When Yeo Khirn Hup volunteered for the first time, his passion for karaoke turned out to be a surprising skill.

Yeo designed lessons for the high school level English teachers at the Kartini School in Batam, to share non-traditional ways of teaching the language. He introduced the Indonesian teachers to free online programs, such as karaoke. He and the other volunteers demonstrated this to their Indonesian peers by singing songs to them like Words by the BeeGees and introduced the use of music videos – which he recorded from MTV – in English language lessons.

“Karoke is a hobby of mine and when you learn how to sing, you learn the language in a very natural way. I also incorporate this in lessons with my junior college students in Singapore. Also, Indonesians are very musically inclined and they really appreicated learning these methods,” says Yeo, speaking in a soft, low-toned voice.

Yeo joined his wife, Gan Poh Choo, also a teacher, for the series of three workshops conducted in late 2007 in a village in rural Batam. Gan coaxed her husband to join the team of three teachers for his initial foray into volunteering. She looks at her husband seated next to her on the sofa in their home and smiles affectionately. “We needed someone to conduct the session for the junior high teachers and he was the best person I knew. I’m confident of what and how he teaches.”

Gan has been working with the Singapore International Foundation on previous projects, with her latest involvement in volunteer education in Bangalore. “They only have basic equipment there, like green chalkboards like we had in school when we were young. The boards looked so worn it was a wonder they could write on them.” For this reason, says Yeo, the students found it difficult to pick up the language and found lessons boring. Besides music, they proposed other ideas such as using free reading material online and making use of free online programs like crossword puzzle.

Says Yeo, “The computer labs are used only by students who study IT, so this lesson was eyeopener for them. Even the principal was very inspired. So we made the proposition that there could be changes in their infrastructure to include (at least) a single computer in each classroom.”

Teachers participating as students in readers' theatre activity

Question & Answer

Khirn Hup, this was your first time volunteering overseas. Did you have any concerns?

Khirn Hup: I had expected the Indonesians to be very polite, and they were.  I had a very smooth time there. 

What was it like working and volunteering with your wife?

Khirn Hup: It felt very comfortable. Instead of going shopping on the weekend, we went there instead and prepared this workshop, it was a nice fit. 

Was there a reason why you hadn’t explored volunteering before?

Khirn Hup: I always had my hands full with work. But when I heard of this project and they needed people, I got interested. 

What are the benefits of going on a volunteer trip with your spouse?

Poh Choo: [laughs] We are both teachers but we’ve not seen each other teach in class for 15 or 20 years, since we were colleagues eaching lower secondary. And of course, we’d never conducted a workshop for adults together before. It was good because we could give each other feedback, like ‘maybe you shouldn’t do that’ or ‘what you just did was very good’ so we can both improve. We wouldn’t dare to be so frank with other people!

Khirn Hup: For example, she noticed that when I speak I tend to close my eyes. She gave me the tip to try and keep my eyes open so I can more presence and I did. 

Did you discover anything new about each other by going on this volunteer trip together?

Khirn Hup: I admire her leadership qualities. She was the leader for this trip. I’d never seen her in this capacity before. She could get along very well with the Indonesian teachers. She naturally has a very warm personality and when they brought to her their concerns about student discipline, she could suggest various methods, which they seemed to accept.

Did you forge friendships with your Indonesian counterparts through the course of the workshops?

Poh Choo: After the first visit in August 2007, we found out that they needed dictionaries so I came back with some dictionaries and books. They were also very interested in coming to Singapore to see how things are run.

Did anything particularly interesting incidents occur?

Poh Choo: One of the volunteer teachers had planned to demonstrate a readers’ theatre to the Indonesian teachers. This means students are be given the roles of characters in stories and masks to enact. But she had a fall and broke her arm on the trip. However, she still went ahead with the show. That is really the true spirit of volunteerism. The Indonesian teachers were so engaged that they played the part of students, even the vice principal.

What is your most unforgettable memory of this Batam experience?

Khirn Hup: At the last workshop, just the look on the teachers’ faces as they discovered how computers can be used to teach English and that there were so many free resources on the Internet. It was heartening to see their faces light up.

Poh Choo: I found that we and the Indonesian teachers have the same objectives and concerns, like wanting our students to have good learning experiences, classroom management and discipline. So I felt very connected to them, despite our being from different countries, I felt like there were no boundaries between us.

Is your married life different after this trip?

Poh Choo: [laughs] Now we have one more topic to talk about! But now, if I’m going for other volunteer trips, he understands what they involve and is more interested.

Khirn Hup: It’s good to work together, I saw her in professional action. It was a positive feeling of admiration.

What would you tell other couples who are thinking about volunteering together?

Poh Choo: It’s worth trying once [laughs]. It helps you understand your partner better and their working style, so if your partner comes back stressed from work, you’ll know why.

Kheirn Hup: It was a very comfortable experience. It didn’t separate family life from work life. I would definitely recommend this to other couples.

Singapore International Foundation Volunteer Profile

Name: Gan Poh Choo & Yeo Khirn Hup
Project: English Pedagogy workshop
Location: Batam, Indonesia
Dates: 3 workshops, in August, September and November 2000
Duration: 1 day each
Purpose: Familiarising English teachers with pedagogy as in Singapore
Beneficiaries: Over 20 elementary, secondary and senior high school teachers from Kartini School