It's hard to believe it, but I have already been in Prague for a week! I have taught a lesson to both the beginning class and the advanced class, survived cooking for myself, gotten to know course mates, and had my first Czech beer. It's going by so quickly and yet I am happy to be very busy. The class is very intensive, but I am learning, using, and reviewing a lot from Howard Gardner, SWBT, methods of language instruction, and actually getting up there and discovering that no matter what, you WILL forget to do something and there will be something they WILL NOT understand [this is the part where my course mates would go: "I don't like shopping. No." and "Clientele? No. It is just client."...oh, full immersion. Nonetheless, it has been a blast and despite the blisters, I wouldn't be anywhere else.
So, how do you teach someone something in a foreign language while speaking only your language? Take a look at me after my first lesson, showing off my visual props.
Yes, I actually put the picture of the hat on my head during the lesson and yes, all of the little old ladies laughed at me. You know what, though? They all now know the word hat in English.
Our beginner's class is between 4 and 5 upper middle aged and retired ladies (and one guy). They're sweet but often have no idea what we are telling them to do. It's hard because we want them to learn and talk but they are also very forgiving and eager to learn. It is much easier to teach vocabulary, though, when you can draw it!
With the advanced students, you cannot just draw a picture you have to explain more complex words and then you get either nods of the most perplexed, doe-eyed looks ever. This group is very mixed - a few teenaged/young adult boys, a few retired men, and a middle aged woman who is "well, rather odd." They're much more independent and keep talking and looking things up when you try to bring them back to a whole group! Both groups were fun and I certainly have been learning a lot about teaching from both the classes, observing my course mates, and from our teacher. Jeremy is brilliant and gives us both positives and negatives. He's seriously the best resource ever. We are convinced he knows everything.
So, what do you do after you've survived your first week of an intensive teaching class, taught two lessons, drank more Czech coffee than you thought possible, and spent way too long being very nervous or running to have lunch in the most beautiful park in the world?
In Prague, you de-stress as follows: pivo!
Gambrinus, my first Czech beer! :)
After taking the metro back towards our apartment complex, one other course mate and I (who live a few floors apart) decided to take a quick jaunt down the street Jeremy told us to explore. What else do we find but the old fortifications and bits and bobs of an old castle. After walking around for quite a while, we were still stunned by the views! There were so many people walking around and just sitting either on the wall, on benches, or in the grass with their bottles of beer and wine. Everyone was spending the night relaxing. We found a nice beer garden/restaurant at the tip-top and filed this away for reference.
Take a peek at the view from Vyserhad:
Don't even try to tell me you don't wish you were here, outside, in 70 degree weather, at sunset.
The further we walked, the more of the view we got. Since Vyserhad Castle is on top of a hill (notice the trend...), you can get a 360 degree view of Prague. I kept gasping as I walked, completely awed by the beauty. As we went on and got to the other side, we saw our building as well as the cotton candy pinks and purples unique to cities in the sunset as well as a peek at Prague Castle in the distance.
To quote my course mate, "It's like a fairy tale."
Nasledanou!
Fallon
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