Back to the Grind
Yesterday I didn't quite want to go back to the classroom. I had really enjoyed the vacation and the thought of prep, homework grading, and disciplining kids was pretty far from my mind. Alas, I went and everything went smoothly, but I couldn't muster up the energy to really make class fun. I had prepared a game to play that involved red envelopes with mixed up sentences inside that the students needed to rearrange. Unfortunately we ran out of time and never got to play the game, but it always makes me laugh to see how excited they are to see the red envelopes. Apparently, during Chinese New Year, kids get a bunch of red envelopes from adults that are filled with money, so they always run over to me with sly grins on their faces when they see me carrying four or five envelopes.
Today is my second class with a group of 7-8 year olds who have only had 3 lessons of English prior to this one. On the plus side, they are *adorable* and I only have to teach them three things today: "May I borrow a pencil? Sure, here you are/Sorry, no pencil." The rest is reviewing such difficult phrases as "Hello. What is your name? How are you?" It should be fun. I get to dance and sing in that class and we play tons of games. Whoever would have thought my stint at Joe's Crab Shack would have prepared me for this job!
May I take a moment to note how much I love our apartment building. Last night, Susan, Brian, Brad and I met in the facilities area with a movie and rented out the movie theater to watch The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind! It was great!
Tonight after work, I'm meeting two CTs/office workers to start our language exchange! I'm so excited to start learning more Chinese. I've been trying really hard and I can pick out times when people say them, amounts of money I can do, and I can say "one of" when I'm ordering food (unfortunately, I don't know the names of food so I have to say "one of" and then point, but it gets the point across). I've also been able to recognize a few characters: big, little, Taichung, Taipei, down, up (notice these are all characters you might find on a bus or outside it's window). So I've clearly got lots of work to do, but I'm happy to start. Plus, it will be fun to have some people to clarify all the odd things I see in a day, but don't understand and I get to teach them a little English too. Wish me luck on that one!
Today is my second class with a group of 7-8 year olds who have only had 3 lessons of English prior to this one. On the plus side, they are *adorable* and I only have to teach them three things today: "May I borrow a pencil? Sure, here you are/Sorry, no pencil." The rest is reviewing such difficult phrases as "Hello. What is your name? How are you?" It should be fun. I get to dance and sing in that class and we play tons of games. Whoever would have thought my stint at Joe's Crab Shack would have prepared me for this job!
May I take a moment to note how much I love our apartment building. Last night, Susan, Brian, Brad and I met in the facilities area with a movie and rented out the movie theater to watch The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind! It was great!
Tonight after work, I'm meeting two CTs/office workers to start our language exchange! I'm so excited to start learning more Chinese. I've been trying really hard and I can pick out times when people say them, amounts of money I can do, and I can say "one of" when I'm ordering food (unfortunately, I don't know the names of food so I have to say "one of" and then point, but it gets the point across). I've also been able to recognize a few characters: big, little, Taichung, Taipei, down, up (notice these are all characters you might find on a bus or outside it's window). So I've clearly got lots of work to do, but I'm happy to start. Plus, it will be fun to have some people to clarify all the odd things I see in a day, but don't understand and I get to teach them a little English too. Wish me luck on that one!
posted by CJ at 11:00 PM
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