Maori Teaching English In Saudi Arabia

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31128, 3 August 1966, Page 9

Maori Teaching English In Saudi Arabia

"The Press” Special Service WHANGAREI, August 2. Ten months ago a quietly-spoken Maori from Kawakawa walked into a classroom in Saudi Arabia and began to teach 15 Arabian boys to speak English. “Good morning,” said 25-year-old Mr K. B. Davis to

the boys as the stood stiffly by their desks. The boys made no reply. “Sit down,” said Mr Davis. But the boys stayed standing. Back in Kawakawa telling his story while on holiday from Saudi Arabia, Mr Davis explained how he turned the classroom deadlock into the boys’ first English lesson. “I went round pushing on their shoulders and repeating ‘Sit down, sit down,’ over and over again, and eventually I had them all sitting in their places.”

Mr Davis left New Zealand for Britain in 1964 with two other New Zealanders, Mr A. J. Fergusson, of Whangarei, and Mr G. R. King, of Napier. He little thought then that the working holiday they planned would be extended from nine months to two years and lead them through most of the countries in Western Europe and finally to teaching English to Arabs in the middle of a desert. The desert adventure really started when Mr Davis and his companions attended a course in teaching English by what is known as the “direct method” at the Berlitz School of Languages in London.

They learned the rudiments of teaching English to foreign people without knowing the local language. An answer to a newspaper advertisement brought the prospects of a job in Saudi Arabia, where King Feisal is rapidly making the country education conscious. The men were hired in London and promptly flown to Jeddah, the main city of Saudi Arabia. They were not expected and the Arabs were wary. “The officials did not know what to do with us," said Mr Davis. “We were sent from office to office. They would write all our particulars out in Arabic and get us to sign the statement Heat Avoided

“We did this 12 or 14 times. . Eventually we were sent on to , Taif where King Feisal has ; his summer palace, to which he and his Ministers escape from the enormous heat in Jeddah. “I was very lucky and got posted to a new school. Pupils were being signed on and I had time to get settled in.” He started with a class of 15 which grew as new enrolments arrived. “The only teaching aid was the Mackboard and chalk," he said. “There were not even dusters to clean the board. “I was in the staff room one day when I saw a line of desks going past Next I saw the pupils filing away followed by the headmaster. “I found out then that we were being shifted to another school. They never told me what they were doing.” Mr Davis never ceased to find the casual attitude of the Arabs most annoying. He spent the first four months just talking to the boys. After this time, having heard the words over and over again, they could recognise single words on the blackboard. After nine months, or one full school term, he could call on nearly every hoy to talk about objects in the classroom or read short stones about aeroplanes and buses. “Initially yon show a boy a pen and repeat many times, a pen. "There are still a lot of boys, even at intermediate school, who have no knowledge of their own language. Written Arabic is very bad. “The impression I get is that if some of these people can learn Arabic anyone can. There are some very slow learners.” After a few weeks Mr Davis bought a small motorcycle and spent his spare time visiting remote villages. The bearded Maori found that as long as he kept his mouth shut, except for the accepted words of greeting, he could pass as an Arab much of the time. Real Arabia It was during such expeditions into the mountains or the desert that Mr Davis came into contact with remote Bedouin tribes. "They were always quite hospitable,” he said. All along Mr Davis found the Arabs very difficult to work with. “The whole Arab attitude to foreigners is that they don’t have to accept outside ways. They just could not be bother-' ed learning. “It is always bukarah—tomorrow—whether it’s homework er something else which I has been neglected. | “Bukarahinsha-Allah (toI morrow, God willing) to the I stock reply and there is I nothing you can do about it.” I However, in spite of all the I difficulties, Mr Davis is going I back. In King Feisal’s efforts I to improve the education of I his people money seems to be I a minor consideration and I salaries are good. Living is I cheap and Mr Davis finds the I generous boarding allowance I more than covers his ex-

I Save the Children Fund.— I Executive officers elected at I the meeting of the North CanI terbury committee of the Save I the Children Fund were.— I Vice-presidents, Mesdames A. I Dean, J. B. Pearson, M. W. I Shnes; executive, Mesdames I W. D. Bunl, L. H. Govan, C. I J). Newton, D. A. Bose, A | Stockwell.