Graduation at FLLC

This past Saturday, Megan and I were invited to witness the graduation/project presentation contest at Tana’s Foreign Language Learning Center (FLLC), a small non-profit that aims to teach English and Spanish in Madagascar’s capital. As a Fulbright ETA, I technically don’t have an official relationship with the FLLC. But it is still my responsibility to make contact and engage with as many English-speaking communities as possible. And it was quite an honor and a spectacle I witnessed because in every way possible it was so Malagasy as well as tender and sweet. Let me explain.

Like all things in Madagascar, the graduation ceremony scheduled for 10am started 20-30min late, and in usual Malagasy fashion, the MC apologized for starting late, and nobody batted an eyelash. I wasn’t really sure how long this event would go on for. The way it was pitched to us was that there was a graduation ceremony for level 6 students (the highest level of English that the FLLC offers) which also entailed a project presentation contest where various groups in the level 6 cohort would present, in English, their ideas on how to better their communities. When we got the schedule, however, there was a lot more than just that. In fact, this was going to be an entire 3-hour event with a snack break and multiple performances. They even asked Megan to be a judge for the competition. They did not ask me, thank Jesus.

After opening the ceremony, the MC handed it off to the director and founder of the center. Following a long introduction, both in Malagasy and in English, two boys who could not have been more than 9 or 8 years old were invited to the stage. They rapped nearly all of Lil-Nas X’s “Industry Baby”. I don’t like the artist or the song, but dang do I love when lil’ dudes can drop some bars on a tight beat. With this opening, I knew I was in for a great time.

They had a live band of some young Malagasy students, who were not students of English, but could sing English songs very well. Then a whole class of little boys and girls sang a few Christmas carols and did a little dance with little blue hats that looked like crowns. And of course, in Malagasy fashion, the MC introduces them as such.

“Now I would like to invite the kids up here. They are going to sing and dance for us. Now we know it is not perfect, but we want them to share their performance with you. And it is very important that we give them big warm applause because, even though the English is not perfect, what matters is that they try.” Twice something was said like this through the course of the event.

Now the Malagasy are naturally indirect, introverted, and polite to a fault. But when they try to express themselves in English, those cultural rules get tossed out the window without the speaker ever realizing it. It decreases their tactfulness, and I love it because what he said would have been an unspoken social fact in the United States.

After the children danced, there was another speech by a teacher followed by a man singing in English. Now where the Malagasy man came from and whether he was a student or just a parent who wanted to sing a song in English… Well… I don’t really know the answer to that mystery, and I wasn’t going to be rude and ask.

Even Basil, our Fulbright faculty member at the university performed a song.

There was also a short skit and a set of short monologues given by the level 3 and 4 students about all sorts of pressing topics. They went out of their way to highlight all the benefits of learning English. After all of this, 2 hours after our ceremony started and of sitting in a very stiff and uncomfortable wooden chair, we finally got to the three groups of young ladies, and a lone young man, who were dressed to the nines for this big day. They went through their projects of how they planned to combat poverty, promote education, stand up for mothers, etc. It was all rather encouraging to see.

Their plans weren’t always the best, nor feasible in my opinion. Yet they went to great length and detail, and it was obvious that the English courses they were taking at the FLLC were doing more than providing them with extra education in a foreign language. Indeed, they were being formed as young leaders to make substantial change in their communities and to start thinking creatively on how they can address the plethora of issues that face the Malagasy people. I was impressed to say the least. We then had snacks, announced the winners of the contest, handed out diplomas, and, as always, took lots and lots of pictures as the vazaha, the most treasured guests from America.

The ceremony was something more than just a little graduation. And as disorganized and seemingly thrown together as it may seem when compared to American standards where we literally hire people to plan events like this, there was something more real and more human about it altogether.

The students there knew that their little language learning center is not going to change all of Madagascar. But that doesn’t matter to them. They just want to change the lives of those they encounter, of those they come into direct contact with. They realize something we all too often forget in the United States that we need to focus on those in our sphere of influence and not to worry about those things we cannot control. In other words, we should let go of our incessant urge to fix everyone’s problems, as if we, individually, knew how the world should work or how to fix every issue that came along. It’s a gross pride to think in such ways.

After the ceremony we were invited to the house of the director where she and several of the teachers made lunch for us. It was there that we talked, sang songs, and laughed. We shared stories and visions for the future about what our presence could do for the center and other clubs. In short, we did what we came here to do; to be ourselves and talk to as many people as we could.

There is a strong desire to learn English all throughout Madagascar, even outside of busy Tana. Whether I make an impact on the country as a whole or just act as a door stop until they get more native English-speakers to pry the door open that currently holds back the surge of English-speakers from bringing their language skills to the next level, well it doesn’t really matter to me anyways. I’m here to do what I can, and that is what I set out to do when I applied for Fulbright in the first place; to teach my students the best that I can and to inspire as many students as I can to express themselves in the English language. And naturally, I knew that this experience would change me in ways I still will not understand for many years. It’s all in God’s hands anyways, not mine. As always, know that you are in my prayers each morning. All I ask it that you do the same for me.

May God be praised.