My academic biography-Part 2

In the first part of my academic biography, I wrote and described the beginning of my career as an English teacher. As is often the case with our life, I also had to say goodbye to my teaching at schools because I was offered a position as an English Instructor at Sri Lanka advanced Technological Education effective from 30^th August 1999. I knew nothing about SLIATE first so I was curious to find out what it was. SLIATE, as it is popularly known, is one of Sri Lanka’s leading educational institutes, which conducts Higher National Diploma and National Diploma courses in Technological and Business Studies. The SLIATE is a statutory body coming under the purview of Higher Education Division, Ministry of Education.
SLIATE has been established by the Parliament Act 29 of 1995 focusing on fostering Advanced Technical Education at a post-secondary level and its head is Director-General appointed by the cabinet. It is mandated to establish Advanced Technical Institute (ATI) in every province for both Engineering and Business Studies. At present, it manages and supervises 10 separate Advance Technical Institutes and 7 Sections housed in the Technical Colleges under the Department of Technical Education and Training to conduct the courses of Higher National Diplomas and National Diplomas. Each institute has a Director and each section have an Academic Coordinator. (For more information, please visit http://www.sliate.net/about.htm).

I was appointed to Kandy ATI where I found one of my close friends work. He was in the Republic of Maldives when I was working there. I have known him for a long time (he still works at Kandy ATI as a senior lecturer). The academic environment in an ATI is comparatively varied from a school in that an ATI caters to students’ professional needs. The institution I began to teach had six professional courses ranging from Accountancy, Management to English diploma. I taught Business Communication for Accountancy, Management, and Business Studies courses.  Business Communication mainly focused on improving students’ reading and writing skills.  Writing included business letters of different genres that business establishments use to communicate. However, it is pity that Business Communication did not include an oral communication part which I still think it as a major weakness of this course. A manager or an accountant should be able to communicate in English because most of the private companies in Sri Lanka expect that applicants who apply to work with them should be proficient in oral English. I still wonder this shortcoming of the Business Communication subject has been rectified.

However, it should be noted that a majority of students who enroll for these courses except National Diploma in English has limited proficiency in English. Therefore, most of them cannot perform well at the final examinations. I found teaching boring at ATI mainly because most of the students (not all) showed a lethargic attitude towards English. I believe it should have been due to the constraints imposed by the syllabus, not because of any other possible factor/s.

SLIATE Lecturers’ Union

I became involved in union activities while I was working in Kandy ATI because I then was the secretary of the union. Our union was quite strong and could raise a voice against some of the unfair actions taken by SLIATE authorities. We held meetings to make our members aware of their rights as employees. As I remember, there were some members who were very active and devoted. Our union was very much cooperated by the then Director and the staff members of Kandy ATI.

                               
                               How Kandy ATI looks now

We could meet several ministers, members of parliament, and other officials involved in SLIATE administration to discuss certain issues that affected SLIATE in general. When I joined the SLIATE, the Director-General was Dr. Ariayaratne who was really a dedicated official who worked hard to develop SLIATE. However, with the change of the government, a new DG was appointed by the UNP government. He stayed for a short time and left the SLIATE. Another DG was appointed and it was during this period, a chaotic condition prevailed in the SLIATE set up. The situation became worse after the Director of Dehiwala ATI had been dismissed from his post. The reason for his dismissal was said to be a conflict between the DG and the director. The students from Dehiwala ATI began to stage demonstrations against the dismissal stated above. Somehow, the chaotic situation remained for some time and the government changed again. Then, the DDG administration was appointed as the DG of SLIATE. Even though some members of the Lecturers’ Union were not pleased with the new DG’s appointment, the Union did not show any negative response because he was a person who could be approached by anyone to discuss any matter affecting one. However, as time passed, some of our members wanted us to rebel against the new DG on many occasions but as a union, we always tried to solve our problems through discussion and there were times when we resorted to other means

After working for 5 years at Kandy ATI, I got a transfer to Dehiwala ATI because it was easy for me to travel from the place where we were staying in Colombo. When I reflect on myself, I find the period of time I spent in Kandy was full of unforgettable memories and incidents which have now added to the past.

