Showing posts with label TEFL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TEFL. Show all posts

Saturday, January 10, 2009

My First Week of Teaching English

I have just completed my first week of teaching English and it's been really fun. My class load is twenty hours a week, which is just right for me. It makes me full-time in my company. Usually teachers teach between 23-30 hours, but since I'm new to lesson planning, I would like to stay at this level for awhile until I speed up. In our TEFL course, we averaged about six hours of planning for every hour taught. Obviously, that's not sustainable in the real world!

My friends who have visited Prague or the Czech Republic during communism or shortly afterwards always use the word 'bleak' to describe the place. The beauty of arriving here twenty years after the end of totalitarianism is there have been twenty intervening years for the place to be fixed up. I must say, my classes are in beautiful, stunning locations.

One class is in an ancient building with castle type doors overlooking formal gardens. Several others are in a brand new corporate headquarters with wonderful light. Yet another is in the Czech Republic's tallest building on the highest floors.

Everyone is nice. They are surprised when I display any knowledge of Czech culture (like knowing who Svejk or Smetana are). The beauty is, with such a homogeneous culture, that everyone sitting around the table knows the name of their classic book character or who their classic composer is. Not everyone around an American business table would have the same cultural knowledge and background.

A couple of my students need to talk and be understood by native speakers in Britain or America but most need to speak to other people in countries like Spain or India who are speaking English as a second language. The first time I confronted this, I was so stunned and impressed that one of my students needed to speak English as a second language (her first language being Czech) to someone else in another country who was speaking it as a second language (their first language being Finnish) that I couldn't help but admire the level of commitment it would take to not only know the second language but the linguistic quirks of the other first language spoken (an example is Czechs always forget to use definite and indefinite articles in English because they don't have them in their language).

I told that to other teachers and both said, "oh no, it's much harder for someone speaking English as a second language to talk to a native speaker than to someone else speaking English as a second language. When they both have it as a second language, they use ESL English in conversation which is slower and less complex than a native speaker's language." Still, when you see people 40-60 years old valiantly working on their 15th year of learning English, often learned in bits and pieces along the way, you can't help but be impressed by their commitment. They are lucky that their companies are paying for them to learn English (it is the official language of all sorts of companies) but that also makes it harder to learn because they can't completely leave work behind in the classroom and relax. They are liable to be pulled out or called away in the middle of a lesson.

I'm really excited to learn from my students all about their culture and their interests. Czechs are the most well-travelled people I have ever met. One student told me that their parents constantly goad them to travel because the parents couldn't do so under communism. I routinely meet people who have been to exotic places like Cuba, Nepal, Tibet, Bolivia (pretty darn far away for a Czech!), and even the Kamchatka Penninsula (you mean, that's a place you're actually allowed to go visit??? I thought it was a Russian military zone!).

Their version of Mexico (an inexpensive place to visit for a week of sun) is Egypt. Visiting Egypt for a week of sun sounds incredibly exotic to me. Going there would be a major undertaking for an American leaving from America but apparently there are all sorts of cheap and routine flights from Prague. It's all in where you're starting out from.

One downside when beginning teaching is directions are often incomplete. The first thing I did was assign all of my students homework creating a written description of how to get to their office because anyone substituting for me is not going to go through what I did trying to find these places! This week has also been freezing cold so I'm running around Prague in heels, lost, with frozen fingertips and a runny nose while carrying a laptop. Next week calls for some adjustment!

I will also forever be nicer to foreign people because of my experience here. I will pop into an office asking for directions and the lady or man there will sit me down while they print me out a map of exactly where I'm going. Day after day, ordinary Czechs show me lovely kindnesses without a second thought. Czechs make this experience fun.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Was Living in Soviet Housing on my Bucket List?

Soviet-inspired housing, named panelaky in Czech,
because they're put up in a hurry with panels


Pretty grim, eh?
That's my balcony, third from the top,
underneath the satellite dish,

complete with dish towels on the line
.

No sheets! No coffee pot! No mixing bowls! The carpet! Who knew they made carpet so thin? A mattress box that one could use to store clothes in underneath. A shower curtain held up by five working rings out of ten. Four out of five lights burnt out in my room with the last one going out the night I arrived. I half expected to find 'instant gulag gruel' packets in the cupboards. What is it exactly that Communist builders had against beauty?

But the view! Did I mention the view of the city yet? The windows in panelaky were the only kind one could buy in the Czech Republic under communism but they actually seem extravagant because of their giant size. They swing wide open too.

