Improving your English every day?

[Torsten]

Hi Ralf, it's seems you are doing an excellent job keeping those kids happy. Maybe you could somehow have the two women use some of their maternal experience on the youngsters.

Do those two woman have kids themselves? Is so they probably have pretty much the same questions to answer like you. Have them come up with some ideas and have the kids create a keyword list describing all the cool stuff they are into -- they'll be surprised how many of those words are English....

Just keep cool and give them my best regards,
Torsten
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[Ralf]

the last 2 days were teaching - training - on the edge. the conditions were rather unbareable. due to the heat in the classroom and the noise outside (constant lawn-mowing for 2 days!!) it was quite hard to keep the group motivated. so i just talked to them most of the time, trying to get them involved in topics they could relate to. ringing tones of mobiles, violence in video games, song lyrics of r&b music, dating people, robbing cars etc... in the end, time went by, and the kids were - under those conditions mentioned - surprisingly easy to handle. i reckon everybody was just subdued by thin air.

ok, i'll do a little rain dance now, have a good weekend.
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[Torsten]

Hi Ralf,

So in addition to being an excellent English teacher you also have great management skills. I'm serious. Handling a group of disoriented youngsters 8 hours straight in an overheated, noisy environment as probably as challenging as advising a team of business executives.

It seem your folks might be ideal candidates for the TOEIC Rap CD.

Enjoy your weekend me know how I can support you.
Regards,
Torsten
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[Ralf]

thank you very much torsten. sure enough this class proves a character-building experience to me. on saturday i bought copies of "In Company (elementary)" so i can involve material for the basics of selling. in addition, i got hold of a vocational school book called "Keep Going" by Cornelson. the book has very good material designed to meet younger people's interests (the simpsons, dating somebody, real life dialogues, problems with parents etc.). i used it today and repeated aspects of the simple present, present continuous, pronouns, directions, descriptions of places and characters etc. it worked a treat. today there were only 5 students in class, so coolness wasn't that much of an issue
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[Torsten]

Hi Ralf, thanks for keeping us up to date. You obviously have the situation under control which is very good. As long as you keep your group engaged in activities they like, you have achieved the objective.

Also, whenever there are some motivation issues, keep in mind that there a number of factors that influence your group's behaviour some of which you have only limited control over.

By the way, will you be available to work with a small group of engineers on three consecutive Fridays in Jena (with the option of extending that contract) after the Leipzig job?

Talk to you soon,
Torsten
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[Ralf]

we were working with keep going and in company - elementary today. topics like 'the simpsons news online group", "planning a rap gig" and "cool hobbies" went particularly well. we read an article about ronaldo and dicussed footballer's wages using the simple present. the class was a walk in the park - today there were only 3 students present, and lawn-mowing was finished by 11
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[Torsten]

Hi Ralf, are you saying there ESL books available that contain topics like 'the simpsons news online group' and 'planning a rap gig'? If so, I want a copy of it . I often voiced the opinion that most ESL books use artificial language and are therefore boring. Maybe, I should ask you more often about these things?

I'm glad that your working conditions have changed for the better and I'm sure that those learners who are in your group now, are more motivated than the rest. This is how a market economy should work anyway.
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[Ralf]

today and yesterday I mainly focussed on politeness :phrases, asking for things, saying sorry, 'bitte' and 'danke', 'can' and 'could' while keeping a close eye on word order. we also discussed mobile phones, tariffs, habits, had mock situations and did short translation exercises. it went really slow because one of the older women was back and i was tying everything to get her involved. by 11 o'clock she left the class because she couldn't keep track anymore. i tried to explain (in german) what she needed to be doing in order to make the course a success for her but she wouldn't listen. frau kr?ger suggested that she had private problems as well.

tomorrow i will get back to the rap gigs and dating procedures in cornelson's 'keep going'!
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[Torsten]

Hi Ralf,

It really is a challenge to work with a group that consists of people with such different skills and interests. If Mrs. Krueger decided to leave the course because she couldn't follow you, then at this point it is up to her. I don't know how long it will take for the government to realize that they have to adjust their system to the current situation. Imagine, one day you would start working with people who themselves have decided to learn English.

And instead of you having to motivate them, they would ask you questions being happy to learn as much as they can. Also, you would get paid based on results rather than on the number of hours you work. What do you think of such a concept?

Anyway, speaking of politeness reminds of a thread Alan started a couple of days ago: being polite.
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[Ralf]

most of friday and today was spent revising aspects of politeness. we did mock situations in restaurants, hotels, airports and phone conversations to get the register right. people are getting more confident, even though monday mornig doesn't seem to be their speciality.
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[Ralf]

yesterday and today i started introducing the simple past, concentrating first on regular and then on irregular verb forms. In Company - Elementary proved more demanding than i thought it'd be, because it requires a rather broad vocab knowlegde. however, owing to its up-to-date, topic related material it was interesting enough for most participants to make an effort so that particularly today's class went surpisingly well. after the lunch break, when the heat was too much, we discussed the lyrics of the favourite punk song of one of those kids played on his mobile. it had a gratifying spin-off - the frequent use of conditional 2 in the song made people interested in the proper usage of conditionals in general.

for a short instance, the unexpected surprise of mutual respect and understanding filled my heart with nameless joy. the incedent reassured me that even the most disoriented of kids may discover a weak spot for something as 'uncool' as learning a language...
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[Torsten]

So what punk song was it you listened to? It's interesting to see how those kids manage to use the latest technologies properly. As you said, any person can learn a language once they see the benefits of doing so. And you are saying that In Company contains interesting materials?

By the way, what your kids going to do once their English fun course finishes?

Have a good Thursday,
Torsten
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[Ralf]

hi torsten,

the song was called "alien 8" by a band called lagwagon. the good thing about it was that the lyrics could be seen as a statement against punk...

today and yesterday were a mixed back. just like every day, the first unit was the hardest. then the following 4 units went pretty well, but the time before and after the lunch break was pretty dire. at those times, most students were completely undisciplined, loutish and also foul-mouthed. i never stopped talking english to them so i think it was a success in some respect, but my nerves have suffered quite a bit.

anyway, the course is over and i have had quite a character-building experience. i feel fit for teaching at juvenile prisons now

i let you know how the first jena class went on friday night, and i'll keep you posted. enjoy kiew!

ralf
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[Torsten]

Hi Ralf, the Jena job is pretty different to your experience with with the sales shop youngsters. The ibs folks are more goal oriented, all of them should have an academic background and they usually have worked abroad.

You will have a magnificent view from the 16the floor of the Jentower which is occupied by IT start-up companies.

Many thanks again for keeping me up to date.

Speak to you soon,
Torstn
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[Ralf]

new frriday jena programme:

today's class was as nice as the view, probably the best group so far. there were only 7 of them which made it extra nice to work with them. everyone is good a2-b1. if only they all were like them
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