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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Tiistai 🇫🇮 Þriðjudagur 🇮🇸

My day was alright. I rearranged the shelves in the basement, which took me two hours to complete. I could have spent more time rearranging, but I had to deal with my homework before the class this afternoon. I had to read a story and summarise its content, write about the characters, and describe my impression. Even though the weather forecast predicts warmer days, the presence of autumn is palpable. The nights are much colder than a week ago, and the morning walks with Abby are faster due to the chilly temperature. I quite like the lower temperature and enjoy taking cold showers in the evenings because they refresh my body. However, I miss my summer sandals, shorts, and T-shirts. Walking Abby without having to don my jacket and put on several other layers was much easier. The English class with Charlette was fantastic. The sixty minutes flew by like a bullet train. I feel lucky to learn from her. After the lesson, I prepared my high tea cocoa pancakes. I love pancakes. When I devoure...

Keskiviikko 🇫🇮

We watched the last episode of Bordertown. Now the series is over and won't be available on Netflix anymore. Moreover, they don't plan to shoot another season yet, so chances are we were lucky to have watched the complete three seasons. Anyway, "Vive le Finnish-Hungarian friendship and Uralic languages!" 🇫🇮🇭🇺 After Ági left for the university, I sat down to study. I received four tasks yesterday from Charlette, and I finished the open cloze text and made some notes on the vocabulary part of the lesson. Now ask me anything about "wear out", "hanker for", "wind up", "drop in on", drop in", "cloak", "spectre", "orb", and "mace". Writing a report, explaining the gist of a video to a B1 level student, and writing a letter to an editor of a magazine are left to be completed. When I finished studying, I made some lunch: the menu was pita-bread with Greek yoghurt and veggies - tomato, spr...

Keskiviikko 🇫🇮 Miðvikudagur 🇮🇸

After a not-so-good night's sleep - I had a terrible dream; a lion wanted to chase me down and eat me - I woke up like a log. Little did I know about how chilly the outside temperature was when I took Abby for her morning walk. Both of us hurried back home. It took me two hours to create the lesson plan before my dentist's appointment, but I did it eventually. Since my temporary bridge had fallen off yesterday, I went to the dentist without it. Anyway, I'll have a new bridge next Wednesday if things pan out. I had a lesson with Ági's student this afternoon. I enjoyed the class and hope the students were also content with it. But the afternoon traffic is lethal. On the way home, there were numerous collisions, and I even saw two cars in the ditch. Crazy drivers should stay indoors. The weather is changing. It's still not typical of October, but the first signs of autumn are visible. The foliage is not as fresh green as it used to be during summer, and the nights are ...

My Life after CELTA

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