My posts have been sporadic, for that I apologize...been pretty busy lately. Work is going great...I've got a good report with all my classes. There's this one Adult English class that has great energy and is a lot of fun. There are twenty students in the class and maybe 17 of them are girls between the ages of 20-25, but these girls are sooo painfully shy. I've noticed in Taiwan that people don't like to talk in front of a big group. Only the most outgoing students will begin to talk. I try breaking the ice by telling embarrassing stories about myself. For example last week we were talking about relationships, and parents and stuff...so I brought in an embarassing picture of me as a 3 year old wearing a red bow tie and black and white shoes, and blue shorts. I brought questions for tehm to answer and one was "Would you raise your children like your parents raised you?" So I said I would NEVER dress my kid like that. They all laughed and enjoyed it but still wouldn't talk by themselves in the large class.
I try to infuse all of my lessons with humor, I think teaching is great because you have the freedom to bring your own personality into your workplace everyday, and for me using humor just comes naturally, I find in my adult conversation classes a bit of self deprication helps the students feel more comfortable..........sometimes though its still hard to get them to speak. But when we have a good funny class going on it's great. I don't follow the book the school gives me but I think they still learn and as long as they have a good time....that's all that really matters..
I'm always happy, and hope my students can be as well!
As I said went stream racing last weekend so much fun. That's what life should be about...nature, challenges, the company of good friends; I plan on doing things like that more often here.
I'm getting close to the Marathon, November 1st, my training hasn't been as intense as it should be. I'm actually a little nervous about finishing it. I gotta up my mileage before the big race. I know once I get out on the course, no matter how tough it is I'll finish it....but still gotta put in some solid 15 milers before then...this next week will be training training training....
Watching the economic downturn is a bit unnerving, I think I left just in time.
Gonna go hiking this weekend with my roommate and maybe some other friends.....probably all day Sunday, it sucks that I really only have one day of free time to chill and hang out on Sunday. I talk to other teachers who have been here a few years and their weekends are so boring. I can't imagine not making the most of every minute of free time...cliche as it is life is too short, I've learned it can be gone in an instant.....that's why I always think I have a great out look and tons of energy.....I plan on taking what I've learned here and translating it to my life whenever I get back to NYC.
My parents and sister and brother were talking about coming here over Christmas, I hope they can make it out, it'll be my first Christmas away from family so it'd be good to have some semblance of my old life here!
brian
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