MY SPEAKING IELTS TEST

 

IELTS is a scary Test ....But it is the best test we can ever take for English Language Testing

I had my Test few weeks ago. Having supervised tests and examinations on students for decades never seem to have taught me how to face my own test. The fear brews itself spontaneously. 

The Reading Test is like a running away from a chasing cheetah. Answering 40 critical questions to three essays in one hour really left me wondering if I should not consider myself an imbecile. 

Friends, you will need a lot of self training and if possible some tutorial classes. The Writing Test surely needs a lot of practice as per their technical format. However, it would do better if you are a well read person, a person who reads essays or rich literature. 

Listening Test was another hurdle. For me, with a memory as short as 2 seconds, I can barely remembers what was said a minute ago. And listening to foreigner speaking is one hurdle for which we need listening practice. Watch a lot of English family movies or listen to BBC. It was much easier at Speaking Test Interview. Here I can tell lies and bluff and yet keep talking in the most natural and correct manner.

Here is a sample of question I was asked and answers I gave. An Indian woman with an english accent quized me through the session. I was often cut in my conversation. Perhaps I talked too much. But I did speak some lies and some truths.

1. Can you introduce yourself?

I am Namgyal Tshering. I am from Eastern Bhutan. I work as a Vice Principal in one of the Secondary Schools in Southern Bhutan. People call me Naljorpa as in Wechat name, or as Kardro as in Facebook name. Officially they call me Namgay Sir.

2. Do you study or work?

Ofcourse I work. I work as VP in Phuentsholing Secondary school. Although a VP, I have mandate to teach minimum of twelve periods in a week. 

3. Do you walk or drive to work?

I do both according to weather conditions. If it’s cloudy and cool I love to walk to school. My school is just 5 minutes walk away from my residential place. However, I drive to school more often than I walk. This is because weather is Phuentsholing is unpredictable. If it’s sunny I prefer driving to school. When I return after work I do not have to walk in the sun or in the rain. I prefer driving though.

4. Did you see any interesting things on your walk to school?

Interesting? One day as I was walking down to school, I saw a Komodo dragon, a huge lizard. That was a big surprise for me. I never thought it existed in Bhutan. I have seen it on television only and assumed that it’s found only in Africa. It was a great experience to see the lizard that size on the road.

5. Tell me where did you go during your last weekend and why did you go?

On a weekend I often go out to some beautiful place. Last Sunday I took my wife and children to a nearby temple. We call it Pelden Chholing. It’s a place on a plateau overlooking the Toorsa River. It is breezy and cool. The place has natural trees and grass, and the sound of the jingling bell arouse peace and happiness. Even the sight of red robed monks inspires sense of spirituality and calmness. We often go there on a weekend. I suggest you visit this great place.

6. Are there such beautiful places in Bhutan? Are there places you would like to visit or you have visited?

Bhutan is rich with so many such beautiful places. Almost all parts of Bhutan has beautiful places to visit, for instance like the Giant Buddha Park at Kuenselphodrang, picnic spots along the riverside, The Taksang Monastry etc. In Phuentsholing as well we have temple at town center, Riverside picnic spots, the temple place away from town too.

7. You live in a town, what are the major challenges you think is a pressing one in a city or around the world?

We may have all the luxurious things in town at an arm’s reach, but towns have their own problems. I think water problem is one issue towns are grappling is, as is evident from the case in Thimphu town. The more serious problem is with garbage and pollution. With people becoming more materialistic, our world is becoming more polluted by land or by air.

8. What do you think is the cause of these issues? How can we tackle it?

We can attribute these problems of pollution and garbage to human activity. People have become competitive and more materialistic today. For instance every member of the family needs a car. Dad has a car, mother has a car, son has a bike and daughter has a car. Our consumption and accumulation of wants surpasses our basic needs. More car means more air pollutions, more wants means more garbage too. Climate change is caused by us. However, the primary cause of this entire problem is human mind. The infinite human greed, the human selfishness. Therefore Mind is where the problems begin from.

9. Climate change is a global problem. How can you as individual solve this? What should we do about it? What measure should we take?

Climate change is not only a global problem, it’s a problem an individual contributes to and problem individual has to correct. First of all this problem can be better addressed to if all the leaders of the nations came together to sort out ways to change climate change. But as individual we have a responsibility too. We must play our part by watching at our greed, at our materialistic nature. As Bhutanese we can do much better. We are already pronounced carbon negative, and we must try to participate in doing everything in our own small ways to correcting the Climate change issues. One of the measures we can take is in educating our children on the impact of climate change, and making each child realize that global problem is an individual problem.

