NGOC LINH - 01: GETTING TO KNOW ONE ANOTHER
For the first time, I began to wonder whether the problem was not their willingness to learn, but the way I was trying to reach them.
Week 1 — frustrating, before trust came first.
Some students had just come back from working in the fields and were too tired to care about what I had prepared. A few lay their heads on the table. Some stayed quiet but avoided eye contact. Others simply let me talk without really joining in. I had arrived with activities I thought would work. They did not.
BEFORE TRUST — WEEK 1
SO I STOPPED TRYING TO TEACH FIRST
THE FIRST BARRIER
I asked them to teach me Sedang words. I listened to how they described their routines, their families, and the places they knew better than I ever could. For once, I was the one who did not know the right answer.
But listening was not enough. Some students still did not feel ready to speak.
I arrived thinking about what I could teach them. I began to make progress only when I started asking what they could teach me.
OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
When words became a barrier, I tried to build a space that did not require words first.
Getting to know one another also meant stepping into the ordinary rhythms of village life.
We walked more than four kilometers from the school back to the village for a Mid-Autumn evening.
WHEN THE GUITAR CHANGED HANDS↗
I brought out a guitar—not to perform, but to give curiosity somewhere to begin.
As some students began to speak more, I faced a different question: would I simply fit their voices into the curriculum I had already designed—or allow those voices to change the curriculum itself?
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