Ranau's Got Talent!

A man who did participate!

    This has been a busy week for Emily and I as we were the J.U 's, (don't know what it means in Malay but it means presenters) at the Ranau District Year 1 training for the new English curriculum. I was phoned on Sunday and told that I had been put down for a 2 hour slot on Monday on pronunciation ( being a native speaker!) Not exactly a very light subject to engage 74 teachers in with less than 12 hours notice on the first morning! I did cause a stir about the pronunciation of /a/ [ae] and came armed with a video from the BBC Learning English Site but I'm not sure anyone was convinced! Anyway, all of us were thrown together for 4 days from 8 a.m until 5 pm and despite the attendance being less in the afternoons on the whole most of the teachers stayed and it was good fun and gave us an opportunity of meeting some great teachers. The social interaction was interesting - the men all sat at the back and were very loathe to join up with any of the ladies. When we forced the men into groups with the ladies they literally left all the work to them and then took the microphone when it was time to do a presentation. So I asked everyone " Is it always like this - the women do the work and men do nothing?" Apparently that was quite a bold thing to say but the women were pleased and the men just thought I was a bossy orang putih and continued to do as little as possible!
  It was held in the new District Offices which are very smart with marble floors, doormen in uniform and red berets who greeted us.The course was held in a huge conference room with an oval table and microphones that lit up when you spoke with very comfortable swivel chairs. We were all provided with a snack at 10.30 and then lunch at 12.30 and being the J.U's we were served ours in a separate room! The most surreal time for me was on the last afternoon when we were asked to comment and evaluate the lessons and lesson plans of each group.(I know the irony of it struck me too!) I felt I was on Britain's got Talent and everyone seemed to hang on our words and clapped if we thought it was good! I tried to say something nice about them all but sometimes it was very difficult and then there were moments where I just couldn't praise the teachers enough - they were fantastic.

 So you and I know that I'm no V.I.P. and I keep thinking I'm going to be found out as a fraud. Andrew also

has been having some strange VIP moments in Myanmar and in KL last week . When he told one of his colleagues that he used to be a cleaner and gardener for 9 years they just didn't believe him. Do V.I.P.'s really think they are important or are we all just pretending?