by Sean | Apr 12, 2016 | Fulbright, Learning, Pschyology, Teaching English
Do you ever notice that when you’re with your friends or family that you change the way you speak? You might have a shared language or gestures that you only break out around them. You end up matching the patterns of the people you’re around, and it puts...
by Sean | May 2, 2013 | Education, Fulbright, Sri Lanka, Teaching English, Trinco Jesuit Academy
Learning Colours by Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe I hear the maid tell my daughter, three years old and just able to make out red from pink and even blue from purple, as they sit on the verandah avoiding the glare of our tropical sun, that she is fair. If it had been...
by Sean | Nov 27, 2012 | Education, Fulbright, Politics, Sri Lanka, Teaching English, Travel
Trinco is a town dominated by the military. As you enter the main city you have to pass through multiple checkpoints, where uniform clad youths clutch their presumably Chinese made kalashnikovs. In the town itself, Tamil is the language of choice. Sinhalese is about...
by Sean | Nov 6, 2012 | Fulbright, Sri Lanka, Travel
As a 6’1″ tall white guy, I stand out in Sri Lanka. My looks really influence people’s interactions with me here. When speaking Sinhala I take people off guard, as they don’t expect a foreigner to know the language. At the store today I thanked...
by Sean | Aug 2, 2012 | Education, Fulbright, Literature, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has free tertiary education, but only two percent of students are accepted to university. As a generalization, those accepted to University have excellent English skills; those lacking proficiency in English can be held back and prevented from going abroad...