Going to Dehiwala ATI

Since I had known every staff member including the director of Dehiwala ATI, I felt no sense of unfamiliarity. However, one thing happened. After I came to Dehiwala, I was not able to involve in union activities as before I did. The Director of Dehiwala ATI assisted me a lot. He appointed me as the HOD of Management even though I did not like at first. As time passed, I got used to it so I did not feel any inconvenience of the position. Students had many problems and they used to report to me every day and I also tried to seek solutions for them at my best. Some were solved but there were other problems that I could not solve since they needed to be addressed by the SLIATE administration.

           The service certificate I received from Dehiwala Advanced Technological Institute

After working for 3 years at Dehiwala Advanced Technological Institute, I felt that I was becoming frustrated gradually so I decided to go in search of greener pastures. As is often the case with every employee who may work for a long time in one place, I also found that my work becomes monotonous. Furthermore, the salary I draw every month was not enough to meet the ends. Since we were staying in a rented house, our expenses became more than what we earned. Having thought that I would be able to put an end to my economic problems, I finally decided to find a teaching job in a country where a higher salary is paid. I searched the internet for teaching jobs in foreign countries and I found a lot but none of them was accessible for non-native speakers. I first tried Japan because I was very much impressed by the beauty and cultural diversity of Japan. I began to search for English teaching jobs in Japan but my attempts were in vain because of the native speaker issue. However, while I was surfing the net, I noticed an advertisement (I really can’t remember now where I saw the advertisement whether in a website or a Japanese online newspaper/magazine). It was about a place called Shin Shizen Juku, Natural School located in Hokkaido in Japan. I wrote a letter to the manager of Shin Shizen Juku stating that I wish to come to his place and teach English to community members living around his farm. I received a reply from the manager, Hiroshi Mine, expressing his willingness to accept me as a volunteer teacher to work there. Following is the letter, information sheet, sponsoring letter, and a picture postcard of Hokkaido which Hiroshi Mine had sent to me in 2006.

Visiting Thailand

The Kingdom of Thailand is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Asia. The inviting climate, charming people, and relatively low cost make it an ideal choice for a vacation. Thailand has a rich culture replete with age-old traditional customs, values , and norms. It was never colonized and enjoys deep traditions rooted in the Buddhist faith and devotion to the royal family. People are friendly, helpful, and charming by nature.

                                           One of the most striking scenes in Thailand

One of the tourist attractions in the South of Thailand

         

                      TEFL courses conducted by various language schools in Thailand                                  

TEFL course in Thailand

Even though I was very much impressed by the description of the letter which Hiroshi Mine had sent me, I had to give up the idea of going to Japan due to practical problems. However, I did not give up my idea of going abroad. When I was searching the net, I found a website that included information about a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course conducted in Thailand. According to the information given on that website, the course is conducted in a language school by native speakers and the duration of the course is 6 weeks with a total number of 120 hours of instruction including classroom observation. The website, furthermore, guaranteed to find jobs for those who completed the course successfully. The course fee was 17000 Baht. I made up my mind to study this course hoping that I can find a job therein Thailand. I sent an application to the language school and I was replied to immediately. I wrote a letter to the DG requesting leave for one month and I left Sri Lanka on 14^th August 2006 because the class was to start on 16^th of August. However, I could not get my leaves approved.

The TEFL class consisted of 10 or 11 trainees who had come from USA, UK, and Australia.  I was the only one from an Asian country. The class went well and our course tutor was an American called Mr. Ted. After one week, I was joined by a Sri Lanka friend so we stayed together in the same room in the apartment. The course was useful to brush up on my skills and knowledge of L2 teaching. At the end of the course, we had a test which I found was not hard and we were awarded certificates.  The native speaker trainees had no difficulty in finding jobs since there was a big demand for them. However, it was difficult to find a job for me and my Sri Lankan friend. When we inquired about it from the language center, we were told that they did not find jobs for us but we had to find jobs ourselves. Then only we got to know that we had been tricked. What they promised on their website, they did not keep. This is the nature of every language school run by native speakers here in Thailand. If it is for native speakers, there is no problem finding a teaching job in a university or a company-maintained school. However, non-natives especially Asians will find it hard to find teaching jobs in Thailand. This does not mean to say that there are no Asian teachers.

The following is the certificate I was awarded from the language school I did the TEFL course in August, 2006.

