Let's Engrish Conversations!

Every May, it seems that the local UNESCO association runs a series of English conversation classes for the adults in the town, and they ask us JETs to help run the show. Nice to see that there are enough interested people to do this sort of thing annually.

The classes run one weeknight a week in May and June in the town's community centre. All of us were supposed to turn up to the first night to get to know everyone in class in an informal setting without any actual lessons, but due to some miscommunication, we weren't given a schedule of sessions beforehand, and so we all forgot to turn up on the first day. How embarrassment! I made it a point to seriously apologize on the first actual lesson the following week, which was incidentally mine to run. Yeah... I take the fall all too often around this place. *grumble*

That aside, it was nice to meet a few of the townsfolk, which turned out to be a nice cross section of the city, from young women (not so many men in their thirties or below) to housewives and retirees. I was really surprised by some of the old men in the group, who were able to hold a substantial conversation way beyond the level of any of my junior high kids. Just goes to show that you're never too old to pick up something new.

There's something to be said about these classes, being that they are way easier to teach than regular school lessons. It probably has a great deal to do with the fact that anyone who goes to these adult education classes is probably motivated enough to join up in the first place. Education loses its shine once it becomes mandatory, as is the case of English lessons in school. Therein lies the challenge you may say, but it can seriously wear you out when you have to maintain a smile even when the kids completely shut off or worse still, give you shit in class. It was really nice to be able to interact with a class where everyone had a positive attitude for a change.

So are these kinds of classes a possible career option? I'd say I like teaching, but only if the people being taught are interested and open to the course content. It's something to think about though, and hopefully something similar will pop up round the time I have to finish things up here, in about 1-2 years. Meanwhile, my next lesson (after the various forms of the word "be") will be the simple past tense, disguised as a fun diary writing exercise. Maybe I'll tell them that I went to the supermarket one day, bought broccoli and had a good time doing it. Ah, the pleasures of a mundane life.