( When I concluded I told her: Ma'am. Thank you for the questions. Enjoy the rest of your days in Bhutan. Bhutan has many enchanting places for you to see>..)

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RAISED BY MOTHERS

My mother and her sisters have been mothers to me and my siblings. These are women nursed from a home of parents who are staunch yet humble Buddhist, devoted people of prayers. Their compassion and goodness, trustworthiness and integrity, industry and humility have been infused into my life stream. These timeless values strengthen my capacity to live with modest richness of values I adhere to.

They did not teach me alphabets and numbers. I learnt it at school.They did not, and never needed to, coerce me to write home works or study for exams. Because I was guided by principles they lived with, I was self-guided, never failing the hope they had from me as an eldest among all of their children. 

I was never one of those students who had their parents visit head master's office for nuisance and study problems. I never learnt to win by crooked means, lied for selfish gain or hold grudges for what I lost. I forgave easily  even those who hurt me.

There never was reason for them to worry for my examination results, and where I was heading how. I spent time reading comics and books when I had free time. Books were what kept me happier than anything else.

I believe it takes a family of inspirations, epitome of peerless personalities and variety of humane principles to groom a child to become a good human being. It indeed takes a village to raise a child, and my village was surrounded by my mother’s sisters and brothers who were caring, loving and firm. Their morale virtues seeped into my being through their examples and words.

How can we expect a good future of a child from a broken home, if parents, relatives, teachers and everyone around a child fail to exemplify something warm about a child's home?Every birth comes with their karmic deeds, and my deeds gave me parents no other could have. 

It is not only the accomplishments of two individuals for what become of a child and his future. We need mothers as many, and fathers as much to create 'an enlightened society' of good Bhutanese.

In the picture, the first divinity is my mother, and rest are all divine.

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BECAUSE THERE IS OUR KING

 ( A humble tribute to my Greatest epitome of Greatness)

I wake to the chirping birds breaking the quiet morning

And begin thoughts for the day without doubt 

Of Covid in the neighborhood 

Without fear even if lockdown news comes,

For My Godly King keeps watch everyday,

And we are trained and taught and reminded to guard,

Guarded by heroes at the borders and gates,

I trust our divine protectors that our prayers shall be heard

And happiness shall prevail every other morning

To live everyday guarding our own

Playing little parts to the wisdom of our tireless King

Our relentless Covid warrior, our Godly guide!

Because there is our King walking the frontiers,

Guiding every step to a sovereign safety of His people

Away from the palace and the baby prince

Along heat of the summer plains

Into the hamlets and towns stilled by an outbreak

I live my day like Covid is a fairy story tale,

Beginning my day to a quiet sitting in meditative notes,

I rise and rustle with calmness after a good night’s slumber

To a day I know deep in my heart will be just another day

Of promise and peace, of hope and dream,

Because my King is an absolute answer

Because my King is a Bodhisattva, our compassionate Buddha!

We cannot fail in our duties to ensure safety of our own

And our family and neighbors;

We cannot be deaf to the government at the prime of task

And to people who serve to guard our doors,

When Our King travels day and night place to place,

When His Golden Throne is under the shade of a tree,

When His rest house is beneath a shed,

When His bed is slept in the wee hours,

When His footsteps marks new paths;

Our promises cannot be mere words to flaunt in pride

That we are Bhutanese with a kind heart

Without offering prayers and becoming part of a Royal vision.

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MAKING OF A ROMANTIC

 

I have failed in love and relationship all my life since childhood. I was a loner, book monger and a melancholic school boy. 

Love meant a beautiful feeling to me, but I failed in being unable to express it with courage. No man must have shed so much tears in love, in self-hatred for failing in live the way that long. No man must have had aches in the heart from being misunderstood in relationship through school days.

My first attempt to confession of a lover boy began when I was in class six. I loved this girl Yuedron, but two weeks after I became friend with her, she left school leaving me melancholic from the beginning of school. She went to Paro with her brother and it took me three decades to see her again. By then we had our own families.

After few months of Yuedron’s leaving, I saw a junior girl and fell in love. It rather was an infatuation. I don’t think that was love. It must have been something of an overwhelming admiration. But I never told her. How can I? I was just a village boy with a hole in the slippers and a patched-up school uniform. This girl was a daughter of Assistant Principal who looked like a princess.

When I reached High School in class seven, I had my first real feelings of love on seeing a classmate. A tanned mate with a bewitching smile, composed and simply attractive. Cheki became an idol until we graduated class Ten. Four years I admired her, loved and and wished she would love me. I failed to confess though I wanted to go down on my knees. We departed strangers. 