Then there's the convenience. There was one brand of grocery store called Billa across the street and two more at my metro stop. Grocery shopping took only fifteen minutes.

Plus, I remembered the last time I traded in a pretty cozy home for a two-bedroom concrete block apartment. And that apartment didn't even have thin carpeting - it had no carpeting. Those were two of the most incredible years of my life - graduate school, living in what Americans call 'married student housing' (whether one is married or not). It was fantastic. I wouldn't trade those years for anything.

And Daniel Glick, the author of "Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids and a Journey to the Ends of the Earth," one of my all-time favorite books about travel, talks about how if you are going to see the world, you are going to have to live in some, ahem, unexpected places." My friends told me when they helped me move out that this was actually an "upscale" panelak.

So I had an hour of freak-out when I arrived. Where was my imagined historic Prague walk-up? Then acceptance and happiness kicked in. I knew I was up for it. Women could make a home in a yurt if we had too. And the people I met over the course of my month here were just as nice as could be. Click on the title to read an interesting history of panelaky. I'll show my panelaky courtyard next.

The living room with the balcony attached

Kitchen

Dining room

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2

You could fit a lot of Christmas presents in here

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Saturday, December 13, 2008

Scenes from a month of TEFL

November was a terrific month to come to Prague and take a TEFL course for many reasons. First, our class count was low. The month before was still high season and there were 20 students not ten. Secondly, we were in our school from 8 a.m. till after dark many days. Why not do it in November when we weren't missing any sunshine? If it was July or August, the entire city would beckon with beauty. This way we'll be settled in by summertime.

We all passed the course and begin teaching January 5th. Ian went home to Odessa and I moved out of student housing after finding a terrific flat. Jana and Gulnara helped me move to my new place by each dragging a big red suitcase through the metro, over cobblestones, and through lots of slush.

I'm a Praguian now, Prahan, Prawn? What do you call someone who calls Prague home?

Our first night in town
Adam (aka, The World's most fanatical Blazers fan),
Danielle, and myself


Gulnara, Anna, and Ian

Here we are trying our first Czech beer
at the Hungry or Thirsty Deer Pub
(I can never remember if the deer is hungry or thirsty -
probably both)


Ian says the Russian superstition is whomever sits
in the corner will never get married.
oops, too late

Last day of classes with my gal pals

Gulnara and me

Jana and Gulnara enjoying lunch in our school cafe

They made sooo much fun of me in the cafe one day
for being excited about my broccoli gratin
they took my picture with it -
but come on, doesn't it look like fantastic comfort food??

Great food + great friends = happiness

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Yea! We're Done with Our TEFL Course!

St. Wenceslas Square was packed with
revelers - the energy downtown
was fantastic as we celebrated the
end of our studies

Three devils: Dannielle, Anna, and Adam

Having fun with Anna

Heaters help people enjoy
a sidewalk cafe
in the middle of December
in Old Town Square

Christmas Markets are scattered all around town
The most common offerings are kielbasa,
grilled corn-on-the-cob, hot wine, grog, and mead.

These beautiful children were definitely angels, not demons,
singing in exquisite harmony a song
by the famous Czech composer Smetana.

No photo can do this gorgeous tree justice.
It had shooting stars.

Adam, the photographer, knows how to make everyone laugh.

Anna and Justin

Yea! We're done!

Two reasons to celebrate on St. Mikalus Day

On the last day of my TEFL class, work was gladly interrupted for a visit from our own in-house St. Mikalus. I knew nothing of the Czech custom but a Czech friend told me this would be the first of many St. Mikaluses I would see that day. Czech children have been raised on stories of St. Mikalus and look forward to seeing him and performing a song or a poem for him before receiving their treat for being a good boy or girl that year.

Naughty children don't get candy. They receive potatoes or a lump of coal. And if they have been really, really naughty they are placed into the devil's sack and will be sent straight to hell.

It makes me laugh thinking about this because I really and truly remember worrying when I was a kid about whether or not I would get coal for Christmas. How about you?

Teenagers seem to have the most fun with this holiday. You can tell that many of them labored on their costumes for hours, carefully applying tin foil to their Mikalus staffs and cotton balls to their beards. Demons seemed to far outnumber angels. On the metro, they were all giggles in their costumes which of course made everyone else giggle too.

Here are a few of the angels and demons we saw along the way on St. Mikalus Day. In my next post, I'll share pics of our group in Old Town Square enjoying the spectacle of it all.












Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Meet My Flatmate

Canadian Ian MacMillan on the Black Sea

My flatemate, Ian MacMillan, and I are sharing a flat for the one month we live in student housing while we take our TEFL course. Saturday, November 29th was his birthday so I decided to interview Ian to celebrate his 27 years of wisdom.

