About my job…

Well I think it is going pretty well so far. My students are in their late teens or twenties, most of them are applying to study in foreign English-speaking universities. None of my students have run away in terror, or started throwing coconuts at me. As long as I am somewhere in between those points I can call myself a success … ? So far I teach a four hour morning class some days, and a two hour evening class. The things that are difficult for me are not surprises. I have to talk loudly for a long time, so I have a sore throat. I have to go fast enough to keep the ‘smart’ students awake (those who have already done the exercises in the book before we even get there) and slow enough not to lose everyone else. I am supposed to teach grammar points to students who usually know more about English grammar than I do. Knowing grammar and knowing how to communicate effectively are very different things! I have to make mundane subjects interesting by virtue of the difficulty of communicating in a second language. Well, or I have to try at least.

One class this week we talked about music. The text had some readings from Paul McCartney’s book, and I brought in a cd with various styles of music to talk about. Well, really just to amuse the students on Friday. None of them like Gregorian Chant. None of them like Muddy Waters. None of them like The Beatles. Most of them liked Eminem, and squarely at the top of the heap, the very epitome of popularity - Peter, Paul and Mary singing Puff the Magic Dragon. I expect that has more to do with the understandability (!) of the lyrics than the music.

Down the street from my school is a French deli/restaurant where you can get a baguette sandwich for lunch with cheeses like gorgonzola, Blue d’auvergne, etc. I picked the right street to work on. Plus, on the same street, you can get bun cha which I will explain some other day. So, yeah, my job is going pretty well.