When I reached college, I met a girl studying at High school. This time, I got this animal courage to confess. Her acceptance rather surprised me. That was the first time I had a girl friend. But I failed to take a romantic walk, to dine or kiss. Before I could complete college, we decided to be married more by human bondage than by marital need. It was a beginning of a family before anything. The marriage was destined to fail by circumstance of distance and misunderstood opinions of affections. 

Unlike my peers who I watched enviously going on a romantic spree with ease, I was not made to have their luck or courage. Rather, I was always misunderstood even when I knew I loved true from the heart. My melancholic manners left me more with books than girls. Where a man falls, somewhere he rises; his fault in one star gifts him with another to blaze.

I see myself as a true lover, but destined to be mauled in relationships all my life. This experience is what inclined me into poetic emotions, making me write poetry on matter of love with power and beauty. 

If love is measured by how much time, money and luxury I give, I will always fail. If Gods measure it by true longing for love and warmth, I have been a true love at heart. 

When I look back, I see myself much better a man than many. Many men have left many women broken hearted, many men betrayed their women blatantly in a playful College banter. What surprises me is,my flirtatious school friends seem to have a beautiful family life today. Many women seem to accept that all men have stories and so does men of their women. This is a beautiful thing about relationship, being able to love without questions on anyone’s past. It’s acceptance of the past and never relating to it that the journey forward is more peaceful, beautiful and meaningful.

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TRANSCENDENTAL LAMP

 

Igniting a flame on the wick of an oil lamp is a symbolic act of reminding the presence of Buddha nature, the wisdom mind within each of us and to awaken compassionate thought towards unfortunate beings. This is a practice to deepen our compassion for others, even to our enemies of past, present and possibly to those who will cross our paths in future. 

The lamp reminds us the transitory nature of all things, that everything in life begins by a cause, and every effect of the cause ceases through a parabolic curve of life. 

This flame may succumb to a breeze, weakness of the wick to stand or fail to burn in bad oil before it extinguishes on its own. There is no promise the flame shall remain aflame to the last hilt of the wick. This parallelism govern each man life after life, and life after life we shall never be the same lamp with the same oil and wick. Often some people takes a tangent and cease sooner, like the lamp on the wilderness of life.

What quality of oil, wick and lamp we shall become next depend on the moral and spiritual quality of life we live today. Righteous living, virtuous actions and spiritual thought are central to the quality of life we  live today and in the next life. The flame symbolise the ever existing potential for Buddhahood within every being, the wick symbolise the our body, the flesh and bones, and the oil the fluids that gives us life. The lamp is the vessel of this work upon which we live. How we use this lamp, how we devote our life to the earthly life matters much to the quality of life we live.

Would you not aspire to be a gold lamp brimming with butter and a stiff wick than a copper lamp filled with cheap 'Dalda' and a leaning wick? My Lama said 'butter is the best, gold is the greatest.' The choice of our future in how we chose to live today.

How can we garner infinite merit by lighting a single lamp? 

It’s a question we don’t think asking about. We do it because it’s associated with something spiritual. While there are many ways to gain greater merit by how we aspire to light a lamp, we can be creative about our visualization and aspiration. Out intentions are important field to gain profound merits.

Visualise that the lamp is made of gold or other precious matter and is as vast as the universe, expanding from horizon to horizon. The oil as a life supporting nectar as voluminous as the seas, and the wick as an indestructible essence of our being. You may also visualize lighting lamps as numerous as the stars in the sky, lighting up the universe with light of awareness and wisdom. You may also visualize that each of these lamps are offered to the Buddhas of the ten directions, and by that effect all the worlds are lighted up by the light of compassion, blessing all being with happiness. The universe becomes a vessel of bliss.

What good is this, imagining this way? You may think. 

Ever since birth we have learnt to live life in fragmented ways. Duality and multiplicity of life divides and differentiates us from others. There are always you and me, they and me, that and this, not this and not that, the sour and sweet, the past and future, mine and his, and such so. We are unable to transcend the belief that everything is a dream, an illusion, and everything is One. It is impossible to think that everything is transitory and ultimately empty. We have become the dream and and the dreamer, and illusion and a illusionist. 

To transcend from the multiplicity of life's delusion, we have to be creative in using symbols and means. Buddhist teaching uses infinite symbols to point to the direction we all seek, the absolute state of freedom from suffering. The lighting of butter lamp is a symbolic act of igniting generosity and compassion. 

