Special address by Ms Melanie Bywater on the occasion of the 27th annual day
 

Vanakum, chief guest, correspondent, committee members, ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to be here to join in the celebrations of the 27th Annual Day of Kamban School. For those who I have not yet met, my name is Melanie Bywater and I have come from Gloucester in the south of England, to teach spoken English in your school for 4 months. I hope to help improve the conversational skills of the children and to answer the questions that many of them have about England and the English people. In return I will have the valuable experience of living in a country very different from my own and learning about the culture and people on India. I hope to pick up many new skills. My cricketing has already improved greatly.

My first impressions of the school have been very good. I couldn't have hoped for a warmer reception. The children have shown an amazing interest in finding out about me. Some of my first lessons have been entirely taken up with their questions, and of course I have lots for them in return. It is great to see children who are so keen to learn. In one of my lessons with the V standard, we were discussing likes and dislikes- I was shocked when school won more votes than cricket as a favourite pastime.

The classes that I have taken so far have been very quick to pick up new words and pronunciation. I am sure that the introduction of spoken English into the school will be a success, especially if it becomes a long term project. International links can only be a positive thing for all concerned. I hope to start an exchange with an English school by means of letters and e-mails between the students. This will be a valuable experience for the children of this school and the English school, and will create useful contacts for the teachers.

I have been joined by another teacher of spoken English this week, Chloe Wright from London. She will be teaching here for 4 months, including part of the summer for those who are interested in extra classes.

On behalf of Chloe and myself, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the students, the correspondent and committee members, especially Mr Narayanan for all of his kindness and support so far, and the principal and all of the teachers for showing us the famous Indian hospitality, feeding us A LOT, and welcoming us into their homes.And of course thanks to Mr and Mrs Muralidharan, Srinivasan and Parthasarathy for not only taking care of our every need, but for treating us as part of the family.

I know that we will both enjoy the rest of our stay here and hope that the students continue to enjoy having us.

Nandri.