My sisters

I took my motorbike all the way from Bukit Mertajam to Cameron Higlands where I had to withstand severe cold downpours. During that ordeal all of a sudden, I recalled how I was the previous day walking in the rain with my newly adopted sister Amelia and my eyes were instantly filled with tears. Strangely, I couldn't think of anything else but her and when I stopped to enjoy a spectacular highland scenery with clouds quickly forming right beneath my feet, I made a long-term pledge to help her learn and grow. I will work towards it year after year until we are both ready to meet again and make it happen.



There are not enough words to say how much I love her. Actually, shortly after Amelia's mother suggested that I could adopt her as a sister rather than a daughter I realized she was absolutely right. Since my early childhood I wanted to have a younger sibling. Now apart from my older sister I have my younger sister as well. Amazingly, they both have their birthday soon - 9 September.

I talked to monks

Finally, after a few weeks of planning I set off to climb up to two Buddhist temples this morning along with Andy and some of my students. In the first one I talked to a monk who could possibly become my teacher for the short spell I mean to stay in a temple. In the other one, however, I found myself somewhat open-mouthed talking to a different sort of monk - a white man, who has been travelling round the world for the past six years now. I came up against some difficulties as I started to talk in Czech... surprise, he comes from Slovakia!

Struggling through

I realize learning is a ceaseless battle with laziness. I'm reading up on teaching a great deal but while reading I often tend to wish I had someone to guide me and show the right way through. In other words, to some extent I wish to skip the planting and enjoy the fruits right away. Yet this is hardly possible since true learning comes with struggling and even with a guide, helpful though she might be, I would have to find for myself my own path.

What sort of implications does it have then for someone who guides around 100 children?

Nirvana. Now. Here.

In a recent debate on happiness and its role in our lives I claimed if there is anything like Nirvana then it is here. Now.

My point of view was rather personal but George Monbiot was swift to broaden this argument: "We live in the happiest, healthiest and most peaceful era in human history. And it will not last long."

Goodbye, Kind World

Freedooooom

It's been a week now since I got my motorbike.



I love it! The sense of being able to explore the Malaysian countryside is liberating and uplifting. I can see there's an awful lot ahead.

Amelia

Do you remember? She gave me her heart and I lost it... But she gave me another one. And she always teaches me to look at the earth and the heaven with her fresh wonder.



I love her and I was told that I can adopt her. As usual, the word 'adopt' means something different in this culture. Nevertheless, I wholeheartedly want to adopt her in a sense that I mean to offer her an opportunity to get some experience, be it studying or just travelling overseas, when she is mature.

Unlearning gives way to learning

Back in England I was often wondering why Andrew, my best 'classroom teacher' ever, supressed his own opinions and beliefs while talking to his students.

I've been always a somewhat opinionated person and now I realized I ought to do as he always did. It is precisely because voicing my own opinions inhibits the students. True, I strive for more than language learning as it is all too often clear that without wider personal development students cannot learn much (see Dear Mistake). Nevertheless, the language should always have a priority and so I must unlearn the habit of speaking my mind in the classroom.

Word of Week

Serendipity = Pure luck in discovering things you were not looking for. (Webster's Online Dictionary)