You know, the true bodhic nature of mind is timeless, spacious, encompassing and beyond mind and matter. This is the state of the oneness of phenomenal life and noumenal world. Thus, the act of visualisation is a simple yet powerful way to practice towards recognising and attaining the omniscient bliss we aspire, to understand and overcome suffering from the perspective of a transcendental wisdom. 

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KNOW A MAN WHO BECAME A TEACHER - A tribute to myself

A brief story of a humble teacher that tells about his journey, dreams, successes and failures, of fortune and finding a future he lives. This is a story of your teacher, a man who have touched your lives in painful, joyful, entertaining and mysterious ways. 

1976- I was born in Khaling valley, East of Trashigang Dzong, some 55 kilometers away and across one mountain pass, Yongphula. My forebears are farming parents who loves cattle and cats, hen and dogs. They are devout Throma Chod practitioners, almost a lay monk and a hermit. 

My father was a Dzongkha then, who had travelled from Trongsa, his birthplace, to Samdrupjongkhar in the far South East as a teacher and then to Khaling. That was in the mid sixties when His Majesty the Third Druk Gyalpo’s vision of modernizing education was at the peak. After few good years of teaching he resigned to live a farmer’s life, and by then he was father of eight already and had bigger responsibility at home. He had carved his new home at Thruepang, a lone majestic house, almost a cottage under the hill away from other villages. This is where I began crawling and walking and becoming a educated boy.

My father was a public elected representative, a Chimi, to Gyelyong Tshogde of the time. As one of the earliest man well versed in Dzongkha, a comparable aristocrat in the Khaling society, he became voice, light and hope of the people. I remember visitors coming to meet father for drafting letters, resolving issues, for borrowing money and seeking work. Those memories tells me he was one of the well known respectable and educated man of the

My father was a epitome of a disciplinarian devout. He still is. His father, my grandfather, who I saw only in a black and white photograph, was said to be Gorap to the second and third King. We know him as meme Gorap and even Kheng Mito Bom. Grandfather was one of the powerful servant to the King, who looked after treasury and armaments of the Trongsa Dzong, and later Drungpa at Wamrong, Trashigang. This must have been in the forties and early sixties, when Bhutan was beginning to find foothold in modern education. He was from Trongsa Poengyena and my grandmother from Trongsa Laushong. Their bloodline is proudly credited to the marriage of Choeje and Dungjue ancestors of the time.

My mother is a daughter of a lay monk. She is the kindest soul and a humblest women, who has mothered eleven children in over thirteen years. She is the gentlest woman, who smiles through her sweat and sorrow. Her father, my  grandfather, meme Dorji Penjor, was known to be Hercules of his generation, while also being a quiet man of prayers. His few words are hard and deep, and his face wears smile and lips giggles to every thing he hears. While our grandmother left us a decade ago, she too was a caricature of my mother, straight like a reed and gentle like an egg. She wasn’t a weak woman, she was strong within, the strength that defied cruelty and selfishness. They are both of a Khochhe lineage of ancestors, that my meme would proudly declare his superiority of blooding and bone.

1986-With slippers and a ‘Jola’ bag slung behind I was said to have been dragged to school by my grand father. I was reluctant and had to be smacked on the back to walk to school. It must have been on the cold morning of February of the year, walking down the narrow trail through the forest and grass. They tell me, I wailed all the way. I have no memory of early school days, but have faint memory from class four, wearing a blue gho and sitting in a hollow classroom with a ceiling as high as ten times my height then. May be I was a scrawny dwarf.

1987-1993-Khaling primary school groomed me into a child who began to find leisure in comics and story books. I was known to be a good student from early on, always in love with reading before the teacher taught the textbooks. I recall taking leadership roles as captain from class five, and then on for most part of school days. I dreamt of becoming Teacher when I was in class four. This inspiration came from my English teacher, miss Sheeba, a Keralite teacher. Miss Sheeba was my inspiration to becoming ardent writer. I began writing poems and short stories after she read a poem to us about a girl who died from cancer. Tragedy struck open my love for writing.

1994-97- My primary education was a tough journey. I walked nearly an hour through the leech infested, often snake crossing and dog scary path to school. I remember reaching home just before dark, sometimes drenched in rain. From class seven, I studied at Jigmi Sherubling Central school. This school is closer to my home and this gave me more time to become a thinker, reader and writer. The isolation into reading deprived me from sports and romance but spiritual instincts married me to prayers and poetry. My dream to become English teacher was coming closer with every book I read.

