The notion that teaching requires a certain amount of entertaining (stand up comedian, juggler, mimer etc.) is no news to me. The fact that I was judged by appearance and refused at a job interview as supposedly depressive, slow, and too serious, was a kind of stab (well, not in the back, my heart rather). And now I'm gonna be tested again. Tomorrow the head teacher is visiting my class of two beginners in their mid-30s. The list of criteria includes questions such as "Is there an activity you can't wait for yourself?" or "Do you play background music during pairwork?" and so on. I can't wait, really. (Stop being ironic.)
Actually, today I bumped into an ex-student of mine from a year ago, and she said the quality of teaching dropped dramatically after I left the school. For one thing, it made my day. In addition, the thought that the school couldn't find someone good enough sounds rightful too (you know, on a universal level).
Speaking of teaching, I discovered a multilingual website for learning Hindi and really like it. And, I also discovered a fantastic Indian shop in Budapest. They sell lots of spices, teas, chutneys etc. But not only food, they have clothes, ornaments and incense sticks as well. I have to admit though that the non-food things were too expensive for me. We bought a few things (e.g. Haldiram's mix) but mainly as presents for a friend's nameday. But I feel I must go back there and try all those lovely spices.
Oh, I've learnt a new idiom with my private student so I'm gonna use it now. These Hindi classes are (wait for it) just what the doctor ordered. I love learning languages indeed.
P.S. Did I mention that we had a Hungarian lecturer on the beginnings of Hindi literature from Oxford University?
It never occurred to me that background music ought to be played during group work. I think some students may even find it distracting. Having said that, I am an advocate of the incorporation of music into EFL classes, but one always has to find out what genres the students prefer.
ReplyDeleteI don't see why they think that there is a finite number of things that work in a language class, and that therefore you should apply each and every one of them to maintain a good atmosphere, satisfied clients, whatever. And I agree, music can be distracting. Not to mention that we don't have a proper CD player (we don't even have a board) in the class, only an MP3 player connected to speakers.
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