My Life after CELTA

After opening my beginner student's next lesson - which I wrapped up the other day - I found it somewhat incomplete. Therefore, I added some new material to it that I thought might be useful. I rehearsed it afterwards and it seemed satisfactory.  Then, I asked ChatGPT to create another lesson for me to practice words, phrases, idioms, and phrasal verbs that are not outdated or archaic but rarely used and can potentially be part of the CPE exam. It came up with an interesting story and a simulated real-life conversation, both containing unusual words and expressions. I still need to figure out how reliable these texts are, and the best possible way to do that is to check the words in Google's Ngram viewer. It tells you how often people use a specific word, and it even draws a timeline indicating its prevalence.  The weather was interestingly shite today. The morning was chilly, and even though the temperature wasn't as low as two days ago, it felt unusually cold due to the N...

By this morning, Ági's condition deteriorated. She has a sore throat, an overall weakness, a cough, and a terrible headache. This ruddy flu broke out eventually, and she couldn't avoid this nasty virus, unfortunately. I had almost the same symptoms while in Graz except for the cough, but this was replaced by my upset stomach. Fortunately, this infection lasts only two or three days, and the convalescence lasts another two, so she'll be all right by this Saturday. The weather was terrible today. It's been raining since yesterday evening, and even though only the Southern part of the country was hit by torrential rain, the plain between Szentendre and Pomáz is filled up with water already. It looks as if an enormous lake had been created by nature, whereas in reality, the area is used as a pasture for horses. I think we don't need any more rain in the foreseeable future. We hope to see the sun tomorrow, though, as the sky was all grey today.

Today, we watched Only Fools and Horses's final episode of the sixth season. The emotional roller-coaster this series puts you on is baffling. The writer got us to understand the characters without words but grimaces or gestures. It would take tens of pages to write about this series, but there are a few more episodes we need to watch before buckling down to it. It suffices to say that this is one of the best British series we've ever seen, even if it is a classic one. Today, my beginner class was all right. Since we don't have class next Friday - because we are in Graz for Ági's linguistic conference - I thought that apart from the regular reviews, I would emphasise those areas that need more attention. She did a fantastic job again, and I'm glad I can teach her. The weather is so bad that I can hardly find the appropriate words to describe it. It's been raining since yesterday, and it's still pouring. The snow melted, and the rain washed away completely. T...

We hit the road today with Ági. As the ordered goods arrived and they tried to deliver to us the other day when we were not home, we had to pick up the pack at the post office. We made a huge round around the block, and besides picking up the DVD, we bought a couple of things for tomorrow. On the way back home, we noticed how much our physical condition deteriorated during the long hiatus due to the recent renovations on our house. Even though we gained other types of stamina, the lack of hiking took its toll. Anyway, the winter season will provide us with plenty of possibilities to go for long walks, so there is no need to worry or moan about it. I spent the afternoon cleaning the little bathroom, the living room, and my office. One of my former CELTA peers arrived this evening in Hungary and will visit us tomorrow. So, it was high time I cleaned the house. But it took me almost three hours of labour to complete the task. However, now everything looks ship-shape-and-shiny. However, th...

Today was the first day I felt no frustration while preparing and teaching the lesson. I planned a review lesson, but since only one of the students attended the class, I had to change the plan on the spot. I drilled the listening exercise with the lady, and by the end of the lesson, she was confident about her abilities and understanding of the text. I was over the moon to see her trying hard to understand the text's meaning, which was challenging as the girl's speech was fast, and her accent was sometimes below standard. Anyway, the breakthrough occurred after the first half of the listening, and by the end, I didn't need to repeat the sentences over and over again. She got all of them right. The weather was terrible today. The day started with cloudy skies and rain. Even though the clouds disappeared at 2 p.m. and the air was warmer than usual, I didn't like today's weather. And I won't like Friday either, since according to the latest weather forecast, we mu...

It was raining during the night, which made the air unbearably humid. By the time we woke up, the and had already resembled a rain forest. Merely sitting and watching silly youtube videos made us sweat, so when else did we decide to change offices than today? At 9 a.m. sharp, we began to remove our belongings from our offices, and the rest of the day was brimming with walking up and down the stairs carrying books and furniture. After lunch, we nodded off for thirty minutes, but the moving started over when we came to and drank an espresso. I admit I'm a sweaty guy, but today's experience was unique. The sheer thought of carrying another batch of something ignited the sweat glands, and while shuffling up and down, it became even worse. There is no need to go to a sauna... The weather is changing. It is getting rainy and colder. According to the weather forecast, the maximum temperature on Monday will only be +20°C. I don't mind a bit of foretaste of autumn, and it's the ...

The day went by unbelievably quickly. That's what being busy does. I'm kidding; every single day of the past few months was busy - except when I or we couldn't do anything but stare into the void. After waking up and having a delicious cinnamon pancake breakfast with my little vitamins and the much-needed coffee, I started to study. I completed two of the four tasks I'd received from Charlette the other day. After preparing and devouring lunch, I buckled down to the fourth assignment. It went well, but I need another day to complete it. I gave Ági a foot massage and watched a Dutch series, Undercover. We saw it already, but it is a series worth re-watching.  The weather was terrible today. It was so gloomy that we didn't want to go out for our usual walk. And to top it off, we even had to switch on the central heating, as the temperature dropped significantly. The strong wind and the rain couldn't uplift the mood either, so today's weather could have been be...

I woke up early today because I had an appointment to replace the winter wheels with the summer ones at 4:30 a.m. I wasn't the happiest person on the globe. I could have slept till 5:30 a.m., but I knew if I'd gone back to sleep, I wouldn't have been able to wake up in time and get there. Anyway, the whole wheel-changing process went smoothly. Then we had a delicious breakfast at the canteen, where I met an old colleague, who invited us for a coffee. I was surprised to notice how neutral my mood was while returning to the location where I'd spent almost 25 years. In hindsight, it was high time I left the company in February, however painful it was. Upon returning home, I started to study. I completed two tasks and began another one, so only one and a half exercises are left. I went down to the kitchen to prepare lunch at 11:00 a.m. Fish fingers with rice and tzatziki were on the menu, and we ate like two famished wolves while watching another terribly silly episode of D...