Znovuzrození

It all begins again tomorrow. I collect my provisional result from the college at 11ish. And then I start to apply. Although it is far easier these days than the last time I applied in such a volume. The good old days of the UCAS form. Before online applications. Before I had an e-mail account. A hand-written personal statement and the hope that I would get sufficiently high results. As it happens, I did. And went and discovered a whole new world. I am not sure these applications will have quite such an effect on my life, but the course has certainly changed my views of teaching, and will also make me a little more conscious when I restart learning Czech properly. Ten years ago, I would never’ve thought that I would ever qualify as a teacher (although the idea had been mooted in the past), and even the first couple of weeks were sufficiently challenging to make me doubt whether I had made the correct choice. But then my last lesson, in which a class of 8 students were uninterruptible when finding out each others’ musical tastes to a soundtrack of Bobbie Gentry and Tom Jones has convinced me that I may have something to offer. Quite what it is, I am not sure. Structure is something I very much require, and now the theoretical side of lesson planning is firmly ensconced in my brain, I can try and relax and make the class(es) enjoyable for the students. Let’s hope one of the Prague language schools agrees and employs me.

Samota

Rather worryingly, I am looking forward to starting this course. Two months of unemployment have leached any motivation to do anything at all from me. It is a shame I cannot get Jeremy Kyle over here. And, as I am older, I do not feel the panic and fear that have accompanied previous academic changes in my life. Plus the fact that two of the three proved to be, despite my trepidation at the time, some of the most beneficial things that have ever happened to me.

That is not to say I am unconcerned. New people. A practical, rather than academic course. Plus the sheer numbers of hours it will actually take up, both at the centre and in terms of preparation and reading. And I will have to write essays (or is it tasks?) again, for the first time in seven years. Writing with a point. Always a concern to a nonsensical blogger obsessed with minutiae. And not a single element of Central/East European-ness (excluding the location – the relationship will have to be purely osmotic for a month).

However, the pre-course task and the book (I am sure this should be plural) I have been flicking through have both been very interesting. Especially thinking back over the language teachers I have had in the past, their (very) different styles of teaching and their various merits. It does make me wonder what kind of teacher I will be. Will I even have a style? I have trained many people over the years, but mainly in areas where there is very little room for interpretation – one of the benefits of an outdated IT system, I suppose. And the tasks are making me think more about the idiosyncracies of the English language. With slight horror, I have to say. If I were not a native speaker, I fear that the lack of structure in comparison to German or Russian would lead me to run for the hills (assuming there were some nearby, otherwise a building of more than three floors would probably do).

So then, another post about nothing. An attempt to excuse myself in advance for my lack of online contact for the whole of November. Or at least reduced service (ah, London Underground). Hopefully I will be back with a vengeance at the start of December.