It is all over - one month ago we all started learning , and now we are finished the course and qualified to teach English as a Foreign Language. In fact today FRIDAY 5 JUNE. I taught my first paying class. A company called ETS (English Systems Training) works with businesses in the city who have English Classes for their employees. I went for an interview earlier in the week and they put me on their books. Yesterday afternoon they phoned me up and asked if I could do a fill in class for regular teacher who couldn't make it. I said yes immediately. So I spent most of last night preparing the class, and was up at sparrow - showered, dressed and down in the micro centre to start tecahing at 8.30am. This group usually has a work book that they work from, but because they have just finished a module I didn't want to start the next one as I don't know if I will see them again. So I decided to have a fun lesson. The theme was movies and cinema. The group are employees of Standard Bank, all men in middle management. Today I only had 3 students but we had such fun. Talking about movies, different genre, versatility of actors and actresses. We did movie reviews, reading some from today's Buenos Aires Herald - 'weekend what's up' and then the students also had the chance to write their own review of their favourite movie. I enjoyed the class and I think the students did to. In 10 days time I am presenting a workshop (3hrs) to other students also of Standard Bank. As the bank has dealings with South Africa and UK. it is important for employees to learn English and to have native teachers who have the accent. Most English teachers here tend to be American, the accent is very different. It is also important to learn customers and traditions and other cultural differences. Small thing like greetings and gestures - casual language and more formal business language. So I think some very exciting times ahead.
Congrats Mich! Really enjoy reading your blog.
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