A day well spent at the ELT International Conference at IER

Amin Rahman :
I was coming from Melbourne to Dhaka to watch some of the T20 world cup matches at Mirpur Stadium. I was flying by Malaysian Airlines. It would reach Dhaka at 10:40 pm on 20th March. It just happened that the International ELT conference organized by the Institute of Education Research (IER), which was originally scheduled in December of 2013, with the date shifted several times due to strikes and “awborodhs”; was finally taking place on 21st March, the very next morning after my arrival in Dhaka. Although the conference would start at 8 a.m. on 21st March, a few hours after my arrival, I decided to attend.  
From Melbourne I had sent an email to the conference contact person, Mr. Rasel Babu, requesting him confirming my attendance and requesting him to reserve a spot for me. I took this step because from an earlier notice I had learnt that they would not allow any late registration possibly because of food and other arrangements they had to make for each participant. Rasel Babu had confirmed my spot and on my approaching the registration desk on the first floor of the DU Senate Bhaban at 8:30 am on 21st March, I found that the person in charge of registration was informed about me and registered me. She explained everything to me like the locations of the opening and closing sessions the three meals – breakfast, lunch and evening tea, and how to go to attend the various sessions (5 parallel sessions of 25 minutes each) , which would all be held in the lecture rooms at the Institute building nearby.
After registration while I was having breakfast in the Senate Bhaban lounge room with a person I knew and a few new acquaintances , Rasel Basu, the conference contact person, . came to me and asked me if everything was OK. He was a smart young man who, I learned, was an EIA research fellow at IER. What could I say but thank him and express my appreciation for all he had done for me.
I was not presenting any paper at the conference. I was there just to familiarize myself with the different organisations and personalities in Bangladesh who were involved/interested in ELT in Bangladesh . There were three persons I knew already. One was Mr. Ranjit Podder, Assistant Professor at Faridpur Teachers Training College, who was presenting a paper. He had helped develop a youth library cum club called Shwapnashroy Gronthqagar in his home village at Raban in Narsingdi. The second person was Mr. Obaidur Azad, formerly Senior English Teacher at Ghorashal Pilot High School. He had also formed a youth club, called Tarunno, at Palash in Narasingdi and managed it. He is currently working with Pran in Ghorashal. Ranjit and Obaid had organized a 3 day workshop in the “USE of BPA in teaching English Pronunciation to Native Bengali Speakers”, that I conducted last September at the Teachers Training College in Dhaka. The third person that I knew was Mr. Harunur Rashid Khan, Assistant Professor at East West University whom I had met at the 11th IATEFL Asia International Conference in Ataneo University in Manila last October. He was presenting a paper on an interesting topic – “Tagore’s Ways of Teaching English”. He was the one who had informed me about this conference when we met at the IATEFL conference..  
There also happened to be quite a few young persons who greeted me with knowing smiles when they saw me along the corridors and in sessions that we attended together. They had attended one of the two seminars that I gave last year at two universities. One was at the University of Liberal Arts in Bangladesh (ULAB) and the other one was at the Institute of Modern Languages (IML) , University of Dhaka. In between sessions, I chatted with them and discussed about their studies, research, career goals etc.
From the conference program I had selected those presentations that I thought I would like and went from room to room to attend them, when I was greeted with more smiles, both from those who knew me and who did not..
In two of the sessions where I went, the session moderator /chair announced that the presenter had not turned up and the session time could be utilized by the audience in discussing the topic of the presentation that was to be. The chair invited members from the audience to come forward and speak for 1 to two minutes. I also volunteered. Possibly because of my visibly advanced age and the distance I had traveled to attend the conference, which the chair and others came to know at my self introduction, I received special privilege.
The first one was on English Language clubs. I told them about my experience with the three English Speaking clubs with which I was involved or had some experience . One was in urban Dhaka in Shegun Bagicha. The other two were (a) Tarunno and (b) Shwapnashory Gornthagar, both in Narsingdi /Gharashal. The chair, Professor Salma Akhter of IER, and the audience were very partial to me and let me continue till the end of the session time which included a long question and answer session.
In the second session where the presenter did not turn up, after a few people spoke, I raised my hand from the back where I was sitting . I was given the remaining session time and, like for normal presenters, got the warning bell for finishing my speech ( they call it speech here instead of presentation).
In the final conference winding up session at 5 p.m. which was held in the very large and well equipped Dhaka University senate hall, Professor Hamidur Rahman, formerly of IML, and Professor Fazlur Rahman of IER, sat on the dias. They spoke alternately highlighting and summarising the day’s event, sessions, speakers and papers. At the end Professor Fazlur Rahman started thanking everybody who helped in any way at the conference to make it a success. Professor Salma Akhter of IER, who was present there, announced through the microphone present in front of her, that there was a participant from Australia, Amin Rahman, who should be thanked as well because he had helped in two of the sessions. Professor Fazlur Rahman remarked that he had seen the named participant from Australia and although this participant was OLD he noticed that he was participating very actively at the conference, chatting and mixing with all. I switched on my microphone to thank Prof Rahman and all those who stayed back to listen to me in the two sessions where I spoke. I added that I may be OLD according to my chronological age but I was still young at heart . I further added that these days, one does not say, “How old are you?” but “How young are you?”. If someone does ask “How old are you?”, say to a 9 year old , the appropriate answer would be ” I am 9 years young”. I told those present that following this system I was 71 years young!. . The audience, particularly the young ones, were a little restless as they all wanted to go home or to the TSC to watch the T20 World cup cricket match between India and Pakistan. While returning home by rickshaw to Shegun Bagicha, I saw a large crowd in front of the TSC.
So, overall it was a day very well spent, which I enjoyed immensely.
(Amin Rahman, a 1966 BUET graduate, has a working background in Demography, ICT and Management. He retired in 2003 and since 2010, has been researching independently in Applied Linguistics from Melbourne in Australia where he lives. He can be contacted by email at [email protected])