In a graduate sharing session, I saw some graduates of our translation programme. They shared their experience with the current Stage 1 students about making non-Jupas applications. And after the sharing we had lunch together. I was amazed by how voluble and energetic they could be. In class, they used to be pretty quiet and I think I have never heard them speak for more than 10 seconds when they answered my questions. How come they are totally different persons outside the classroom?
As a matter of fact, the most talkative girl among this group of graduates always sat in the front row in my class. She was attentive and often asked and answered questions. But her "air time" in the whole semester was perhaps just 0.001% of what she said that single afternoon. I really enjoyed listening to her – her views, feelings, everything… I really see who she is and what she likes and dislikes when she starts to talk. I asked her why she did not talk as much in class. Not surprisingly, she said she was afraid of making mistakes, especially when talking in English. She did not want to be embarrassed. I guess many students share this view, and therefore most of them lower their heads when teachers ask questions.
Yes, we all want things to go smoothly. But mistakes are just like cockroaches and are everywhere. They are inevitable, so what we need to do is to be able to face a mistake when it comes up, deal with the consequence, and keep trying despite the possibility of failing. This may sound weird to you, but I try to encourage my students to let go of the fear of making mistakes by making some myself. I do demonstrations in interpretation tasks in all my classes. Although I have read the original passages or listened to the recordings many times over the years, I still make mistakes. After all, I do not read out from scripts but translate the original orally on the spot on all the occasions. And I can assure you, even if I read out from scripts, I can still make mistakes. We all have slips of the tongue and misunderstand what others say from time to time. So why is it a big deal when we make mistakes? Even when we speak in Cantonese we use wrong words or are off the pitch sometimes. And that is what I tell my students. Making a lot of mistakes and therefore being able to learn from them is so much better than not trying and therefore staying 'perfect'.
So my aim for myself in this semester is: to provide a safe place for my students to make mistakes. After being brainwashed by me, some of them are now eager to talk even in broken English. I actually feel happier seeing them than those who speak good English. Why? They are so much braver than the latter. They have understood something in life and overcome a fear, and that is so much more important than speaking good English.