A visit to the Ministry of Education in Thailand

It is interesting to note what had happened to my friend and I one day once we visited the Ministry of Education in Thailand to find out whether there was a possibility to get some information about schools that hire foreign teachers. Communication in English becomes problematic for foreigners if they cannot meet the right person who can speak and understand English in Thailand. This is mainly due to the fact that English is not socially used. Therefore, most people are not proficient in English. As indicated earlier, one day my friend and I went to the Ministry of Education in Thailand in September 2006. When we entered the premises, we asked someone to direct us to the place where we can get information about schools which hire foreign teachers. As I remember, one gentleman who was very helpful took us to the building and asked us to go to the first floor. He could speak English. We were very pleased and went to the first floor of the building. We approached one lady and told her why we came there and asked us to tell her about schools where foreign teachers hire. She did not understand what we told her first but after some time she told us to go to another building to which we went. As we did with the previous building, we spoke to a gentleman in that office and told him why we had come there. Proving again that Thais are hospitable, we were made to sit and asked all our details for about ten minutes and then told us to go to another building assuring us that we might get the information we were looking for. By now we were very much frustrated; anyway, we continued our search again despite the physical or mental boredom we had been experiencing from the morning that particular day.

As instructed, we went to the fourth building and entered the office. However, we did not spend even a minute there because we were told that it was not the place that handles the matters pertaining to teacher recruitment. From there we were directed to another building, to our happiness, it was the place and we went to and fro passing it several times. We talked to a lady who was very helpful and willing to help us. She first scanned our educational certificates and called a school. We were more anxious to know the outcomes of her conversation with the school. Looking at us, she told us that there were no vacancies in that school but she gave us a telephone number of another school to inquire about. We came out and called the number and a lady answered and told us that there were currently no vacancies for English teachers in her school. We were hopeless and desperate over the situation and we decided to return to our apartment. However, we thought that we should inform the lady who gave us the number about what we had told from the school. We again went in and told the lady about it. She said she knew no other schools and she was sorry for us. We thanked her genuine efforts she made for us and we got on a bus to get to our apartment. The conductor of the bus was a lady and we told her where we wanted to get down because we could not speak Thai. She told us ok and we got two tickets and sat in a seat. While we were doing the TEFL course, we were staying in an apartment near Thammasat University. As the bus was passing, we remembered the landmarks and we had no fear of missing the bus halt we needed to get down. We got into a conversation and did not notice the bus turn into another road after Chatuchak Market. The bus was going fast and what we saw on either side of the road was not familiar and so we called the conductor and told her the place we wanted to get down. She signaled us to sit and we kept quiet.  After two or three minutes, we realized that we were being taken to some other place because we could see the tollway leading to Don-Muang airport. We rang the bell and told the conductor that we wanted to get down and the bus stopped we got down quickly from the bus.

Later, we realized that we had got into a bus which goes parallel to the road where our apartment lies. Somehow, that day we managed to return to our apartment in the afternoon around 3p.m. We determined to keep on searching the net so every morning we used to go to a nearby internet café paid 10 baht per hour and began to surf. One of the popular websites in which teaching jobs in Thailand are published is www.ajarn.com Most of the private schools and universities demand native speakers so finding a teaching job for a non-native speaker is again a problem in Thailand. However, one day while I was searching the ajarn.com, I noticed a job vacancy publish by Prince of Songkla University and it did not specify what kind of teachers they were looking for so I sent an application online to the email address given there. I was replied to by the Department of Languages and Linguistics. I was asked to attend an interview. Prince of Songkla is in the south of Thailand about 1000km away from Bangkok. I informed my friend about the interview and booked a seat on the train soon because traveling by train was cheaper than by plane.

Where is Hatyai in Thailand?