Where did you grow up?

Penticton, British Columbia, a city of 30,000 people. My dad was an immigrant from Scotland who originally moved to Australia where he met my Canadian mom. She was on vacation there. They settled in Penticton.

What’s your city known for?

An American movie from the 1960’s called “My American Cousin” was filmed in Penticton. They used our peach-shaped concession stand in the movie. We’re known as the peach city because peaches grow nearby.

Penticton is between two lakes. One lake is known as Okanogan Lake. The Loch Ness monster’s cousin, the Ogopogo, lives in Okanogan Lake. We even had a Japanese research team investigating it. They have a $1,000,000 reward for anyone who comes forward with evidence of the Ogopogo’s existence.

What connects the two lakes is “the channel.” People from outside always call it the “canal.” It’s not the ‘canal’ it’s the “channel” and you can float from one lake to the other.

We also have Ironman Canada, which is held in Penticton.

Why did you decide to go to Budapest, Hungary for graduate school?

I read an article in the Economist Magazine that said lots of new, private universities were opening in Eastern Europe that were innovative and different. That got me thinking about Europe.

A professor told my undergrad class in Canada if we were interested in history and thinking about graduate school we should go to Europe and see where the history took place.

Central European University had the best website of the universities I looked at.

Tell me about Central European University. How did it start? What is the mission of the university?

George Soros, a Jewish billionaire born in Hungary, started it in the early 1990s. He donated $700 million to get it off the ground. It’s the second largest endowment in Europe.

There were three campuses. One was in Prague, one was in Warsaw, and one was in Budapest. His mission was to create a university based on liberal democratic capitalist principles and to promote those principles in post-Communist countries. There is now just one campus in Budapest.

The higher reaches of the administration hire professors who innately believe in those principles and promote them to the students to create change in their home countries. They view each student as an agent of micro-change throughout the region. I’m not sure a university should have such an activist attitude.

What was your thesis about?

My thesis was on Scottish history and how the idea of liberty changed in the 18th century. Because of this change, Scottish nationalism did not develop. Scottish liberty had always been based on martial ability. People’s liberty was protected by the nobility.

In the 18th century, Scots went bankrupt. The Scots were starving and the British House of Commons ensured their liberty and gave them access to trade. Scotland went from being a feudal society to a modern society through commercial trade.

The Scots don’t have a “nation state” per se, is there Scottish nationalism today?

My opinion is Scots don’t need a nation state to know their Scottish.



The Opera House
in Odessa, Ukraine

Where do you live now and what is it like?

I normally live in Odessa, Ukraine, a city of 1,000,000. It’s a resort town on the Black Sea. It has a very beautiful opera house. The Odessans always say "we have the second most beautiful opera house. Everyone knows. The architect was the same one who did the Vienna Opera House and it's the most beautiful. We are second."

Odessans are known for their sense of humor. One of the biggest holidays there is April Fool’s Day. They have a big parade on that day. Their sense of humor isn’t for me. It’s too simplistic.

Ian and Sasha on the Danube

How did you end up in Odessa?

I met my wife in Budapest. We studied in the same program. She ignored me for a month. We started talking at a party. We didn’t talk the whole next week. We went to another party and started talking again. Then we went to a Halloween party together. She was dressed as a princess and I didn’t have a costume. I had my KGB shirt on which was good enough and very funny for everyone. We really started dating when I showed her pics of the Halloween party.

Sasha and I decided I should move to Odessa, her hometown. She is working on her Ph.D. in history there. People from Odessa love Odessa.

What is your job there?

I’m an English teacher in a private language school. My students are teenagers and adults. I usually teach adults one-on-one.

How have your studies about nationalism and language impacted your understanding of Ukrainians and Russians?

It made me understand both sides of the argument of “what is Ukraine.” Some Russians don’t think Ukraine is a country and doesn’t really have it’s own history.

Ukranians, like Slovaks, are known as a “non-historic” people because they didn’t have a kingdom of their own before becoming a nation state.

In Canada and America, our citizenship is self-defined. If we say we are a Canadian or an American and we have citizenship, we are. But a Russian or a Ukranian will always think of himself as defined by ethnicity not nationality. There is no difference for them between ethnicity and nationality.

A Russian passport for a Moscow native of Georgian parents would be stamped “nationality: Georgian.” A Slav who came to one of our countries would always be thought of by Russians as a Czech, or Russian, or Ukranian, not as an American or a Canadian.

