KOTA KINABALU: American Pakistani Ibrahim Jadoon, 24, was nervous when he first walked into SMK Taun Gusi in Kota Belud, last year.
As one of the participants in the Fulbright English Teacher Assistant program, Ibrahim was venturing into a new place as well as experiencing several new cultures, customs and traditions.
“A part of me was a little bit afraid. When I was in university, I tutored and mentored students in a tuition setting for free and I never had any experience teaching full time like this.
“I thought…I hope I can be a good teacher…I hope I can help the students. There was a lot of nervousness but at the same time I had a lot of support. I felt like I had gained a new family,” said the young lad.
He reminisced about the times when he fell sick where the local teachers would visit him and send him food. He was also reminded of the rides the local teachers would give him to school and the Hari Raya and Chinese New Year celebration open houses he was invited to.
“I think Sabah is very unique. I think its multi-cultural, multi-racial and even multi-religious groupings of individuals are amazing. Maybe even Americans can learn something, that this is a special place,” said Ibrahim, who has returned for his second year stint at SMK Taun Gusi, this year.
According to Ibrahim, Sabah has the best retention of ETAs. Thirty per cent of ETAs would return for the maximum attachment of two times, in the program.
“Probably the biggest reason for my return here is the school. I fell in love with it along with the amazing principal, teachers and especially the students. I fell in love teaching them,” said Ibrahim, who also cited the beauty of the mountainous and coastal state, the culture and the food as other factors that led to his return.
“The main focus of our program is increasing the students’ confidence, and in that I saw huge improvements in lots of students,” said Ibrahim.
“On the first day, maybe two or three students were proficient and confident to speak to me in English but students really were receptive to the ETA program. I had witnessed and was told by other teachers that other students who had never spoken English before in school were speaking it now,” he added excitedly.
“I think students have a lot of English knowledge inside, (but) for different reasons like shyness of speaking it and the lack of awareness on the necessities of it, students do not put it to practice.
“We have to spark that in students and I think the ETA program had and can really help with that,” said Ibrahim.