Travelling from Bangkok (Hua Lamphong station) to Hatyai

                                   Inside view of Hua Lumphong railway station-Bangkok

                                    One of the platforms of Hua Lamphong railway station

The train in which I travelled

Hatyai Junction railway station

The train started from Bangkok at 3.35p.m and I was happy to travel by train since it was going to be a novel experience in my life. Since I booked a sleeper, I felt no difficulty during the journey. The train began to pass through major cities such as Chumphon, Suratthani, Phathalung, to Hatyai. Around 6p.m, I had dinner as every passenger did and around 8p.m, an attendant came and arranged the seat into a bed. So I lay down listening to the rhythmic sound which the train made as it moved forward. It was the last thing I heard as I fell asleep at night, the first thing I heard when I woke up in the morning- the rhythm of the train. At every main station when the train had stopped, hawkers with their products (mostly food, drinks, and sweets) got into the compartments and began their business work. Most of the food items they sold were quite cheap and fresh so passengers were not hesitant to buy what they needed. Around 9.30am it arrived at Hatyai railway station the following day.

I went to a budget hotel which cost 250baht per night and I spent the day walking about Hatyai city. Dinner which cost about 30baht was taken outside and spent the night anxiously until the next day dawned.   

     Hatyai is a flourishing city in the north of Thailand. This picture shows a part of Hatyai city

               

     
                                      A view of floating market in Hatyai

The job interview at the Department of Languages and Linguistics, Prince of Songkla University

The statute of Prince Mahidol erected at Prince of Songkla University, Hatyai Campus is the most venerated object among the university students, teachers, and the general public.

Prince of Songkla University

Prince of Songkla University (PSU), the oldest university in southern Thailand consists of four campuses and one education service area which offer multifarious education programs consistent with the need of the communities. For over forty years of existence, since its inception in 1967, with the stated vision of becoming a leading research-intensive university in Asia with the primary role of producing very capable graduates, providing excellent academic services, and actively involving in the preservation of national heritage in arts and culture, Prince of Songkla University, has accomplished much of its objectives. (For more information, please visit http://www.psu.ac.th/en/node/28)

History

On September 22, 1967, His Majesty the King graciously granted the University the name “Prince of Songkla University” in honor of his beloved father, His Royal Highness Somdej Chao Fa Mahidol Adulyadej Kromma Luang Songkla Nakarin. In commemoration of this auspicious occasion, the university has since proclaimed September, 22 of every year as “Songkla Nakarin Day”, one of the important dates in the calendar of yearly events of the university.

I was first asked to do a demonstration lesson while a few lecturers from the department were observing. I conducted the lesson and it was followed by an interview. The interview went well and at the end, I was informed that I was selected and I would officially be informed through an email. So the same day I went back to Bangkok by train and waited for the email. After two days, I was sent an email stating the date I should come to the department.

I came to Prince of Songkla University and assumed duties as the department of languages and Linguistics as a temporary foreign instructor in English on 26^th of October 2006. If I had not found this job, I would have gone back to Sri Lanka and resume my duties at Dehiwala ATI. For good or worse, I was lucky to get a teaching post at PSU. During the first year, I was assigned to teach two courses; English conversation 1 and the English Foundation course. After that, I began to teach English conversation courses only.

During the second week of assuming duties at the Department of Languages and Linguistics, I had to obtain my work permit. To obtain the work permit, an employee should have a non-emigrant B visa in Thailand. As indicated above, I got a non-immigrant B visa before coming to Thailand. However, my visa was issued for a period of 3 months and my visa was to expire in two weeks. To apply for a work permit, a foreign employ’s visa should be valid at least for two weeks. Now I had a problem with my visa validity period so the personal section of my faculty asked me to go to Penang in Malaysia and get my visa renewed. They further instructed me that I could travel by minivan which travels every day from Hatyai to Penang on land.

                                                        Aerial view of Penang city

                      I obtained a visa from the Malaysian consulate in Songkla to visit Penang

Leaving for Penang

Around 7.30a.m. on the 6th of November, 2006, I got into a van and left Hatyai hoping that I could get my visa renewed in one day and get back to Hatyai on the following day. I did not take anything with me except an extra T-shirt and a pair of shorts. The van took about 4 hours to get to Penang as it went quite fast. From Penang city, I took a taxi and went to the Royal Thai consulate in Penang. As is often the case with our wishes, I could not get things done as I had expected. When I went there, I got to know that they could not issue visas for Sri Lankan nationals and that I should go to Sri Lanka to get my visa renewed. I was so shocked to hear that because my office did not inform me about it. I immediately contacted the personnel section of my faculty and told them what the consulate had informed me. It was only then they got to know it. However, I asked the office to send me a letter to be produced at the Thai Embassy of Sri Lanka the next day. I told him what I was going to do next to the office and send an email to the course coordinator at the Department of Languages and Linguistics. The course coordinator also sent me an email expressing her apology over the matter and asked me not to get panic.

