Catching up: A few thoughts on Youthwork in the Church

Upon comming home one of the common cerimonial rites is to catch up on everything that has happend since you were away. I find it strange how much more information you can find out actually being home rather than just hearing things over the telephone or emails.
One such conversation concerned my parents involvement with the youth group at a local church [which will have given the game/name away to many readers] and their hiring of staff. Now before I continue to state the deails they disclosed it is best to state my personal view point regard staff in the church which can pretty much be found in these series of article by my friend Andrew Brims on his blog, particularly post 2 in the series.
It has emerged that due to financial constraints brought about from the recession, in addition to the previous lack of success in finding a new full time youthworker for the 11-14year olds, the church was now going to only look for a part time worker [to join the current 2 full time paid youthworkers]. Some had registered their grievances with this decision due to the fact that there are some 120 youth listed on the registers of this churches directory, and if this was a church of this relative size they would certainly hire an administrator to assist in the running of the church. This may well be a fair point, yet as I have linked previously in this article I don't necessarily like this conclusion anyway.
The other point made was that in standard education, the best investment you can make is in smaller class sizes which I would agree with [although from a TEFL perspective a group of 3/4 can be more effective than a 1-2-1 or 1-2-2 class]. However the point I immediately thought was why don't we just get more people to volunteer (an admittedly crazy concept) as this would have this impact and if everyone took part in an aspect of the administration then it would reduce the need of another work to hopefully zero, plus having the whole church more engaged.
The response I received said a great deal to me. I was told that people just don't want to volunteer and that maybe this was why we now have to pay people to do the youthwork.
I have no doubt there is a great deal of truth in this but I think there is also a causal effect caused by hiring a youthworker as well. A few years back I spoke to a friend who was currently working as a youthworker and he said that as soon as he started to get paid the amount of volunteers at the church dropped as a result, and the same occurred again when he became full time rather than part time. This we presumed was because people thought that there was now someone being paid and so it wasn't necessary to volunteer as much.
I was worryingly reminded of the electric monk in one of the Douglas Adams books, which is there to do your spiritual thinking for you so that you don't have to and can concentrate on other things. Is this what we have started to treat youthworkers as? we pay them to teach our kids [in a separate location] so we no longer have to have spend our precious time volunteering or perhaps to make sure we get "fed" each week.
I should point out that I have a great many friends who are youthworkers who have made incredible differences in young peoples lives and I have happily given money to help them be available and free to help those that they work with so I am not taking away from the ministry of youthwork.

Travelling back

Well after 23hrs of travelling I have finally managed to reach my destination, New Malden. of course it wasn't as easy as that, oh no! Everything was going very well until I got to passport control and suddenly [I say suddenly after a 30 minute wait after initally handing over my passport] I was told that despite having a visa I hadn't got my passport stamped after my inital 30 days and so was asked to pay a penalty charge. A few phone calls later and at 18:40, when my plane was due to finish boarding, I was allowed to pass through passport control with a peice of paper informing me that I needed to transfer some money into an account. After then dashing through to the terminal in a frantic search to work out where my plane was, was it still there, were all the people seething at the idiot who didn't bring enough grivner to pay a bribe penality charge as he passed through passport control?

well actually everyone was stood next to the gate as the plane hadn't yet arrived. After a brief period [see an hour] in the que meeting American peace corps volunteers [apparently the Ukraine is the biggest station of peace corps in the world...who knew...well obviously they did as they told me] and a man who had been studying in the national engeners school for his Msc in Engenering, we were let on to the plane...to wait until we could depart.

All of which meant my arrival in the UK was 2hrs later than scheduled BUT I fortunately was not so late as to catch the last underground train. So after 23hr 3 trains, 1 bus, 1 plane, 1 underground train, I finally got home.

There have already been some interesting moments in the UK, such as going up to a counter and hearing someone speak in a British accent and in English [as opposed to russian/ukrainian or English with an accent] and readjusting to British prices [I had only just got use to thinking in Gryvner!] being on public transport and everyone speaking English and finally taking the dog for a walk.

It ended with a hug

Today another teacher left the school, this time taking her 1 and a bit year old son with her. Having grown close to both of them over the last 3 months saying good bye was very hard, and made much harder by the fact that Brazil [where they are from] isn't exactly the closest of places to either the UK or the Ukraine.
I didn't really get to say a proper goodbye as when I believed at the time I had to rush over to the school and teach a one to one lesson [in actually fact the student had cancelled but the message didn't travel through in time] and so I had to leave with a rushed good bye and so long.
Thankfully in this modern age with have such wonderful things as Skype that mean that no matter where people are in the world, we can stay in contact but I know it won't be the same. I had grown to enjoy our regular post teaching meals, chats and running around chasing a little child up and down the house [by this I mean I loved them straight away and loved them even more by the end rather than hated them at first and was reluctantly converted]. I know that nothing will be quite like them, even if they are also enjoyable.

As I did finally say goodbye I had, what had been severely missing during my time in Dnipro. A good, long, all enveloping hug. I realised how much I missed those true heartfelt moments when you bring someone tight to you and don't let go. All of a sudden problems don't seam so bad, worries can fade away and it feels safe just to be yourself. I am certain the world would be a better place if people gave more hugs.

Final thoughts

Past, Present or Future orientated people

A little video about the differences between past, present and future orientated people. [with cool animations by RSA animate]

Fasting: a few thoughts on my faults

I have often wondered about the spiritual discipline of fasting, and when I say wondered I usually mean realised I should do it more and then quickly made up reasons why I shouldn't or other things to think about so that I don't have to go without food or something else.

Every now and again someone comes up to me and tells me what a huge difference they have seen in their life since they have fasted, or I hear a sermon/ read an article about it and I the train of thinking starts. “Of course I should fast, I know that it something I should do, I know it goes along with prayer and I believe that it will be a good thing to do. BUT...” the train of thinking starts “I'm still underweight, I should wait till I'm gaining weight again/I can't do it on Monday, I need to fast in secret and on Monday everyone will know I'm fasting...so I should...oh I’ll work out when to fast later [later never comes]./ oh no! I've eaten a tiny amount of food! That's ruined today’s fast. I'll just have to cancel today’s and start again next week (repeat ad nausium until I have forgotten that it's even a day of fasting)/

I think one of the main problems for me with fasting is that it is so contrary to what culture tells me about food and what I want to believe about food. See although I am usually under what is a healthy weight for my height, I LOVE food. I enjoy all different types of food and tastes and I think the saying “the way to a man's heart is through his stomach” was written about me. So the idea of choosing not to eat really doesn't sit well with me. Having said this I know that we actually don't need 3 meals a day, and that you can easily go for a day without eating and feel no side effects what-so-ever [apart from some bad breath].

I sometimes use the excuses that I have a bad memory and keep forgetting that I am fasting...and it can kind of work for the morning when I have just woken up and slip into auto-eat mode but certainly not during the day. At this point when I Feel hungry I know it is because I haven't eaten and I know this is because I am fasting. Yet despite this I still find myself accidentally breaking my fasts.

If you had read my post about date night then maybe you can see the similarities here. Maybe I’ve been thinking too much about how I feel and about how I am tired/hungry and want some quick relief rather than about spending time thinking/concentrating on God. Maybe [probably] I have become to infected with worldly thinking that OF COURSE I should have three meals a day. Most probably I know that God will still be there if I choose not to carry out on what I decided upon. Really it is a case of taking grace for granted and not appreciating how good it is to spend time with God. When ever I do fast I feel the difference and I am so glad that I did, and yet next week the same old excuses rear their heads out of the ground.

I don't know if you feel the same but it does seam that the modern church really doesn't fast at the moment. Maybe this is my own blind experience but I hear so few sermons on fasting that It really surprises me. Admittedly Jesus and Paul talk about other things more but still how often do you hear fasting mentioned at church.

