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...

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...

Montag 🇦🇹

We are in Austria. After waking up and devouring breakfast, Ági took Abby to the dog daycare, and I packed my things for the journey. We set out at eleven o'clock, washed the car, and hit the road to get here. The highway was busy, so it took us three hours to reach Parndorf, where we had lunch at Nordsee and drank coffee at Tommy Hilfiger. We did some shopping, only bought the necessary goods and left for the hotel. We arrived at the hotel at 4 p.m., checked in, and drove off to another shopping centre to buy other goods we couldn't find in Parndorf. The hotel is quite nice from the inside. However, the facade and the overall look from the outside seem rather outdated; we felt like being in one of Budapest's hotels. Anyway, the staff is alright, the room is clean, and the view is breathtaking. Since tomorrow is a national holiday here, we'll visit a winemaker in Oslip to buy quality wine - Passatutti. We planned to have "Wiener Schnitzel" there and spend the ...

My Life after CELTA

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