Tuesday & Wednesday - Week VII

TUESDAY

I love seeing the sunshine when I wake up. I know I will never take it for granted again. My whole mood is lifted with just the sight of a ray of sunshine peeking out from a cluster of clouds. It is cold however, but it doesn't matter as much when it's not dark and wet at the same time.

I taught all day today starting with the Spanish girls, Marisol, Vanessa and Patricia who met me at a pub on Quay street where we talked for 3 hours. It's an interesting old pub which has multiple floors and beautiful stained class windows. It doesn't look much like a pub to me which is just fine. Also Quay street was being decorated with live Christmas trees when I arrived and ti's looking more and more festive with each passing day.

We worked on telephone etiquette in both business and personal situations. They did fabulously and are really working so hard to master it all. I also had them reading some passages from Pride and Prejudice which is for readers of the highest English speaking level. So yes, it was extremely ambitious of me to think it was possible to do but I did find on the internet a few passages where the text was translated into simpler language which made the lesson much easier. The girls embraced it all enthusiastically and they all promised me they'd read the book in Spanish and then try reading it in English. There is no way right now that they could attempt to read it in English alone at least not pleasurably because they would have to look up every 10th word or so in the dictionary and they'd never get to finishing the book.

I left to girls with only 15 minutes between their lesson and my session with Hilal, my new student. He is at a beginner level so it's a challenge for me to teach him but it went really well today. We worked for three hours straight at a coffee shop near the Spanish Arch. He bought us a pot of tea and we talked and talked and talked. For someone who is a beginner he managed to express himself well and we talked about past, present and future tenses and he did well with each form. He has problems with pronouns and often says "he" when he means "she" or "They" when he needs to say "them." It just takes practice and he'll be fine.

I met Jean Marie at the Budding Cafe and we were off to the gym for a few hours. I am getting so lazy now I usually just run right into the Jacuzzi and stay there for an hour or so. It's just so warm and soothing and I'm always just so darn cold. I am truly a wimp and I'm proud to admit it.

WEDNESDAY

Another lovely day of sunshine, I could not be happier. Yes, it's cold but it doesn't matter as long as there is no sight of rain.

I met the Spanish girls at the pub again this morning and we had another three hour lesson. Today turned out to be all about food. Vanessa was telling me about the spaghetti bolognaise she made for dinner the night before and then three hours later we were still talking about food. I know, not that surprising since I like food so much but they were practicing telling what they did in the past in great detail so they asked me how to say certain words in English relating to cooking. I was okay for the most part but let's face it I don't even boil water let alone know how to sauté something. I was very hungry by the time we finished though but I had to rush off to meet my student Hilal for another three hour session so I only had time to grab a scone and some hot coco.

With Hilal we worked mostly with synonyms and antonyms and amazingly enough that took over two hours. You don't realize how hard it is when you already speak the language to understand even the simplest things like the connection between day and night. I was looking for the sentence "They are both times of day" but that's not such an easy thing to elicit with a beginner student. It all worked out great in the end so I'd consider it a successful lesson.