Now the problem before was to buy a ticket to travel from Penang to Colombo, Sri Lanka because  I had money enough for paying the visa fee at Penang and the fare for the van to travel back to Hatyai. My mind became a hell of pandemonium. While I was thinking of what I should do, I just remembered the international credit card I had obtained from the Bank of Ceylon before coming to Thailand. I felt my pules were normal after experiencing an indescribable mental trauma.  I quickly went to a nearby airline office and inquired about the availability of an earlier flight to go to Sri Lanka and was informed that I should travel to Sri Lanka via Bangkok. There was no early flight so I had to stay in Penang until the 10th of November. Since there was no alternative, I made a reservation on that particular flight and went to look for a room to stay. I found a room in a guest house which cost me 25 ringgits per night. The room was quite old and it had a fan, a bathroom with a bed. I did not care about physical comfort because I wanted to spend the night there.

The next day dawned and since I had a limited budget, I decided to find a cheaper room than the one I was staying. I found a room at 19 ringgits per night in another guesthouse to which I retreated with my small bag. However, this time the bathroom was not inside but outside. During the daytime, there was nothing for me to do so I strayed the length and breadth of Penang city until the Sun became hot. When I felt hungry, I entered a hotel and ate a scanty meal which cost me not more than 3 ringgits.

What’s Penang like?

The description below is found in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penang

Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in the area after Perlis, and the eighth-most populous. It is composed of two parts – Penang Island, where the seat of government is, and Seberang Perai (formerly, and occasionally Province Wellesley) on the Malay Peninsula. Highly urbanized and industrialized Penang is one of the most developed and economically important states in the country, as well as a thriving tourist destination. Its heterogeneous population is highly diverse in ethnicity, culture, language, and confessions. A resident of Penang is colloquially known as a Penangite (For more information about Penang, please access the website stated above).

Penang is probably Malaysia’s most popular tourist destination. The food is truly excellent, and inexpensive (especially at the hawker centers), and there is a lot of local colors.

                                     Penang Bridge, the longest bridge in South East Asia

George Town was founded and built by the British as a free port in the 18th century. This attracts not only traders and merchants but a lot of settlers from the neighbouring region

On the 10^th of November, 2006, in the morning, I flew from Penang to Bangkok by a Thai Airways flight and waited for 5 hours at Dongmuang Airport because my flight from Bangkok to Colombo was to leave in the afternoon around 8p.m. Somehow, I went to Sri Lanka and obtained a visa. I then returned to the university after two weeks and continued my work as usual.

Study at the University of South Africa

One of the crucial junctures in my academic life began in 2007 with my enrollment in the study program leading to BA (honors) in TESOL at The University of South Africa. I felt, according to my profession, a program of the study, as stated above, was very relevant and useful because an EFL/ESL teacher should have theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical knowledge and awareness of how he/she should help learners improve their language skills. I should say with no doubt that the study program I enrolled with the College of Human Sciences at the University of South Africa kept me in good stead as a professional with a sound knowledge of the second language acquisition process and classroom pedagogy. In order to complete my study program, I studied ten modules relevant to BA (TESOL) program for three years. Some of the modules were so interesting and thought-provoking that I was tempted to study some contents related to L2 acquisition in detail. It is common for anyone who studies a new subject to having some problems and confusion concerning the subject matters at the beginning. The subjects I offered for my study program were totally new to me. Even though I had heard the names of some subjects, I never knew what they meant. However, all the grey areas included in some subjects became clear as I continued to study them with special attention to them. I began to learn by making reference to a good number of books, research articles published in ELT journals, and other relevant internet-based materials so that some of the misconceptions I had had about L2 language learning and teaching became crystal clear. If I had not studied a module such as MAPP04-Language learning and teaching, I would have still been thinking that language is learned by means of an intellectual understanding of grammatical rules or the best approach to use in teaching L2 is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Based on my experience both as a learner and a teacher who has been engaged in L2 teaching to various kinds of learners, I would suggest that novice, as well as experienced teachers, should constantly update their knowledge in teaching and learning issues because the field of second language teaching has seen many changes over the last four decades and as a result, we have seen methodologies come into fashion and then go out of favor, as new ones attempted to replace them. Markwardt (in Brown, 2000, p. 130) describes the process above as a cyclical pattern in which a new paradigm emerges “about every quarter of a century, with each new method breaking from the old but at the same time taking with it some of the positive aspects of the previous paradigm”.   