For further reading on reasons to fast etc see the links bellow. [most nicked from this post]

http://www.saintpauls.co.uk/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=18499

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/26_Fasting/

http://www.ihop.org/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=1000010083

http://www.ihop.org/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=1000046150

Date Night

It's Friday night, date night. Out of every night during the week this is the one that you and your wife have set aside to have a special evening each week. Sure all the time with your wife is special but sometimes, when you come back late from work, cook the meal, take out the rubbish, clean the dishes, do any work for work tomorrow and whatever else you need to do that evening, it can feel quiet stressful. But not this night, oh no, this night you have set agreed to set aside to be with each other and just enjoy one another’s company in whatever way you choose that week.

As you tred the well worth path back home you start to think back to when you agreed to start date night, how other people had told you that setting some time aside to spend with each other was important, how it had benefited their relationships and how it had helped them work through some very hard times, even when they were going through rough patches. At first you had found date night easy, even when you had a lot of work on or you were tired, just the mere thought of date night just managed to lift your spirit.

Recently things had been different though, years had passed since the early days and thinking back all the different date nights seamed to merge into one, Work was getting hard, the kids demanded so much time and it was always a struggle to find a babysitter. Of course you still love your wife, more than ever, it's just. Sometimes you wonder what else you will find out about your wife on this night, or what difference having a meal in a restaurant would be to having a meal at home. Surely you'd both be more relaxed if you didn't have to ring round to find a babysitter and both got to do all the tasks you needed to do. Maybe just this once...we should cancel date night, after all we've done it in the past.

You pull out your phone to ring your wife and start to punch in the number on the keypad when a text arrives. As you open it up the screen and peeking on the screen you see her name. What could it be? Is there a problem with the kids? Is she okay?

“Hi honey. Can't wait to see you tonight, I know how hard these date nights can be but I can't wait to spend time with you. X”

The sudden realisation strikes you in the stomach like the sucker punch you received in primary school from the bully. She had been looking forward to it all day...and there I was going to cancel on her because of how I felt...I didn't even think about how she might have been feeling...What about all the other times we cancelled date night?

She has just finished cooking the kids meal and hears the door bell ring. Why is someone calling at this time of night? Perhaps it's one of those annoying religious groups again. She goes to the door and with curiosity opens the door. There you are, flowers in one hand, and an open hand in invitation to come with you in the other. Why didn't you just open the door? She says with justified bemusement and intrepidation as to what your answer will be. “well the flowers are pretty big plus it's date night, I can't ask you out on a date if I open the door now can I. I know how much date night means to you and I wanted to make It celebrate it properly rather than just go through the motions.”

Sometimes our spiritual lives with God can be just like this. We know that spending time with the one with love is good and will be good in the long run but things get in the way, we just want to relax or have to much work and so missing spending some time with him isn't a big deal, and it kind of isn't. He, like a great partner, loves us and if we had cancelled our “date night” he would have understood as he wants what is best for us. However we sometimes forget what it may mean for him. HE LOVES US, he loves to spend time with us! How absolutely crazy is that. The creator of the whole universe [from the largest of star system to the smallest of particle] Loves each person and wants to spend time with us.

Stranger still if we don't spend time with him, he isn't mad, he just wants us to spend time with him. This is grace and it is the most amazing thing ever.

Best laid plans

(the inner monologue of my head before I left England)
"I know lets go to the Ukraine, I'm sure I'll get to enjoy lots of snow there...certainly more than in Britain." [almost December and so far no snow]

General update 22 nov

Well 3 months have gone now and I'm really starting to settle in here, in Ukraine. There have been hard times of course but over all the whole experience has been good.

It is strange to think just how different my life was this time last year, I had a girlfriend, I lived at home, I did a job that I really didn't enjoy but paid my bills, I had loads of friends, who I had known for many years, around me, I was applying for the civil service fast stream, I was campaigning for a political party, trying my hands at political/Christian/general blogging and I was a member of a strange little Christian community in Sutton called the well.

Fast forward 12 months and I live in a foreign country, on my own, I'm single, I have very few friends around me all of whom I've only known for a short period of time, I am doing a job that I LOVE, I have no plans to apply for the civil service, I am still a member of a political party but probably shalln't continue due to the fact that I may not choose to live in England, my blogging has changed to much more personal updates and experiences [with the occasional TEFL idea] and I am attending a small little baptist church out here [who's services are in Russian].

It's a real statement of just how life can change especially when God's involved. He brought me out here and took me on this adventure with him. I have no doubt that I would still be having an adventure with him had I stayed in England as even the mundane is exciting with God. It's funny because I expect [and hope] for what most people would consider a mundane life at some point, a wife and kids who I see everyday, but clearly right now that isn't where my life is or what His plans are.

This weekend just passed I had the great pleasure of attending a Local cross church gathering for a thanksgiving evening with singing, food and a short message. It was so great and reminded me that I truly do have lots to be thankful for. Perhaps one of the startling statements was the moment when the preacher said " we really aren't that poor, we aren't starving, we have more than we need so let's be grateful for what we have and give, joyfully, to those who are in need." It was amazing to hear a similar message to one that I have heard in England so many times and yet from people who really do have so much less money than those of us in England!

Anyway that's a bit of a general up date of thoughts and feelings from living out here, I'm sure those of you who have put up with my moaning about homesickness recently we be re-leaved to hear a up beat post. Blessings one and all.

A few thoughts on learning words whilst living abroad and in the classroom

So I want to share my experience of learning another language from living in another country and then talk about what can be taken from this to the TEFL environment. 

Firstly a brief introduction, I am currently living in Dnipopetrovsk in the Ukraine where the main spoken language is Russian rather than Ukrainian. I have been living here for 3 months now and had some basic knowledge of the language via a audio book but nothing more. My level is probably the equivilant of an elementary student in the TEFL world. 

Many people say that living in another country is the best/quickest way to learn another language. I am certain this is true, but only if you take that opportunity. If you want then you can in affect have a lesson every day in the language and due to the large need to acquire the language to communicate. However If you happen to have people who speak some English around you then you only need acquire the most basic of language for shopping or other such functions. 

So with my basic knowledge of Russian the ability to listen for gist [get a vague understanding of what people are saying] wasn't to hard pick up and advance. As such it is usually easy to get an idea roughly what someone is talking about. In fact sometimes it is surprising just what I can understand and how few words I need to know to be able to do this. Obviously being in real situations it is sometimes easier than others to pick up what someone is telling you.

An example, I went to the supermarket, the tills weren't working and I was told to go to a different isle. The only words I managed to pick up from what the checkout girl said were "not working, go and I'm sorry." everything else was from context, body language and seeing that the isle hadn't moved for a long time!

This skill is so useful for starting to enlarge my vocabulary that it can't be understated. If you know the context that you are talking then picking up what a word means is possible. If not then you need someone to translate. 

I can Identify three different ways that I have learn't words out here and how they occurred. I believe all three can impact the way we teach to help people learn new words.

The first is the traditional model, I wanted to learn the words for Cutlery, having been told them once I had forgotten what they were so when the opportunity to learn them arose with a bi-lingual speaker [who happend to have a cup with him] arose I decided to find out the words. This time I made myself use them in a sentence when speaking to him. [I like a big cup of coffee, do you like a big cup of coffee etc] (interestingly I was actually trying to work out how adjective endings work and then ended up learning cutlery as a spin of) and I reinforced this by using an action for each one [raising a cup, stirring my cup, cutting some food, lifting a fork with food on] I can recall these words easily now and managed to remember them straight away. This is similar to how vocab may be presented in a course book during a lesson where students are drilled, then made to produce the language through various stages. It works well and is a great way to personalise language use when done right.

