Teaching the Chilenos: Night 1

Last night I had my first teaching experience from 8-10. The classes really couldn't have gone better. As I had hoped, the students were fantastic, and they reacted to me with a sense of humor (unlike some Korean students I know). I was loose, but controlled, and I exhibited the authority of a native speaker.

The first class was a "conversation lesson", where we read a story and then talked about difficult words and their meanings. From there I attempted to lead them in a conversation about the issues in the story. This went okay, and I even had a few omissions of college guilt (the story was about shoplifting) that got some laughs, but it didn't really take off without my questions. But that's okay; it was their first class in awhile. My only other problem in this class was my speed. I need to slow down a little when I speak.

The other class was a vocabulary lesson on the Post Office. Besides a few difficult words that are wrapped with a "before my time" sheen (like C.O.D.s), this also went well. Except for one zombie student, the class of 8 was also fun and interactive. I think they especially appreciated my concerted pronunciation effort, on polysyllabic words like "valuable," and especially "commemorative". In Spanish, the letter "v" is given a "b" sound, so I tried to have them really work on that. The pronunciation of the phrase "sheet of stamps" was also a little tricky, as the word "sheet" can tend toward another word of less polite meanings when said by Spanish speakers.

When the time elapsed, I was surprised and hardly eager to go. I'm not expecting everyday to be like this, but it sure beats teaching those ungrateful half-humans that occupy the schools from grades 5-12. Teaching Chilean adults English--here I come!


Typical Middle or High School Student