The module I mentioned above categorically helped me refine my understanding of the teaching methodologies which an L2 teacher should choose to teach a particular group of learners. Based on my understanding and the literature in the ELT domain, I first wrote a brief article entitled “The the best method in EFL/ESL learning”. and later I modified it and re-wrote it to be published in a journal. It is available at http://www.researchers.in.th/blogs/posts/4329             

Another module that captured my attention was MAPP02T-Individual factors in additional language learning. Before studying this module, I had no faintest idea about individual factors that can impact on L2 learners’ success in gaining mastery over an additional language (AL). After I had studied the module, prescribed books, research articles, written the assignments, and received feedback from the lecturer, I realized how important this particular module for L2 teachers who every day notice that there are considerable differences in the degree of proficiency with which learners use their target languages. In this module, three main questions were discussed in detail: 1. Why do different AL learners achieve different levels of proficiency? 2. What factors internal to the learner affect AL learning? 3. How can we use our knowledge to answers to the above questions to improve our AL teaching?

There are three main individual factors that this module dealt with. They are namely maturational, cognitive, and affective. I wrote my second assignment so well that I had been given 77% which meant I received the highest marks of the 21 students who had enrolled for the MAPP02T module in 2009.

The following information is extracted from the MAPP27 Tutorial Letter 102/0/2009-Feedback on assignments: Individual factors in an additional language learning (Prof Lilli Pretorius, Module leader).

However, this does not mean to say that the other eight modules were less interesting than the two stated above. All the ten modules were equally interesting and cognitively demanding.

Publishing an article in a peer-reviewed English Journal

As stated above, one module that deals with “Literature in TESOL” became not only another favorite but also it broadened my awareness concerning the use of literary texts in teaching communication skills. I did not just write an assignment for the said module instead I selected a literary text from a famous novel, The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway, and designed several activities as suggested by Hess (2003) depending on the level, linguistic needs and interests of my undergraduate students (Prince of Songkla University, Thailand) and used them in the classroom teaching. At the end of the teaching, I analyzed the students’ responses to the classroom activities and found them positive. Therefore, based on the results I gained from the classroom activities, I concluded that literary texts selected in line with the criteria proposed by Brumfit (1986) could be used to enhance learners’ communicative competence in L2. (For more information, read the complete article available at www.melta.org.my/ET/2010/article%2011.pdf)

This is a screen shot taken from the MELTA on line journal available at

http://www.melta.org.my/The-English-Teacher/q?cid=25&doit=showclass

I successfully completed all the modules and final examination in 2010 and I graduated the same year with distinctions for two modules. Following is my degree certificates and transcription for BA (Hons) TESOL). All the lecturers were highly well versed in their chosen subjects, therefore, I could not only demystify some of the beliefs I had about L2 teaching and learning but also broaden my understanding about language acquisition issues. This description will be incomplete without writing something about the University of South Africa or most commonly known as UNISA.

                                                      My BA (Hons) Degree Certificate

                                                      Transcript of BA Degree
What follows are some of the questions papers I wrote in the examination held at the South African Embassy in Thailand in 2008. These papers were not allowed to take them out then. However, the invigilator forgot to collect them from me after my exam.

About UNISA

UNISA is Africa’s leading distance learning institution nurturing inspiring leaders of tomorrow. We are a reputable, comprehensive, flexible, and accessible Open Distance Learning institution that is motivating a future generation. It offers internationally accredited qualifications and has world-class resources that inspire learners to create meaningful futures on their own terms. Unisa’s vision “Towards the African University in the service of humanity” drives us to find answers to Africa’s education and developmental problems. By forming partnerships in Africa and throughout the world, we are able to help the people of Africa achieve their dreams.

(More information is available at http://www.unisa.ac.za)

Please go to my academic biography 3 once it is ready here. Thank you for your patience.