The second actually arose from hearing a word in many different circumstances and wondering what the word was. The actual word was "Davi" which means give/lets depending on context. In actually fact I'm starting to think that there isn't an English inequivalent but those are the words we use instead. After hearing it many times I knew it well enough to ask a teacher what the word meant. She explained its meaning and from that point on I knew it. I had already remembered the word I just needed to clarify it's meaning. Straight away it went into my usage and language. 

What can we take out of this for teaching? Well firstly hearing something in different context can be hard to gain a proper understanding of it's meaning. Secondly words don't always translate exactly and this is why simply providing a translation of a word isn't great. Finally it is possible to expose students to certain words can prepare them to learn them. Hence the benefits of not grading texts in receptive skills. 

Finally there was the word "to watch" [smatreets] which again I had encountered many times at my salsa class but in this case I hadn't actually acknowledged what the word was and certainly wasn't concious of it at all on these occasions. I then subsequently encountered it during a conversation with one of the Russian speaking teachers but didn't put too much effort into remembering it. However when I next went to the salsa class I couldn't help but hear it! The instructor was saying it all the time and I recognized the word and meaning. This is how I know he was using it before as he said it all the time! Because of this subsequent encounter I remembered the word very well.

What I take from this is that words need to be presented repeatedly, it is no use to have a word come up in a lesson, a student hear it, try and remember it and then not present the language again. Instead if a word arises through natural conversation it is much better to make sure we bring it up again. This is particularly relevant for Dogme approach which focuses on meeting the students perceived language need and equipping them with the vocab they want. With such words coming up it may be along time before a second encounter of the language would arise. As such it is worth making a note of these new words and bringing them up again in the next lesson to help people remember these new words. 

Right that's the start of that. Please comment and I will edit and then republish with amendments. 

Deeply moved

Today I came across a short Youtube video that was shared by Ray William Johnson of =3 fame. I don't want to spoil it so watch it first.




Part of the reasons that this video affected me so much is from my own experience of my Grandma suffering from dementia. It was so painful to watch her decline and reach a point where she didn't recognise her daughter or husband.

I didn't fight the law....it still won.

Whilst lying facedown on the floor I did wonder how I managed up in this position. This was not a philosophical reflection but rather amazement due to my limited knowledge of Russian and in particular the phrase “lie facefirst down on the floor”. I knew at the time that of course everything would eventually get resolved and that it was only a matter of time before one of the local Russian speakers came and sorted the whole thing out and yet at the same time the whole thing still left me rather uncomfortable (you try lying on your stomach after having a gun pointed at your face.)

I had popped into the school earlier that night so that I could print of the material I needed for my lesson the next morning. I had tried to arrange this visit for earlier in the evening. However after several unsuccessful phone calls to a fellow teacher, I defaulted to another teacher and managed to acquire a key and a pass code to type in. After punching in the code for the first time the buzzing noise continued with the occasional flashing of one the lights. I knew I had been unsuccessful with my first attempt, yet unretired I typed in the code again and the noise stopped. “Success! I’m in!” were two such foolish thoughts that crossed my mind whilst I choose to ignore the continuing flashing lights on the panel.

After a little while I heard the alarm box [from the next room] reinitiate its buzzing noise and my stomach instantly sunk! I obviously hadn’t entered the code correctly in the first instant, hadn’t completed the process or some other silly mistake. I once again proceeded to type on the keypad the same code I had been given before and yet this time it just would not accept what I was pressing.

I started to experiment and ended up pressing the * key as well which resulted in the buzzing stopping and this time no lights being on the display….Surely this meant that I had dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s necessary to avoid a visit from the local security force.

As it turned out I hadn’t. I would love to tell you what I did wrong but it appears that actually the pass code I was given just didn’t work. As little as 10 minutes later (barely enough time for me to get the television to the doorway) I heard the soft jingle of the door as it swung open. As I came round the corner to see who had entered at this time (suspecting the strong possibility of private security forces being there) I saw a gun held aloft and pointed towards me.

I can honestly say I have never had such a terrifying experience as seeing a man wearing camouflage clothing, speaking in Russian, pointing a gun at me and barking instructions that I just didn’t understand.

As such I put my hands against the wall [well that’s what they all have to do in America] and then the security person assisted my understanding of his instructions by helping me to comply with positioning myself on the floor. Of course not one to be deprived of an opportunity to speak Russian I preceded to try and explain that I worked there, has planning a lesson, that I had the code [which wasn’t the correct one, but I didn’t know that] and tried to understand what words came my way. [not knowing the word for typed in/entered/other such word for inputting an alarm code] I wasn’t very successful in my attempts. And so waited on the floor until the ever helpful Oleg arrived and I was released to carry on my mischief lesson planning.

The dangers of Blogging

The internet is always a dangerous place to debate or even to express yourself. You are instantly open to any tom DICK or harry who comes along (pun intended, accusations at anyone not) who happened to stumble across you and decided that you are worthy of being targeted. There have been occasions when I have been the victim to this sort of person [who usually has a small following of people who think their "witty comments" [that usually involve and argument swiftly followed by swear words] are cleaver. Some of these people are actually very clever and make some very good points and yet still want to actually offend the reader of their comments.
Quite frankly if this is how they get their kicks, I really don't care. If they so wished to populate my blog with mindless comments then it may provide me with some great bed time sleeping and entertainment. If they wish to attack my character then really I don't care, they have never met me and don't know me at all.

However something else tends to occur on line, miss communication.

The old saying that we convey so much via our body language and tone has a lot of truth in it and on line we of course don't get this. However there are ways that we convey this via text. quotation marks, commas and other methods can help show whether we are trying to make a serious point, being sarcastic or reflecting someone's point back at them.

Of course what can also happen is that we write something in haste or without thinking how it might be read [which also happens when we speak] and then the other person reads something into it more than we intend. Why? because words and sentences mean very different things to different people. If someone says I think your view is wrong it can be taken as "I think you are wrong". How do I know this? Well I've reacted in that way. I saw a response to something I wrote and took it as a personal insult when it wasn't.
I assumed they were saying I was naive and silly for not researching enough and then complained they weren't listening to me. In fact they were, they knew my arguments already and had researched more than I had. When I calmed down I realised I was wrong, they were my friends [in real life not just online contact] and they loved me and they wanted the best for me.

I learn a big lesson about miss reading people and the need to be careful with what you say.

Sadly sometimes this doesn't happen, maybe the pain of past experience has tainted our perspective too much, maybe the other person over reacts back as well or maybe you never knew them in the first place. In any case sometimes people on the internet insult and belittle other people and sometimes we perceive it as them belittling others.

The obvious response is to be careful with what we write, read what other people write carefully, attack the ideas and not the person and to sometimes step away from everything. Sometimes it will mean we don't get the last word, but that's often better.

Winnie the Pooh as you've never seen him before

I have to thank the receptionist Natasha for showing us Soviet Winnie Pooh. Pure brilliance.

L1 articles

This is a selection of different discussion posts on L1 in the classroom

Better Language Teaching

Tefl certificate courses

From the British Council website

Round up of some academic books

Iatefl British council

A quiet week

[Interestingly if I had changed two letters in that sentence (Quite a week) then the Blog post would have a completely different meaning to the one that it actually does. Isn't the English language fun!]

As you may have noticed there has been a distinct lack of blogging this past week. This was due to a variety of reason. The start of the month hails the start of lesson observations again and all the joy that brings. Don't get me wrong I am extremely grateful for the observations and I am certain they are a great help to grow as a teacher and improve on the areas that I am struggling with.

