My word!I cannot believe how long it is since I last wrote the blog!Blimey..
I am still teaching.I now work more independently ,finding my own students and developing my own resources.Currently I teach around 12 hours a week.My students are of mixed nationalities including Russian,Turkish, Taiwanese,Greek and Portuguese.This provides a challenge for me because ,despite having a bank of built up resources to use ,each nationality obviously has its own alphabet or has no such thing as idioms ,for example ,in their native language and often I am teaching a concept rather than a grammatical point.The benefit of mixed nationality students is the variety for me as a teacher ,the new knowledge I am gaining of other lifestyles that I have maybe been ignorant of and at the moment the free lessons I am receiving from one of my Portuguese students.We exchange a lesson each once a week rather than me accepting a cash payment.It would be wonderful if we lived in a cash free economy and exchanged services or goods instead!
I teach via Skype and I had a lesson last week with a student living in Moscow.His English is at the beginner stage but he was able to tell me about a recent first trip to the UK for work related reasons.He managed to stay for 3 extra days and spent the time in Manchester in the North of England as he is a Man U supporter.(Football team).
http://www.manutd.com/Splash-Page.aspx
He loved Manchester even though its a grey damp time of year in the North.He found the night-life exciting and so much cheaper than Moscow.
His aim for our lesson was to recreate the noise on the streets of Manchester on a Friday night.Hmmm...
He wanted me to teach about swear words and their meanings.My daughters were in the room next door and I spent an hour shouting out swear words to him.It was difficult to explain the meaning of some words as they are regional and sort of require a knowledge of the place.But it was a fun lesson,I really enjoyed it.
Here is a link to follow up swear words...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A753527
I am still teaching.I now work more independently ,finding my own students and developing my own resources.Currently I teach around 12 hours a week.My students are of mixed nationalities including Russian,Turkish, Taiwanese,Greek and Portuguese.This provides a challenge for me because ,despite having a bank of built up resources to use ,each nationality obviously has its own alphabet or has no such thing as idioms ,for example ,in their native language and often I am teaching a concept rather than a grammatical point.The benefit of mixed nationality students is the variety for me as a teacher ,the new knowledge I am gaining of other lifestyles that I have maybe been ignorant of and at the moment the free lessons I am receiving from one of my Portuguese students.We exchange a lesson each once a week rather than me accepting a cash payment.It would be wonderful if we lived in a cash free economy and exchanged services or goods instead!
I teach via Skype and I had a lesson last week with a student living in Moscow.His English is at the beginner stage but he was able to tell me about a recent first trip to the UK for work related reasons.He managed to stay for 3 extra days and spent the time in Manchester in the North of England as he is a Man U supporter.(Football team).
http://www.manutd.com/Splash-Page.aspx
He loved Manchester even though its a grey damp time of year in the North.He found the night-life exciting and so much cheaper than Moscow.
His aim for our lesson was to recreate the noise on the streets of Manchester on a Friday night.Hmmm...
He wanted me to teach about swear words and their meanings.My daughters were in the room next door and I spent an hour shouting out swear words to him.It was difficult to explain the meaning of some words as they are regional and sort of require a knowledge of the place.But it was a fun lesson,I really enjoyed it.
Here is a link to follow up swear words...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A753527