We don't consider this ethnicity. Canadians think that a person who is of German descent who is born in Canada would never be thought of as German. He's Canadian. And a person who's lineage is East Indian born in Canada would never be thought of as East Indian; he’d be thought of as Canadian. Russians don’t think I’m from a ‘real’ country because I’m from a nation of immigrants. They would view me as Scottish, not Canadian, because that’s my heritage.

There isn’t necessarily pan-Slavism though, the way there is pan-Arabism or pan-Africanism.

Russians love Russia passionately, but they try to leave whenever possible.

What other cultures are known for their strong nationalism?

Serbs. Western Ukranians, they are militant about Ukrainian independence. Americans.

Why don’t Canadians inspire dislike around the world?

We stay out of the way. We’re culturally aware.
Americans are culturally tone-deaf.


What’s your favorite thing about Prague?

The Czech sense of humor. It’s very dark.

Different landscape views of the castle and other sites that I saw with Sasha.

Where else have you lived or taught English?

South Korea. My experience there was not very good. In a different time of my life, it would have been better. It’s for young people. Teachers work 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and then they party. And you have to teach kids. I don’t like kids. South Korean kids are not allowed to be kids because of the highly-competitive over-scheduled lives they have. In every class of older kids I taught, everyone knew someone who had committed suicide.

Why did you go to South Korea by yourself if you were already married?

I went there to make money. I received free airfare, a free apartment, and $2,700 a month plus overtime. I only had to pay for food. I worked there for four months and came home with $9,000 in savings.

Where else would you and your wife Sasha like to live?

We’d both like Scotland, Italy, France.

I would like to live in India. Maybe Dubai, if the money was good.

Sasha would like to live in Prague. She loved it here.

Thank you, Ian, for sharing your Canadian perspective.
I wish you and Sasha the best in your future travels.

Monday, December 1, 2008

My First Class of Students

Pre-intermediate students and teachers

Yea! This is me with my first class of students. They came in for two weeks to let new TEFL trainees practice on them! They were wonderful. May they all go out and use the past continuous tense with aplomb. That was my best lesson!

Monday, November 17, 2008

One Week of TEFL Classes

Teaching is one of those things that when someone describes or models the techniques involved, it sounds and looks simple enough. When one actually gets up there to do it - it's harder than it looks to remember not only content but teaching techniques, especially when I'm with a class of students who have a different mother tongue.

As TEFL instructors, we are urged to get all of our instructions down to the smallest blocks of language possible. Stand up. Discuss. Sit down. Otherwise it sounds like so much blather to the students. It's hard for them to find the instructions in the verbiage.

We taught twice in our first week and observed an experienced teacher's class as well. The Czech people taking the courses are wonderful because they encourage us as much as we encourage them.

I can tell working as a TEFL teacher is a great way to know a culture fast because everything is a potential topic. In a discussion about Czech food, the Czech students told me I need to try this really, really smelly cheese from the town of Olmouc and two kinds of dumplings known as "dumplings with hair" and "naked children." The "dumplings with hair" are laced with sauerkraut. And the other dumpling - I have no idea!

We ended our week with our first Czech lesson. The hour flew by. It was so much fun! Our teacher, who is also one of our regular instructors, put so much energy into it and I understood what she was teaching throughout the hour. TEFL lessons that we teach are supposed to involve no mother tongue whatsoever. Watching her teach us helped me understand how it feels from the beginner's seat.

Thinking back to great learning experiences I have had, I decided my goal as a TEFL teacher will be to give students the feeling I have received from ski instructors. I remember it this way: starting at zero and standing up. Each day I get a bit better. My spirit soars with that wonderful feeling of "I can do this!" and each passing day brings "I can do more!"

Done well, teaching is fostering within people increased confidence and joy as they master a skill.

Monday, November 10, 2008

What helped you learn your second language?

This weekend I've been learning all about what makes a terrific language lesson when someone is learning a second language. That's from the book, of course. Now I'd like to hear from those who've done it. What did your language teacher do in a lesson that really helped you learn? Share with me your best memories please.

This weekend I heard a wonderful 'Czechism.' In a discussion about lack of literacy, we would say someone is unlettered. My Czech friend said, "they are unalphabetized." I love it!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Welcome to Prague!

Friday we had our first meeting as a class and got to know each other. There are nine of us. It's a fun group. Some people are really into language with degrees in linguistics. About half the class has a Master's degree. Some are here for fun or an adventure before they start teaching in a regular school system in the States. Some people just like this side of the world. We are American, Canadian, Czech, and Russian. The ages range from 22 to me!