As per usual instructions came up as a major point of discussion, although it was noted that I am improving a lot here and picking up when students haven't understood a lot quicker. In addition it was pointed out that I need to make sure my tone is actually one that is telling people off when I am telling them off! And finally it isn't always best to tell people off for using L1, sometimes we have to encourage them to try and use English as they are embarrassed/unconfident.

All in all some good things to work on and I hope to take them on board very quickly.

Other than this the week has been pretty quiet, the only real events of note are the non stop salsa party last night (where if you danced with the most people you got free entry to the next one, I came second somehow!) and the ice skatting today...speaking of which I must go.

Hopefully I will blog a bit more in the coming week but until then I am about to post a link to some articles on L1 in the class room... the good and bad.

Visitors from Donestk

During the last weekend we were lucky enough to have some of the teachers from IH Donestk come to visit us in Dnipro [unfortunately one teacher wasn't well enough to come]. It had been a few weeks since we had trekked across  Donestk for the Ukraine Workshop and with the impending departure of one of the secretaries that some of the teachers at Donestk knew they decided to visit say their goodbyes and take part in the Pub Quiz that the Dnipro team was organising. 

The Quiz in the end turned out to be made up of more teacher than students. However the addition of English Club TV and several of the locals turned the quiz into an exciting event for all involved. The eventual winners of the quiz were the "Human Penguin hunters"...an interesting choice of team name which gained it's meaning from the costume that our American teacher decided to wear that day. 

Hopefully we will host another Quiz soon with more students attending this time. 

We of course indulged in other activities but I think that this information should stay between the different teachers. 

I had put of posting about my first experience of Church in The Ukraine partially because of lack of time and partially because I forgot. However, having seen Andrew Brims' latest post I am convinced this was divinely inspired.

Last Sunday I went to A Baptist church in Dnipropetrovsk, I have to say I wasn't certain what to expect and on my way over I did suddenly start to worry about the potential social fax pa that could result if "Sunday best" was still the norm here. Luckily for me it wasn't as I discovered to my relief when I met my guide and translator for the day, a fellow teacher here named Claire. Claire Is a Canadian who has lived here for 4 years now, having moved here during her university degree to complete her minor in Russian. Needless to say her assistance was very useful and I have to say I would have been very lost had she not come along.

There were many other English speakers at the church (of varying levels) but having a friend who speaks your language as a native is certainly advisable.

After working my way over Via Marshootka and being introduced to several people Claire and I took our seats and the service began. Surprise number one soon followed!

About 12 people went to the stage, about 5 singers various musicians (including acoustic and electric guitars) whilst someone gave a welcoming speech in Russian to the assembled...er...assembly. The influence of Hillsong had clearly been felt in this part of the world!

My suspicions were confirmed when Later I heard the riff for "everyone needs compassion" and I started to quickly try and guess as much of the lyrics in Russian as I could. I was quite proud at managing to translate the who first line of the song before it appeared on the small laptop screen to my right [the projector was down, which didn't help the experience of singing in a different language.]

What did make this service different from most others I have been to was the mini first sermon followed by a longer sermon later on. The theme was harvest and the preachers looked at being thankful for God's provision, Giving him out first and our last (because everything actually comes from God), not boasting in our own efforts before finally looking at being thankful for not just food but for our salvation that is completely God's act [and by extension how the harvest festival and saying grace were intentionality reminders to be thankful to God for our Salvation daily].

It is probably at this point you can see why having a fluent speaker was very useful! Despite slow and steady progress in my Russian, my progress has been...SLOW and steady.

After the service I was taken through to another room and low and behold there was coffee! [which was received with thanks giving!] as well as various fruit and perozina [a blanket term for sweet cake type things].

I couldn't stay for too long afterwards (as I was joining a friend for Salsa Classes (yes I am having lessons now!)) However I was invited to go to the Alpha and Omega students group to meet some young people from other churches. As I said I couldn't attend but I shall be going to their English event they are having next friday.

During the whole Time I was bearing in mind my friend Andrew Brims, experience in Malaga where he compared the church service to one that he would have back home and there were obvious similarities. I could recognise some of the songs (and a few more sounded strangely familiar), there was a standard sermon, there was a large contemporary band, they had notices [the sign of a church service] and there was coffee afterward.

However I did notice differences (other than the obvious language element) I was welcomed by many people, people kept coming back to me and speaking to me (even those with very poor English) there was a lot of life in the church, I couldn't tell you who the Pastor was until he started to preach and the sermon made great reference to Ukrainian culture and events in their history and we shared some food afterwards.

It was a Harvest sermon as well so I won't take it as a completely standard service, However I am looking forward to going along to the next one and seeing how this experience is similar or different.

Personal reflections on a task

This morning I was teaching a Buisness English class (pre-intermediate level, 60 minutes long, one student turns up on time the rest appear over the course of the next hour session) on presenting visual information. The lesson included identifying the names of certain charts/diagrams, filling in some information on the charts and also learning some vocabulary to describe the charts/information on the chart. The lesson was running slightly faster than I anticipated and so I set a final task of getting students to draw a personal graph/pie chart and then describe the information on it. This could be about business or their personal life and so unsurprisingly they choose their personal life (often a nice change after a work intensive lesson). What was very interesting was what they choose to display in their graphs.

Most choose to go for pie charts of some sort, this was possibly because I made an example of the break down of the lesson including the 15% where there was only 1 student, or possibly some other factor. One chose to show how she spends here time during an average day. I instantly realised that this would have been a great task to set and would have been really interesting to see how similar/different peoples days were, what their responsibilities at work were (vocab we had just looked at) and also what they did in their spare time. I made a quick note on some paper so that I would make a more permanent note.

The other was a students break down of the lesson time. He identified the amount of time spent talking in Russian, the amount of time I spent talking, the amount of time we did feedbacks/checking answers and also the amount of time spent on communicative activities (though he didn't put it like that). The good point was that his chart said that I spent very little time talking! (always encouraging when the aim is to get the students to speak as much as possible). The bad was how much time he identified as Russian speaking time.

After I saw his chart (which luckily he didn't show the rest of the class) I had to accept that he was roughly right, there was a lot of time spent speaking in Russian. This was partially due to the presence of a student who very rarely attends, when she does she is late and also gets very embarrassed about being behind the other students (which doesn't help with her attendance record). There is also another student who with the exception of saying an English word or doing a communicative task REFUSES to speak in English. I have tried explaining to her the benefits of spending as much time as possible talking in English and reminded her during lessons but she still refuses to budge. From speaking to other teachers this seams to be a pre-existing condition and problem that must be tackled. In addition to that the student who came up with this Pie chart also often discusses in Russian (which does of course raise the question, Does he actually think 30% is too much time or not enough??).

Having previously only taught in a Multi-lingual context (with perhaps only a couple people speaking the same language, who were easy to separate.) the issue of L1 (first langauge) is one that has certainly been a struggle to cope with. At first I almost tore my hair out if a single word was uttered in L1 (even when children who could barely speak a word of English spoke in russian) but then there has been the question of have I now gone too far the other way and accepted defeat.

In an effort to help understand why students speak in L1 and when it can be helpful I picked up a few articles and will write a post [series of posts] covering my thoughts on L1, when it's useful, when not, and how we can maximise the amount of English our students learn through careful use/tactics to avoid L1.

An Atheist walks into Alpha

Ever wondered what an Atheist makes of the Alpha course? Well actually Adam Rudford has been writing about his experience of the course for a while now. Admittedly this is one persons views of the Alpha course and to take this as a absolute guide of what every Atheist would think would be ridiculous but still it could be very interesting.
Having browsed the latest post I did find a very interesting comment that he made. One of the people who was on the course with him appears to have decided that God does exist, in his own words she is an intelligent and thoughtful woman, however this decision of her makes him unhappy and he feels as though his arguments have failed. It is also interesting that he blames himself for this failure to convince (despite "[his] sturdy but polite defence of science and attack on healing (the most galling session)"). I find his response so intriguing that he accepts she is cleaver and a thoughtful person but can't accept this decision as being well thought through.
Anyway I will certainly be going through the posts and seeing what he made of it.

