Perjantai 🇫🇮 Föstudagur 🇮🇸

The reason I prefer tailor-made lessons to the traditional following-the-language-book method is that even though devising the syllabus is a tad more challenging, the reward of successfully teaching something is indescribable. I still can add the essential topics recommended by the language books, but the flexibility definitely gives teachers and students a stronger basis to cooperate and trust each other. This is essential to be able to hone the weaker topics a student might struggle with, and by strengthening the weak skills, students can deepen their knowledge and their confidence soars, which can help maintain and improve their motivation. Gosh, this sounded like a piece of the annual report from the International Teachers' Conference on Methodology and Pedagogy.

Anyway, my student enjoyed the class today, and despite leaving out half of the planned lesson, we made notable progress. She is a natural talent in language learning, and even though we only scratch the surface of grammar - meaning we avoid the linguist mambo-jumbo - I can impart the essential pieces of grammar information. I strongly believe, that despite one's age, one can learn any language without diving into the realm of structural linguistics. Simplifying the essential grammatical differences and being able to introduce and translate topics to the student's needs is crucial to achieve any success. The correlation between teaching the tai chi set and teaching English is quite remarkable in terms of simplifying, meaning giving only an essential amount of data and instructions and gradually upping the ante each time I want to teach something new by keeping in mind the student's needs.

But enough is enough, let's get back to mundane things. We slept in today. The alarm went off at 5 a.m., but it was 7:30 a.m. when we dragged ourselves out of bed. The weather pulled itself together and returned to what is typical of November. Raining was the only aspect I didn't particularly enjoy today. "C'est la vie!" or "Bonjour Trieste!" as Dell boy would say. Á propos, I started watching the brilliant Only Fools and Horses series, and I absolutely adore this British classic. One of the best gags ever! Rodney, Dell boy, Granddad, and Boycie with Marlene are brilliantly depicted characters, and the actors deliver a superb performance in each episode. I'm looking forward to the next episode.

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The final plan

I have a plan, so crazy that it might just work. I checked my books and tried to estimate how to proceed with my preparation, i.e which books should be the first and how to process the units, so the devised schedule is the following: Completing the 'Straight to advanced' and 'Ready for Advanced' books. They consist of 10 lessons and 5 review units each, so if I study intensively, I can finish these books in three-four weeks. Learning by heart the advanced phrasal verbs, idioms, and collocation books. (Plus the 'Don't get me wrong' pocketbook that contains brilliant idioms and collocations.) These books consist of 60 units each, so if I take three lessons per week, I can finish them by the end of August. Completing the 'Destination C1-C2' book. This is the toughest of all the previously listed books, including word formation, idioms, phrasal verbs, grammar, etc. I could go through this book while dealing with the 'Straight to advanced' book si...

53 is the new 35

Nah, I'm just kidding, 53 cannot be 35 in any way. When I first heard this term, fifty is the new forty, I thought something was wrong with my ears. Even the explanation of this locution seemed dodgy. I'm pretty sure that this is a kind of self-hypnosis technique used by those who are unable to accept their age and refuse to take notice of the natural order of things. (It's always weird to see the results of what the scalpel of cosmetic surgeons did to some poor, deluded individuals.) Anyway, I found the tail of the mojo and tried to get it back completely. I completed the homework Charlette had given me a month ago - it wasn't easy to complete, though - and booked some lessons as well. I'm looking forward to these classes. Nevertheless, my mind was struggling tremendously with the homework. My brain is still not as fresh as it used to be, so I won't be surprised if it turns out to be a balderdash. The weather turned freezing. Well, it's not as cold as it is...

Keskiviikko 🇫🇮 Miðvikudagur 🇮🇸

Well, my students seemed to enjoy the class today. After carefully planning the lesson, I came up with a fairly good syllabus about giving directions. I started the class with the previously discussed review section, during which we reviewed some of the vocabulary from the previous lessons. They did a fantastic job translating the Hungarian words into English and vice versa. We moved on to the new vocabulary section when we completed the list. I brought seven new words - I know I'm supposed to focus on four or five new words, but this is what they'd asked me to do, so I kept my promises - and besides, they knew some of them, the context I provided them with helped them a lot - as well as the eliciting questions - to find out the meaning of each unknown words. Once we completed this section, we moved on to the next chapter: checking the previously learned vocabulary. I created a list with the essential words and expressions and asked them to check the items and tell me what the...

My Life after CELTA

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