We received a pile of books and our course syllabus and homework assignments. Later our guide told us, "you are going to be overwhelmed by how much work this is - don't waste time whining - just do it." He warned against past behavior he had seen in the course where some students get behind because they are our partying and just quit coming to class. They just end up living in their apartment until it's time to leave.

So I've decided "no fun allowed" for my first month here. I will really focus on the course and explore Prague afterwards. It's just one month.

After our course orientation, we were scheduled to have an orientation tour of Prague. I thought it would be like a sightseeing bus tour. It wasn't. It was an incredibly useful orientation to practicialities: this is where you get a mobile phone, this is where you can get help with your computer, here's a mall, and here's how the metro and tram work.

Our guide suggested we get to know one Metro station in particular, Meztek (sp?), because it's so huge and such a labyrinth. It's a transfer point between the yellow line (which I live on) and the red line. He said you want to know this station completely before you have to teach at 6:30 a.m. in the morning at some business you've never been to, when you're still half asleep, and you have no idea which of the 20 exits from the station you need to take to get to your class and you're running late.

He said the most common ways teachers get pick-pocketed on the metro was not due to someone bothering them during the day. Rather young teachers go out partying and fall asleep on the metro on the way home. Then the driver is waking them up at the end of the line only for the teacher to discover that his wallet and phone are gone.

I appreciated our guide because he made it clear he had our backs if we ever needed him. He was referring to young men who drink too much but it's the idea that counts. He gave everyone his phone number.

Our group then went out for our first dinner together at a pub across from our school. I don't have internet access in my apartment or I'd post the pics. We all had the famous Czech beer Pilsner Urquell. It tasted great but I'm not a beer expert. The subtleties of it's awesomeness might be wasted on me. Who knows, maybe living in the Czech Republic will turn me into a beer snob.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Teaching English to Zombies

In honor of Halloween today, I'm sharing a video created by The Language House in Prague, where TEFL students get to try their stuff on zombies rather than Czechs. Click on the title for a laugh.

I'll probably be continuing my twin postings on Colorado and the Czech Republic until I leave for Prague on November 5th.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Where Should I Get my TEFL Certification in Prague?

Are there any alumni of Prague language schools out there? Would you like to tell me please your recommendation of a great place in Prague to get my TEFL certification? Comparing language schools online can only go so far, sooner or later I need to hear a real human's recommendation.

I'm interested in teaching adults primarily -- Business English. I'm especially interested in hearing if anyone has used their TEFL certification at a particular school toward a Masters in Education back home in the States. Were you able to have it accepted as graduate credit? I'm leaving that option open if I enjoy the work as much as I think I will.

Tell me why your school was great and why.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Teaching English to Koreans

School District Revenue Alert: Koreans are so hungry to learn English and compete personally in their marketplace, which is competing with our marketplace, that they are sending their children overseas to learn English in a native-speaking setting.

According to the New York Times (link to the story via the title), usually Mom and child go overseas by themselves, leading to the term "penguin fathers" to describe the Dads left at home. "Eagle fathers" get to fly over a couple of times a year to see their families.

What an unconventional source of revenue and culture infusion this could be for American school districts! Imagine a school district with declining enrollment slipping a Korean student or two paying cash for their education into each classroom. School districts could avoid raising taxes. Wouldn't all members of the American education establishment get more respect when the locals see how highly valued their product is by the world? This practice would even help the balance of trade. Civic entrepreneurship! I love it.

Since Koreans consistently score at the top of the globe's measures of academic performance, bringing in a family so motivated that they travel half way around the world to learn can only be a good influence on fellow American students. Telling Americans they are falling behind isn't changing behavior. They are not yet shutting off the television or putting down the video game. Showing them, in their own classrooms, could possibly do so.

Since the Korean moms are prevented from working due to visa restrictions, here is a source of parental classroom support a teacher could rely on steadily. Tiny rural American school districts could expose their children to the diversity that often makes their learning environments too sheltered for the kid's own good.

According to this article in the New York Times, Koreans are so clamoring to learn English that the prime minister has promised to hire 10,000 English teachers immediately so that families can live together in the home country. TEFL certification, while appreciated, isn't required to teach in Korea. That's how hungry they are for native speakers. What Koreans could teach the world is how to foster an atmosphere that reveres education that much.

I've thought a lot about whether or not to go to South Korea or the Czech Republic to teach. In researching various possibilities, I've gained great respect for what the South Koreans have accomplished with their country in one generation. I keep coming back to my love of Czech culture, as I know it so far, and my trust that the Lord will provide.
 
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