Getting more than you bargained for

As the rolling stones once sang "you can't always get what you want" (actually they sang this many times but that would ruin the saying). However sometimes we actually get what we want and more. In a follow up action to the conference I asked if I could observe some more experienced teachers (as I hadn't had the chance to see any since I have been here and it is certainly a great way to pick up tips for teaching your own class). The response was highly positive towards my suggestions! "Of course you can, in fact why don't we do what we did last year" [alarm bells] "a peer observation week when any teacher can observe any other teacher with no for warning" [arg!!!] plus we can do lesson observation master classes where experienced teachers take your class and you can see how they deal with the class and pick up some things from them."

Okay so this will actually be a great experience and to be honest we often only get a very short notification that we will be observed anyway [and our lessons should be good enough for observations even if they aren't observed!] so it should actually be a great experience. Still I was hoping to observe more lesson and not to be observed more!

Video of Chinese Lanterns at the Donbass Arena

The Next Chapter

As I mentioned before the weekend I was off in Donestk this last weekend at the 25th International House Ukrainian workshop. It was a great time with some amazing speakers and great teachers there. I certainly enjoyed the many different experiences from that weekend (including releasing a Chinese lantern from the centre circle of the Dombass stadium, watching a couple of ballet performances, witnessing a scots man perform ACDC in the Irish pub in Donestk (and then have hundreds of girls ask for his photo), having a Skype conference with Scott Thronbury (oh and 123 other people) being interviewed for an Eastern European TV station, watch a Russian singer perform (who was pretty good) teach some "english" dance moves to hundreds of Ukrainians and many more (which I will blog about later) However It started me on a train of thoughts about my future, both job and blog wise.
Job wise the overwhelming feeling was just that I love teaching and I think teaching English in particular. I say I think because lack of trying/considering other subjects may be influencing this and as such I may equally (or even potentially love greater) teaching another subject but obviously this raised many other questions. If I love teaching English so much then I pretty much NEED to spend another year abroad as there just aren't enough jobs in England (at least that wan't so little experience), The market may change but as it stands I would basically have to spend another year abroad [or possibly move north but that may in effect just be abroad].
This was however backed up by how much I like the Ukraine (in particular seeing a different city with all it's wonders) and further to that, how much I am enjoying learning/speaking Russian. As such staying in Dnipropetrovsk/the Ukraine/Russian speaking countries would not be as bad as I might have thought.
Another thought provoking...er. thought came during the talk from Lucy Horsfield one of the big figures within International House World organisation and International House London. She talked about the impact of blogging on teaching English and how we could learn from other teachers this way. It reminded me about my own blog and made me think about a couple of things. Perhaps I should do some more teacher specific things, as in lesson ideas, interesting articles on methodology, resources etc.
In addition to this I realised that this blog has had a complete lack of Political blogging since I moved to the Ukraine (with perhaps 2 exceptions in articles). As such I have decided on two things, one I am taking myself of the political blogging lists for different services (including Lib Dem Blogs). the other one I am still considering is weather to just resign to not doing any political blogging at all (and intentionally avoid it) or to just not state that I will. At the moment I favour the latter but we shall see. Either way you shouldn't come to this blog expecting any political posts.
So I am going to go through some further changes to the blog (such as the current AD free state etc and now a tumblr version) to make it as user/teacher friendly as possible and still allow me to write personal blogs. Thanks to everyone who has encourage the political blogging side and especially to Lib Dem Voice for the links and golden dozen awards. It was great to find out that someone thinks you have something intelligent to say.
Anyway I hope you do want to continue reading my adventures in the Ukraine and perhaps find out some information about teaching English as a foreign language and as such you will stay on this blog. If not then Thank you any way.

How to convert your keyboard to Russian in a few easy steps

Since originally posting this back in October 2010 where all I did was make my own stickers I have actually bought some stickers for the keyboard so that they can be seen. You can find them here on Amazon.

If you don't need the keys then you can activate the option to type in Russian via the control panel [in windows] and selecting Russian as an alternative language setting.

I hope this helps. 

Sticking out abroad

The decent in to winter is well and truly under way. Although I did report a few weeks back that the temperature had dropped this was a temporary measure with their recovery back to wonderful highs of mid 20's Celsius. However a quick check of recent weather reports shows that the current highs are in the tropical low teens (if that).

At first I had been wary of donning my scarf to hold of the garotting hand of the wind around my throat. However no sooner had I started my expeditions, scarf in toe, I noticed that many other men wear also wearing their scarf's as well and did not feel so awkward about my clothing arrangements. I don't normally worry about what I wear or similar issue but here it is a different story due to a strange and unexpected factor. I look foreign.

I'm not sure what it is (well I know some factors) but apparently I stick out as though I have a sign which says "English" above my head. My first instincts was that this was due to my obviously accent when ever I spoke. However the continued looks in the streets, being informed by one of the Ukrainian receptionists that no one wears a smart jacket and a rucksack (and in fact only kids wear rucksacks really) and being asked for a photo (twice) made me realise that actually this was due to my appearance.

Perhaps coming for a place where there are so many people from different back grounds makes it harder to identify someone in the street as being foreign but here my looks, very dark hair and bone structure, are obviously foreign. there are some obvious advantages, people generally forgive my horrific pronouciation ( р and ы are particularly hard letters) and random people wishing to speak to me in English is quite a nice treat. However I don't like the idea that I stick out here.

Of course there isn't really much I can do. I can buy a new bag (well I did) I can think about what I wear....(see above) but the factors that really reveal my identity are written in to who I am.

It's interesting to think about this in terms of personality. After all, often the elements that make us most stick out are the attributes of our personality that are so central to us. Sometimes we just want to hide these and just not stick out but really we're just covering up ourselves. Why should we do this? It doesn't really work anyway (as everyone knows) and if it does work then we aren't actually being the people we are. We should be proud of these quirks that make us the unique people that we are.

A few Christian blog post I have been enjoying

Two of my friends have written some quite thought provoking post on the church, people in the church and [as much as it pains me to use the term] post modernism Christianity. [it should be noted that we were all involved with the well Christian community in Sutton over the last few year and hence our connection to each other.]

The first is from Andrew Brims, he is a Christian who currently lives in Malaga Spain . I have been referring to him as a missionary out there how I was recently reminded that actually every Christian is in fact actually a missionary in their own location. As such although this title is correct so is simply Christian.
His Post is on the modern church service format, it's intended outcomes and unintended outcomes (the good and bad). He then looks at what might possibly the alternative.

The second is by Nat Gillet where he has started about three real people (with different aliases) who will probably never go to church and may well never meet Jesus. It's an interesting read as there are many people i've met during the course of my life who have and probably will never go to church or be part of a Christian community. At the same time there have been moments when I've been truly amazed at the people who have been welcomed in by churches and become truly integrated there.

anyway I recommended them to the house.

A video update from the Ukraine

Here is a little video of me telling you what i've been up to/what is coming up in the Ukraine.

A General update 30/09/2010

Well it's been a while since I last blogged and for good reason, the work days have definitely become more hectic and require much more forward planning. Most days I now have a morning lesson and then evening/afternoon lessons and as such have very little time to plan lessons during the day (meaning that Friday and a bit of Saturday are becoming necessary lesson planning time). When the lack of internet at the flat is factored in then the hour between lessons on Thursday morning and regular Sunday mid afternoon trip  the coffee shop are the only chance I can get. The plus side is that I am definitely getting quicker at planning lesson and some of my recent assessments have brought up some very good feedback. I have a good level of being fun but firm with teenagers (I introduced them to Bombay bicycle club yesterday) and my ability to adapt at a moments notice was again brought up when I forgot a listening exercise for a business lesson.

