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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Chillaxing

When I woke up this morning, I knew the day wouldn't be an active one. Nothing sinister happened that would have suggested anything unexpected; it was rather one of those intuitions that depicted how the events of the day would unfold. This gut feeling strengthened when I grabbed Abby's leash and took her for her early morning walk. She was as inactive as I was, and the speed and length of our walk corroborated this theory. We ambled back to the house momentarily. After this painfully short-lived stroll with a surprisingly exhausted canine, I sat in front of the TV, munched my breakfast and slurped the much-needed black nectar in the form of a strong espresso. What a surreal still-life this was. Especially considering how many episodes we have watched from one of the currently watched series. As my system started to absorb the caffeine, switching my wee brain into the first gear, the haze dissipated over today's schedule. Harnessing this ephemeral clear state, I rushed into...

Sunnuntai 🇫🇮 Sunnudagur 🇮🇸

Even though I was up from 5 a.m. till 10 p.m. yesterday, I couldn't sleep like a log. I woke up several times at night wondering why the blOOdy eff I couldn't hibernate. Since these awake periods didn't last long, I went back to sleep, but still, the reoccurring wakeups vexed me tremendously. Anyway, I decided yesterday that despite the winter daylight-saving time, I wouldn't follow the winter clock but stick to the old summer daylight-saving time. I've had enough. Each March, we have to set the clock an hour forward, which means an hour less sleep, which means my system gets into Carl Pilkington mode for weeks. Never again. So, with this in mind yesterday evening, I set the alarm clock to 5 a.m. When it went off, even though I was a bit miffed, I knew I'd tricked the system, so it was payday for me. After completing my homework this morning, I prepared lunch. It wasn't a special meal, just some fish fingers with rice and peas. And even though it wasn't ...

Keskiviikko 🇫🇮 Miðvikudagur 🇮🇸

My new bridge is in my mouth. It took the doc almost an hour to meticulously and precisely fit it in and cement it. I wasn't allowed to eat for three hours, and I still can't chew anything on the left side of my jaw. However, my dental features are ship-shape-and-shiny. Only one tooth is left: they need to replace the old filling. Once it's done, I'll have a Hollywood-type smile. Before the dental care, I went through the lesson plan I'd prepared the other day for today. When I returned home from the dentist, I took Abby for her afternoon walk and drove to Budapest to teach. Before arriving at where I taught, I popped into a store to buy some "kifli" for later and four "Túró Rudi" to appease my rumbling stomach. After teaching, I hurried back home, grabbed two "kifli", some butter and plum jam, and ate like a king. It was already pitch dark when we returned from our evening walk with Abby. I hate the early dusks. However, summer tries ...

My Life after CELTA

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