1998-99-When ICSE board examination results came after 1997 final exam in class X, I secured rare opportunity to pursue into Sherubtse College, the only premier college offering science at the time.  Only some sixty creams from around the country’s few high schools got opportunity to dream of becoming either doctor or engineer. Sherubtse College was everybody’s dream, so was my parent’s and relatives’s. I worked hard to have the door to college but it closed the door to becoming English teacher. Only a fool would not go to Sherubtse, so I couldn’t be one.Apart from grueling to excel in science among the brightest friends, I learnt to dance and sing. My tryst as a orator, particularly in English began from Sherubtse stage on the first day of introduction ceremony. 

2000-2002, I could not deny my dream to become teacher. After class XII, I decided to become teacher, even if it meant science teacher as against my childhood dream to become English teacher. Samtse NIE provided me stage to hone my public speaking skills and deeper flair for writing. As years passed by I became more actively involved in public speaking, literary adventures, writing poems and stories. My college romance was through the pages I read. 

2002-2009 The rustic child becomes TEACHER. Gedu High school become my first formal school to serve as teacher. The school chisels me into becoming one of the versatile teachers, a disciplinarian and adventurer in learning. Over the years, science teaching becomes my master art, and my strength in English was the icing on the cake. Best things in life takes a little more time to arrive, and while some ‘little time’ takes longer, it always brings the best in its own time. 

My first attempt to become vice principal fails, leaving me despondent and doubtful of my own capability. The years of envying my mates at a leadership position hurt me. In the quiet recess of my heart, I knew I can be better. The inspiration from meme Gorap and my father proved that I can lead as much as they did, even without a sword.

I become father of two. I lose a marriage before I had the taste and charm of a married home life. This tragedy propels me into solitary days and years into becoming Chod practitioner like my parents. I began spending time to prayers and recitations, and on holidays and vacations, I travelled to Kalimpong, Durpin Goenpa, to receive teachings and take retreats. My late Guru, Lama Togdhen Chimi Dorji, one of the first disciples of Dudjom Rinpoche, gave me healing, strength and reconnections to a karmic affinity I had since childhood to become a monk. Gedu therefore is a place I began to find path forward and inward.

2010-2013 Following my newfound wife’s transfer to Phuentsholing, I got transferred to Phuentsholing MSS. It is here I began my role as Vice principal. The leadership opportunity was a playground to experience nuances of a educational leader. The Vice Principalship empowers me into creativity; unleashing wisdom, life and spiritual learning into teaching, directing and leading. I earn my Masters in Educational Management from Thailand, Mahidol University while still remaining as teachers at the school. This is the second leap into the stardom of leadership.

2014-2017 After returning from Thailand, I get to take greater role at a bigger school, Phuentsholing High School. This is my power house from where I honed leadership skills, from oratory marksmanship to literary mastery, from human management to philosophical art and discipline. By this time I had served under two women principals and two principals, and few assistant and vice principals, who became my mirror to reflect as a leader. These varying experiences had far reaching impact into making me realize what nuances of leadership I must imbibe and what must be eradicated from my heart and character. 

It was during these times, I get to become trainer for national level trainings. From then on it was an unstoppable opportunity to teach and learn at a more challenging platform, improving my oratory skills in Dzongkha and English. I credit these opportunities to my school and college friends, Tashi Namgay and Phub Dorji.  I believe, my lifetime of reading has gifted me with ease the stage to perform at a greater scale, to touch lives in more fulfilling ways.

May 2017- An interview for principal gives me new home at Dechentsemo Central School. Thinleygang was never an expected dream place, but this is also a best thing that comes for a reason. It was beginning of a leadership experiment I had watched others perform for decades. Many on my way up had said, I have greater capability than to remain a teacher and a vice principal, but I denied I could be. Luck seemed to take time on me, until it did happen.

At Dechentsemo, I publish my first book, Dragon Delights- A Rosary of Poems, and get internationally acclaimed as a Muse from Hyderabad. Writing become a wild fire to pour my wisdom, if a scratch I make can be a wisdom. 

In the few years at Dechentsemo, I have learnt to overcome challenges with grit and grace. Learning is an unending process and leadership is a learning that is beyond the pages of a textbook. The waves are strong but the sails have to be manned, more by compassionate wisdom than autocracy. It is in how we live within our hearts we make a home where ever we serve. It has been 19 years since I have touched lives. It is not in how many years I was a teacher or how many students I taught, it is in how many students and people I gave meaning, home and work. And I am sure I have many. This I owe to my parents and teachers.

TRASHI DELEG  to all MY TEACHERS, and to all teachers across the globe.

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