We have managed to discover a very local and very realistic English паб that actually has darts, table football, shows football on the tv and does and English breakfast and fish and chips. although I am yet to sample these culinary delights I am hoping they will both be culinary and delightful. We first visited it on Friday when one of the other teachers and I went to watch the basketball with a couple of my pre-int students (one of whom worked at the basketball arena) Dniproazot played pretty well, however Kyiv were just a much better team.

During the rest of the weekend the other international teachers spent time introducing our newest member (neil) to Dnipro including going to the air rifle range where I managed to get the highest score (somehow) and sampling the wonders that are sharoma (a sort of kebab with chips inside that is worryingly addictive). On Monday evening I invited several of the other teachers around and we all had a very large risotto (though not quite large enough for the number of teachers that were present unfortunately). This was my attempt at bringing and element of "the well" to Dnipro and was gratefully received even if it wasn't exactly the same.

the only other news since Monday is that I have successfully managed to send a video message back to someone in England (took ages to shrink the video down to a suitable size) and I have also received my first item of post from the uk (thank you Zoe Allen). now I must dash for my next lesson.

This is Agent Wilson signing off.

Multi-Lingual blogging day.

I found out about this event recently via Lib Dem Voice and thought I would give it a go in Russian...However it has quickly become apparent that my level of Russian still has a very long way to go and so what I actually do end up posting in Russian will be very basic (and not including this pre-amble that has used such words as "pre-amble" that I simple do not know. I Could cheat and use babel fish/google translate but I feel that would defile the point of the exercise slightly.) So without further a do my Multi-lingual Blog post....

Привет из Украины, меня зовут Крис Уилсон и я живу в Украине в течение месяца сейчас. Это очень интересная страна, полная прекрасных людей. Хотя на первых людей лоскутных холодной я узнал, они очень открытые и помощь с моей плохой русский язык.Жизнь в другой стране может быть очень трудно, но очень хорошо, как хорошо, Есть всегда новые впечатления, и они лучше с хорошими друзьями. Я люблю еда здесь, но это потребуется время, чтобы привыкнуть к, и я люблю погоду (но она будет меняться).


[Translation]

Hello from the Ukraine, My name is Chris Wilson and I have been living in the Ukraine for a month now. It is a very interesting country full of wonderful people. Although at first people seamed cold I learnt they are very open and help with my bad Russian.
Living in another country can be very hard but very good as well, there are always new experiences and they are better with good friends. I love the food here, but it did take time to get use to, and I love the weather (but it will change).

Some pictures from outdoor Salsa next to the Dnipro

As promised I actually took some pictures from the outdoors salsa that goes on next to the Dnipro river in Dnipropetrovsk. Unfortunately I believe this is the last for the some time (I can't be certain as my Russian still isn't great) as the weather has definitely started to drop. It was a great way to go out with a live band and all the local salsa clubs there (there was definitely a noticeable increase in standard)

A revealing lesson

On Wednesday I was teaching my pre-intermediate teenagers and we were looking at hobbies and interests. One of the more interesting questions was "does anyone have a hobby that could become a profession, after all if they say yes to this then it would show that they must really be interested in this hobby and probably spend a fair bit of time doing this activity. One student revealed they were a keen swimmer and another that she was a strong dancer. When I asked what type of dancing she was interested in I at first heard "street dancing" assuming she meant urban type dancing I was quite surprised out of all the girls in my class (all around 15-17) I would have guessed that if this student was into dancing it would be more traditional dancing. However the rest of my students had switched into Russian and were clearly asking a lot of questions and it was at this point I discovered  that actually she hadn't said street dancing...but strip dancing.
You never know what you will find out about your students

Ukrainian Political Posters: Aleksandr Vilkul

Following on from my previous post with a Ukrainian political post I thought I'd show you another one. this time belonging to Aleksandr Vilkul

Globa Park

Next to my house is the truly impressive Globa Park. Coming from the UK and being use to parks being wide open spaces where one could play football, walk a dog in the wide open expanse and, a few years ago now mind, play on the swings and slides (or for some teenager swig cheap cider on said swings and slides). Here in the Ukraine the most obvious difference is the amount of tress that take up space across the whole of the park,  they are everywhere and are only broken by the river, paths and occasional cafe's and hot dog stands.

In addition to this there are also a variety of weight training equipment and gymnastic materials ranging from pull up bars up to machines that use your own weight as the resistance for using your arms of legs. There is also the highly impressive children's concert centre located next to the lake in the middle of the park. It is a very impressive building which hosts performances each weekend. Finally, perhaps the strangest item in the park is the railway that runs round the perimeter of the park. It doesn't connect to any other train service and seams to be primarily aimed at young children. It is very strange to see it at weekends running round and blowing it's whistle to move people out of the way.

I will post some more photo's of other elements of the park when I can.

A few reflections on learning a language in another country

Before I came out to the Ukraine I had been following Michael Thomas' teach yourself Russian beginners course and trying to write in Cyrillic as much as possible to help myself get as firm a grip of the language as possible and so as to not be completely stranded when I arrived. In fact I had actually started to learn the language before I decided to do my CELTA course, to come to the Ukraine in stead of Russia and I had already learnt a bit of Cyrillic back at university for my module in Russian politics. However the difference between completing one of the basic teach yourself courses and actually being a proficient speaker is huge.

It's hard to appreciate how much language we actually use until you place yourself in an environment where everyday you have to use another language and notice all the elements of your own language that you do not know in this other language and yet want to use. Bearing this in mind it is actually very impressive the amount of language that all economic migrants (and students) require to be able to enter our country. Many of them have a much strong grasp of English than most English people will ever have of another language and yet despite this, some people still make statements like 

"these foreigners coming over and taking all our jobs can't even speak our language!"

The fact of the matter is that if I had wanted to come to the Ukraine and the Ukraine had the same immigration laws that we did then I would never have been able to come over. I know no Ukrainian, very little Russian, I did have a job lined up before I travelled. However I have basically "taken" this job from a Ukrainian (as there are many Ukrainians who are very proficient speakers of English and very good English teachers.) In addition I barely have any qualifications in this subject (and in fact only got a C at GCSE
English).

Fortunately this wasn't the case in the Ukraine and so I have been able to come over and I am really enjoying the opportunity to improve my knowledge of the Russian language. I find it a really interesting language with the lack of prepositions and only having 3 tenses yet relying heavily on word endings to inform you of the how the word fits into the sentence (whether it is the subject, direct object, the process of the sentence etc). Having daily informal classes with the Ukrainian teachers here and with general people in shops, salsa dancing (great for learning the words for body parts) or a whole host of other situations.

I am really glad that I have had this opportunity to spend time experiencing the wonders of living in another country, learning the language (even when it means looking like a complete idiot in a shop with a shop assistant just saying the same thing louder and I still have no idea!) I just hope that people from other cultures will get that opportunity in Britain as well.

Some more salsa and fireworks

Last night Me and my fellow partner in crime manage to get one of the other teachers (hereby referred to as Scottish Chris [so as to distinguish him from myself]) to join us in some outside Salsa. I have never seen this in England yet it seams to be very common here in the Ukraine as this group does it every Sunday evening and as I walked home I came across another salsa club that was still going as I came back.

I was impressed by how quickly Scottish Chris went from making many many excuses for not being able to attend next week to starting to learn the basic steps and then even dancing with various different partners!

