will continue to focus on.

Which leads to my initial post of how things are going with Spotlight.  We are still figuring out what the long-term things will be, but administratively, I am taking on a couple roles:
-Gathering the material for weekend posts on Spotlight's facebook page.  Every weekend is country weekend and I get to figure out basic things for the countries.  This last week was on Ukraine.  https://www.facebook.com/spotlightradio?ref=br_tf
-Creating group resources for English-speakers hosting the clubs.  I suppose I could send a sample of this if people wanted, but it is the materials we give out to English volunteers to generate conversation in the clubs.
-Creating marketing materials to spread the news about Spotlight and recruit more volunteers.

This past week was a lot of brainstorming for the website.  There are two websites we work with--one for the listeners (SpotlightEnglish.com) and one for club hosts (spotlightenglishclubs.com).  The main one I look at is for the clubs and it needs some serious revision/updating.  We are going to shoot some videos that better explain the mission I put above and are working through how best to go about that.  It also seems to be an issue to communicate the vision without creating security risks.

THIS MONTH IN CLUBS:
I'm amazed if you've read to this point.  I went off on a tangent there, but don't want to erase it because I think it's important information to see what's driving this idea.  The reason that I am in Bangkok is because the groups are meant to function for second-language learners and in native English speaking places, you easily lose sight of the basic needs.  It will keep our material fresh and accessible as we use it with our target audience.

I've been teaching at a university that is quite a ways out from the center of Bangkok.  The transportation is part of the trouble for recruiting volunteers, but as people have been catching the vision, I will probably teach there only once/week.  This week we did a lesson called, "Crazy English," and it was about this Chinese man who uses a method of English teaching that is more like a rally.  This lesson was perfect with my students since they are all Chinese studying in Thailand.  I asked them why they wanted to learn English and their answers were what I expected:
-"It's the international language."
-"If I want to do business, I have to know English."
-"Successful people need to speak and understand English."
-"I want to travel."
-"I want international friends."
-"Money."
-"Communication is important for any work and English is the international standard for communication."

They asked me what they could do to improve their English and I said you have to practice.  If you want to read it, read magazines or a book.  If you want to understand it, listen to English music or movies or Spotlight programs.  If you want to pronounce it, speak it aloud.  If you want to communicate, you have to speak English to people.  You will make mistakes, but that is how you learn.  (Of course, I find myself extremely empathetic since I'm a loser at learning Thai.)

They are SOOOOO grateful to be able to talk to someone in person.  As they are students, they don't have a lot of money and probably couldn't afford lessons that were charged.  And the coordinator of the groups has such a heart for the students coming--he knows them all by name and regularly prays for them and invites them to events.  I think by being an American Christian, I have a lot of influence because what they know of America is the movies, the music and Hollywood.  It's important to counter those stereotypes.  One of the girls gave me cakes for the Chinese Moon festival.  Like I said, they are so cute.

Anyway, I should stop as I'm probably boring you, but suffice it to say that I have a lot of learning to do still and very much enjoy the students when I am with them.  I am also trying to figure out how to work on administrative things in a time-efficient manner.  It's also a challenge for me to keep in mind that the focus in in Bangkok because that's where I am, but it's also bigger than that--it's global.  As such, this seems like a good place to announce to those of you who don't know that the international conference for Spotlight is in November in.......Brazil!  Crazy!  So, I will be going to that and since it ends the same week as Thanksgiving, I'm going home to spend Thanksgiving with my family and then a few days in California before coming back.  I feel like if I just read that, I would have some questions, so a few quick things to know:
-the international conference is purposefully not held in America so that the producers of the program get a feel for the needs of their audience.  Janine and I are really the only ones who have frequent interaction with second-language learners.
-the conference is part of the job
-the funds to do the traveling are coming directly from Spotlight (who is funded differently than I am--so none of the contributions made to HCJB will go toward this conference, including travel.)
-my parents paid for my ticket to Cali so that I could see friends and family there since I didn't get the chance before I left
-I am looking forward to spending time with the people I am skyping and emailing for Spotlight.  Faces always make the work more personal and fun.

This is what you get when you ask for an update!  phew! 

loves.
JoAnn