Life As A TEFL Teacher
Another Wednesday, another lazy day.
My serial canceller didn't cancel this time; she just left after two hours, as she had toothache and an appointment with the dentist, so I was paid 4 hours for the price of 2 this week, still not bad.
Wednesdays (and Thursdays) are the split-shift days of the week for me, ie the days I work in the evenings. It's a necessary evil of TEFL teaching; afternoons are always quite quiet (2 words that cause my students much gnashing of teeth :) ) and evening classes are popular for those that have to work during the day. I don't like evening classes much, because for me, that's the time of the day when I should be kicking back with a beer and relaxing; but at the start of the year, when not many lessons were going, I gave in and took 2.
This leads to split shifts. An easy life in some ways, afternoons off, only working the equivalent of 6 hours for 8 hours' pay. But it means the afternoon is spent always with the knowledge at the back of your mind that you have to get changed and go off and teach later.
At least I can get back home in time on Wednesdays to cook something before Champions League comes on...
Problems my students have had this week:
- saying 'stay' instead of 'stand' (German 'stehen')
- false friends. German 'bekommen' is NOT 'become', but rather 'get', as in
"Next week, I become a new car". Quite a trick!
- "What's ____ like?" They don't get that this means, more or less, "How is ___?" Fair enough, it ain't very logical.
My serial canceller didn't cancel this time; she just left after two hours, as she had toothache and an appointment with the dentist, so I was paid 4 hours for the price of 2 this week, still not bad.
Wednesdays (and Thursdays) are the split-shift days of the week for me, ie the days I work in the evenings. It's a necessary evil of TEFL teaching; afternoons are always quite quiet (2 words that cause my students much gnashing of teeth :) ) and evening classes are popular for those that have to work during the day. I don't like evening classes much, because for me, that's the time of the day when I should be kicking back with a beer and relaxing; but at the start of the year, when not many lessons were going, I gave in and took 2.
This leads to split shifts. An easy life in some ways, afternoons off, only working the equivalent of 6 hours for 8 hours' pay. But it means the afternoon is spent always with the knowledge at the back of your mind that you have to get changed and go off and teach later.
At least I can get back home in time on Wednesdays to cook something before Champions League comes on...
Problems my students have had this week:
- saying 'stay' instead of 'stand' (German 'stehen')
- false friends. German 'bekommen' is NOT 'become', but rather 'get', as in
"Next week, I become a new car". Quite a trick!
- "What's ____ like?" They don't get that this means, more or less, "How is ___?" Fair enough, it ain't very logical.
Labels: teaching
posted by jimhancot @ 3:50 PM
2 Comments:
At 8:54 PM,
transduction said…
If you guys like Free Anime and Cartoons, you can watch them at http://www.archaicdinosaurs.com. It has the best collection of Anime and Cartoons on the web. Bookmark this site.
At 2:15 PM,
Eric said…
In your experience, do many Germans have difficulty with the past tense in English? I have a German colleague who speaks English very well, but says things like "I used to send you an e-mail" rather than "I sent you an e-mail".
Anyway, I think English must be a tough language to learn (or teach!) as a second language. It's way too inconsistent.
Post a Comment
<< Home