After a few hours of dancing the fireworks to celebrate the founding of the city started and all eyes turned to the bridge crossing the river. It was a very impressive display that had meant the bridge had been closed off all day to set up for the 15 minute display. (that's 15 minutes of fire works pretty much all along the kilometre long bridge going off.)

The result of all this was that by the end of the evening me and John and convinced Scottish Chris that not only was Salsa good fun, that he should (and would) come along to the next evening group but we had also assisted the male female balance at the salsa club. Which isn't too bad seeing as we had only been once before.

Ukrainian Political Posters

Here in Dnipropetrovsk there are some upcoming Oblast and Mayoral elections and as such I thought I'd put up some of the pictures of the different candidates posters for you to enjoy. Here is the first one playing heavily on the nationalism side.

They might not do Mexican food but they do Salsa!

Not knowing many people out here in the Ukraine and there being a lack of the typical ways to meet people that I have been use to from growing up in England can make weekends occasionally repetitive and boring, leading to the anticipation of returning to work and having lessons to teach being greater than it might otherwise be. However this weekend was different as for the first time in my life, I donned a nice shirt (that has occurred plenty of times before), headed to the riverside, and (after beating my British reserve into submission) did some salsa dancing for the first time. 

When I was first invited I knew that it would take me a while to actually dance but that once I started I would really enjoy it. The fact that the whole affair began with an outdoor session really did not help things. However within an hour the sun had set, the street lights dimly lit the area and most of the passers by no longer stopped and stared but hurried by to get to whatever destination they were scurrying along to.

By the time I had been taught the basics (moving forward and backwards in time to the music) the actually dance classes were ready to begin and we had moved inside to a local bowling alley that also happened to have a sizeable dancing area next to it. At this point I was ready to start learning the part that I was most looking forward to, being able to spin my partner round and even attempting a spin myself. 

There was an element of year 6 disco during the periods when it was up to the guys to go up to one of the, many, women in the room and ask them to dance. If I had been fluent in  Russian and an experienced salsa dancer then I wouldn't have felt too comfortable with this, but after bucking up some pride (and being warned of the consequences of not dancing with someone by the time by fellow teacher John returned from...well the john) I had asked a fairly proficient English speaker to dance and she had helpfully guided my steps.

The absolute highlight of the evening was the instructor teaching people to do the samba. I decided not to take part as trying to understand Russian instructions and not being able to see what was going on was hard enough and I greatly appreciated this decision after witnessing the truly amazing nature of the dance (from a distance)! This obviously would not have been so had I taken part (maybe I will one day when I can understand a bit more russian...and actually dance a bit too)

The whole affair cost 40 UAH which is somewhere between £3-4 and lasted 3 hours. The outside dancing was completely free and went on for a couple of hours before hand and takes place every Sunday evening. In fact me and John are going along to it tonight and plan to then watch the fireworks that are occurring afterwards as part of the Dnipro day celebrations. I will try and get some picture and post them up. 

The first bite of winter

This morning winter fired its first warning shots across my bows when I woke up and faced the early morning tram journey with the cold weather having it's first bite. It is incredible how quickly the weather has gone from being so hot that sleeping was an issue, to waking up and feeling that it is just a bit too cold to get out of bed, in only a few weeks. It certainly shows signs of what is to come in the ensuing winter months.

Having spoken to one of the Ukrainian people here I have, however, been informed that there is actually a relatively short period when there is snow here in Dnipro and so my hope of enjoying a long snowey winter may have to wait for a bit longer. On the plus side I am practically guaranteed some snow this winter!

I had another Russian lesson this morning where we covered the alphabet. All 33 letters! there are so many different variants around our E and O sounds (where as in English we have several A sounds and our wonderful diphones). At times It was quite challenging (this being despite my attempts over the last year or so to use cyrillic in my day to day life and adjust to it) especially the sounds we just don't have in English and the ь, and ы for soft sounds and the very strange "iy" type sound (this really doesn't tell you the name of it though).

At last it does appear that we are going to move premises (considering we were suppose to do this before the start of the school term some ten days ago and we have told students we would have moved twice before, it is a pleasant surprise to be surrounded by bin bags with Vocabulary and text books lining their insides, preparing for their trip to the new premises. As such there is a strong chance (see near certain) that we will be helping to move all the material and furniture over to the new premises and could mean the relaxing weekend is nothing of the sort.

As for the rest of the day, well we aren't having our input sessions yet (training session for teacher that should happen every Friday) and so I have it off! I'm planning on searching Dnipro for a music shop and checking out the guitars there as I am having serious guitar withdrawal symptoms (it may have been responsible for me waking up at four this morning with a splitting headache)

Words on a whiteboard

I noticed something this evening whilst teaching that actually filled me with a real sense of pride and joy. I looked at my handwriting on the board (for a word I had been asked to spell) and I knew it was the right spelling, it was legible and I had helped a student progress in their knowledge of English.

Why was this such an achievement for me a now professional English as a foreign language teacher? Well I am Dyslexic and have had major problems with spelling and handwriting for a long time. I was certainly a slow starter at primary school, not helped by my glue ear and in ability to hear what people said for many months at school. After being issued with handwriting classes whilst at primary school and then being given English as a foreign language lessons before school whilst I was at secondary school (with a load of Korean students) I managed to not only achieve a C in my English Language GCSE, but then continue to take essay based subjects right up to degree level.

Admittedly my handwriting was (and can still be) shocking and I do have to use google chrome as my browser due to its in built spell checker, but I have come a long way since the days of my year 6 teacher being determined to insure that I could use paragraphs by the time I left primary school (I could, I subsequently immediately forgot this vital information when I went to secondary school). This evening I realised how far I had come in actually being able to teach English and I was so thankful for all the people who have helped me to achieve this.

Anyway, I just had another set of lessons and I can safety say they have definitely become much easier to plan and deliver, I am much more able to anticipate problems that will arise and to help students deal with them. Sometimes things don't go to plan but it doesn't seam to bother me as much any more. It really feels great to know that I can actually do this, despite what nature may have set against me. I thank God for all the people who have helped me over the years and for his assistance during all problems I have faced.

It's Business time!

Not related to the rest of the post:

Yesterday I taught my first business English class (I won't mention the companies name etc just in case there might be an issue with that.) which means that I have now taught Kids, Teens, Adults and Buisness lesson (all I need is for some babies and one-to-one classes and I will have a complete set (compared to the length of time it took me to get a complete set in pokemon, including mew, I almost feel disappointed at it's brevity.) The lesson only latest one hour but I will have the group three morning a week meaning we should cover more material each week. 

It was a very different experience from all the other classes I have taught so far for a wide variety of reason. It was off site in the company, which meant I had the pleasure experience of catching the tram in the morning (it is a very good thing that there is a universal 1 UAH [approximately 10p]) charge for the tram rather than having to say where I wanted to go and then get the right amount from the ticket person on the tram.) Then there was the time of day of the lesson...it was actually during the day rather than at night as all my other lessons have been (apart from my kids classes at 3:00. The material was also very company specific with the first session being all about vocab to describe companies. Finally having all your students turn up in very smart clothes was a quiet different experience too. 

After this lesson I was practically forced to take the day off due to my cold (that's right a cold) I'm not sure if I looked horrible or they were worried about me infecting everyone else but anyway I was sent home to enjoy the wonders of Ukrainian television. On the plus side I did get to watch the film Gataca, which I had borrowed from the school, It was definitely provocative on the subject of embryology and genetics. I also loved the quote from Jude Laws character "I just gave you my body, you gave me your dreams."

Today I yet again have my 3 adult pre-intermediate groups (meaning I will finish teaching at 9:20). Luckily the subject matter I am teaching is very similar to what I had already taught my teenager pre-intermediate group. As such my prep time has been ridiculously short and I have time to prep for my business class tomorrow morning.

