Footprints Across Africa: You do the Hokey Pokey...

...and you turn yourself around, that's what it's all about!

Yes, I did the hokey pokey yesterday with an after school youth group and it was so much fun! I had all the kids dancing around me and learning how to say their body parts in English!

The after school group is called "New Vision Class" and was started in 2007 with only 10 youth participants. The aim of the group is simply to practice their English through various methods other than text book learning. I think is a fabulous idea, considering I've been trying to learn French for years now from a text book and it clearly hasn't help me all that much!

"New Vision Class" has now expanded it's participants to over 30 youth who meet every evening from 7:00pm to 8:30pm. Due to the increase in class size, "New Vision Class" had to split into 2 different groups, section A and section B. Last night I went to the class with colleagues from ZASO,one of ZANGOC's member organizations. ZASO attends the "New Vision Class" every Wednesday evening in attempt to bring a different style of learning for the youth. Last night the lesson took the form of a debate and I and got to listen to the youth practice their English while speaking on the subject "Getting married and having a family is better than not." The debate was between speakers representing section A (supporting argument) and speakers representing section B (opposing argument).

1st speaker from the Supporting Team


1st speaker from the Opposing Team

My role in the debate was "Dr. Grammar" which basically meant that I had to listen carefully to what they were saying and take note of incorrect sentence structure, miss use of words, etc. After the debate was over I pointed out some of the mistakes I heard and wrote the proper sentence structure on the board. Overall, I was very impressed with the level of English amongst all the speakers. Some of the mistakes I was able to pick up on where: the use of the past tense and the use of slang words.

"Dr. Grammar!"

A lot of the speakers were really confident in presenting their opinions and projecting their voice. While others were still nervous and either talked very quickly or very quietly which meant that sometimes I couldn't understand what their main points were. In the end the Opposing Team won by only 2 points, judging was based on clarity of points, presentation style, confidence and their use of the English language.

After the results were presented I did my second part of the evening and taught the students the "hokey pokey!" I started off by explaining that it was more of a dance with English words as opposed to a game which I think got their attention, especially after I started dancing in front of them...everyone likes to see the "muzungu" dance! First I got a small group of participants together at the front of the class and had them tell me how to say "arm" "foot" "leg" "hip" (etc) in English, as well as "left" and "right"...all key words to know when you do the hokey pokey! After a few rounds inside we all moved outside into the school court yard and sang and danced the hokey pokey and it was such a fun time!

You put your right hand in...

You put your left hand in...

All the little girls were really into it and wouldn't leave my side, when it was time to finish they didn't want to stop! It's funny how some aspects of children and youth transend borders! For instance, all the young girls were up dancing with me and the older kids kind of stood back and watched, even though I know they really wanted to jump in and hokey pokey with me! Maybe next time I'll get them dancing.

Since my ZASO colleagues attend this class every Wednesday, I told them I would love to come back and help to bring some fresh learning material. I will have to dig back into my primary school days to remember what teaching aids helped me learn English. If anyone has any suggestions for more English song or dances that I can use, please let me know!