The school may also be moving premises this weekend to a more central location in the town. The obvious advantages of it being larger, in a more prestigious area and it is located right above TGI fridays an Italian restaurant and a Sushi bar (which will make lessons ending at 9:20 much more acceptable when there is hot food straight down stairs!) 

Caught in it's Greep

This weekend I came under the grip of..er...greep! That's what the Russian word for flu and after noticing the initial signs of a dry throat on Friday evening by Sunday I made a desperate attempt at ordering some cough medicine from the local pharmacist. I had done very well up, managing to use my essential TEFL skills of gestures and miming to Elicit cough, sore throat, runny nose (although my face may have revealed some of that). After being handed a bottle with some instructions I assumed that I could research any of the word lots of words that I don't understand when I got home and then work out the full instructions. After all how different can Ukrainian cough medicine really be?
Well it turns out that the instructions were in Ukrainian, which Russian as Dutch is to English/German. It turns out that I had bought some of that "add to hot water and then inhale" stuff which isn't that effective anyway! As such my Sunday wasn't really the highlight of the week but more one spend in bed/in my flat/getting "cough medicine".
On the plus side, today I was given some Tesco (in Ukraine!?!) vapour rub and some Lemsip rip off from the very helpful Oleg and my Lesson went really well! A good thing too considering one of the co-directors observed me the children to see if they were at the right lesson (I was complimented on my attempts to get the students to not use Russian.
In today's lessons I had the days of the weeks with my young kids and the new point's system had a real affect on their behaviour and then I had my teenagers do present simple Vs present continuous. Both groups really picked up their lessons and really progressed which was a real blessing consider how hard the last two had been.
The only other main thing to report from the weekend just gone was my trip to Puzata Hata a almost canteen style restaurant with tradition Ukrainian food where I had my first Borsch (I was very impressed) as well as my almost staple food of Verenykya. I had also recorded a small video update from here but, unfortunately, my computer is having some issues with loading video's from the computer and so you will have to wait.

The Not so English Pub

In Dnipro there is an "English Pub" called Big Ben. I had slightly high hopes for Big Ben's seeing as it advertises itself as an English pub, surely this would be a place where it might even be possible to order things in English, watch the English football team on a television and maybe even encounter other English ex-pats in Dnipro.

As soon as we walked in my suspicions that this would actually be more of a Ukrainian take on an English pub and not actually that English at all. There was a small bar area with the obligatory chairs next to the bar (got that right) then they had a load of tables that definitely belonged to a restaurant (okay maybe they were going for the gastro pub idea, not traditional English pub but certainly on the rise.) They welcomed us in Russian (okay it is a Ukrainian city I'll accept that most people should speak Ukrainian or Russian but it would have been cool to have an nice "hello" echo out as we crossed the threshold...) There was a TV (the modern staple of an English Pub) but as I turned to my left I noticed that there a stage set up for a band!

After a quick check we had the conformation, no football, just the band. There was of course only one possible choice for us in light of this. We left and set of for the Irish pub (the description "just round the corner" was definitely not accurate in this case). We were all surprisingly impressed by the Irish pub, there was a plentiful supply of many different types of whisky (although most did appear to be Scottish blends, that can be forgiven) there menu included Irish classic as well as a very tasty steak and they had Guiness on tap! They also showed the England match!

Having watched England win 4-0 we decided to leave the Irish pub and head home, stopping for a final beer at a cafe/bar we had visited recently. At this point I decided to test my Russian out (as we had lost our more fluent Russian speaker earlier in the evening). It started well and I managed to ask for two beers and was completely understood. I was then asked something which I assumed was "which beer would you like" seeing a they serve a variety. I was wrong, what I was actually asked was if I wanted something to eat and given a couple of options. As such when our beers arrived so did some pistachio nuts and what I can only assume is the Ukrainian equivalent to Jerky. Luckily this still wasn't to expensive though it has now lead to some ridicule!

I have the weekend off from teaching so aside from doing a bit of preparation for next week It should be a great chance to relax after the start of the term. (yesterdays lessons involved breaking up a couple of fights, having teenage who seamed to forget everything they had learnt in the previous lesson and other such delights! hopefully the next lessons will go better.)

An Englishman, An Irishman, A Scotsman, An American, A Brizilian and A Ukrainian go to watch Football

One of the experiences that I was really looking forward to was going to watch a football game in the Ukraine. Having seen several games at different grounds around England I was really hoping to find out the similarities and difference between the culture. Would they have more vocal home support (let's be honest it can't be too hard), would I get to see a flare go off, would the Ultra's try and start a fight.

There was never any chance of the last one happening as I hadn't realised that the Ultra's and some other fans were boycotting the club because they had lost the last 3 games (which was an insult too far apparently, even though they were still second in the league). As such the ground was actually fairly empty and there wasn't too much singing and no flares were let of.

The football actually played was quite different to what we are use to in England and there was a much stronger focus on playing a passing game with a slow build up rather than quick counter attacking. As such many of the players moved around positions and there was a moment when the centre took the ball most of the way up the pitch.

Similarities between Arsenal could be brought with the tendency to pass the ball around the outskirts of the box looking for some option but not actually getting many shots of. Despite this as soon as Metalurg Donestk (the small brothers of the more famous Shaktar Donestk scored the game finally came to life with many more shots flying around at both ends. In the end the game finished 2-1 to Metalurg much to the joy of our Ukrainian friend who had bought the tickets for us (we hadn't realised that he didn't support Dnipro until the first goal flew into the net and then everyone near us knew).

Particular highlights about the differences included the cost (30 UAH which is somewhere around £3!!!) for a top flight match, the halftime cheerleaders (I haven't seen this at any English game yet) and in particular the moment at the end of the match where the captain and several other players went over to the Dnipro "Kop" and spoke to the fan's their to explain their poor form. Apparently this is expected (which kinda of diminished the gesture a bit) nether the less it was interesting to see the players held to account by the fans first and then the media.

All in all it was pretty enjoyable and I will definitely go to other matches.

Warning this post may contain traces of Kids and Teenagers

I had been meaning to write a post reporting on the Dnipro football game that I experienced recently. However due to technical difficulties (read camera) I am delaying this.

Much more importantly I taught my first classes today! The first was "Kids level 2" and the second was Pre-Intermediate teenagers (12-16). The first class was certainly an experience, being my first monolingual class (where all the students spoke the same language) having students at a lower level than I had ever taught before and finally my first Kids TEFL class made for a potent cocktail. Despite many attempts to prevent the students from speaking in Russian it was always a struggle against the tide.

I am uncertain if being able to know a few basic question words of Russian was a help or a hindrance. On the one hand it allowed me to work out some of their questions and issues but on the other when they could tell guessed I could understand something they carried on saying that. I did stress later on that I didn't understand but by that point the damage may well have already been done.

The other main issue seamed to be controlling two of the young boys in their confused attempts at impressing the poor sole girl there. Although this came out in several ways the most noticeable was fighting with each other over who would get to work with her. Mean while her brother quietly stepped in. Despite all this it was great to finally get to teach a class and I really enjoyed being able to be silly with kids.

In the second class Edward Cullen managed to cause a lot of problems (He always interfering) by being loved and hated by different students with VERY strong opinions. I also learnt a bit about a Ukrainian pop due called Потап и Настя Каменских (or Potap and Natasyha Kamenskih). the main issue with the class was a change in the formate of lessons so that they now had no breaks in the middle but last slightly shorter. Although the confusion surrounding the word Impatient which sounded like Impotent to one Ukrainian students ears.


Tomorrow I have some adults to teach (3 groups all at the same level and all at the same point! meaning a lot less preparation time.) and will have doubled my total teaching English as a foreign language experience which will be a nice mile stone to achieve. Until then....good night