Ross Geller enters the room: "hi" (you know the way he does when something hasn't gone his way)
Well that is how I feel. My first english class was today. Your internal voice must be saying "oh" in the tone that suggests maybe i just fell down some stairs. Well, I would have rather fallen down those stairs then had my class today.
So I had three different kinds of classes set up. A beginner (starting from the alphabet), an intermediate (Greetings and simple questions), and an advanced (discuss different topics). Today, I started with the beginner and soon came to realize they are much more advanced than I thought. I tried to move to the intermediate... that was too simple then I kind of winged it and just failed. My mudeera and the person helping me translate kept on intervening. The girls sometimes couldn't understand what I was saying, even the translator had problems. Some of the girls want more grammer and some want more speaking. Almost nothing was accomplished in the hour. At the end my mudeera said I needed to ask everyone's names and ages and what not before I started... that would have been good to know before I started... I wanted my first lesson to be about figuring out what they know and what they don't. Random things just got in the way.
My arabic (like I have said) wasn't good enough to understand slash answer their questions. My mudeera wanted me to write the words in arabic and in english and I was like uh I don't know how to do that. I felt like I over pre-prepared then got there and wasn't prepared at all! I feel like my mudeera knew how she wanted the classes to go but never told me.
I tried to teach them some phrases but I didn't know how to explain them... neither did my translator. They are somewhere in between knowing simple sentences and not understanding simple questions. Somewhere in between understanding a sentence but not a paragraph... where in this heck are they?
I don't know. Between not knowing the language and not knowing what they wanted to learn/me to teach I feel like I was set up to fail... and the worst part is I still don't know the language and I still have only the smallest idea of what they want to learn.
To add insult to injury they told me I should teach this with another volunteer whom they have met who has better arabic than me... that stung a little. (Only because they always make comments like oh the other volunteer would know that word and such... you can only laugh it off so many times). They make me feel like "sorry you got the lemon volunteer" which I know isn't true but I was kicked when I was down.
So after all that fun I spent 2.55 JD on cookies and wafer crackers. I know I shouldn't eat my feelings but as of right now all those pins on pintrest that say things like "you are not a dog don't reward yourself with food" or "what to look forward to: no muffin top" or "running is cheaper than that pint of ice cream" can go die in a hole. (Man these things are the worst... these sayings are like the girls who can pull off the messy and cute look, blech just get out of my sight). If I want to wipe crumbs out of my cleavage instead of sweat let me do it without you reminding me that I have a muffin top... let me make my poor decisions in silence! (sorry off topic).
I also bought these wafer crackers that I thought had a strawberry filling and then after I bought them looked at the picture and thought it was fig (yuck) but then tasted the cookies which then turned out to be hazelnut. Gah! Deceived by a wafer cracker!... so you know I will probably never trust again.
Ok guys till next time,
XOXO
Laura
p.s. If it isn't a duck outside my window waking me up at the crack of dawn it is a goat! Come on farm animals! Let a girl get her beauty rest... god knows i need it!
Well that is how I feel. My first english class was today. Your internal voice must be saying "oh" in the tone that suggests maybe i just fell down some stairs. Well, I would have rather fallen down those stairs then had my class today.
So I had three different kinds of classes set up. A beginner (starting from the alphabet), an intermediate (Greetings and simple questions), and an advanced (discuss different topics). Today, I started with the beginner and soon came to realize they are much more advanced than I thought. I tried to move to the intermediate... that was too simple then I kind of winged it and just failed. My mudeera and the person helping me translate kept on intervening. The girls sometimes couldn't understand what I was saying, even the translator had problems. Some of the girls want more grammer and some want more speaking. Almost nothing was accomplished in the hour. At the end my mudeera said I needed to ask everyone's names and ages and what not before I started... that would have been good to know before I started... I wanted my first lesson to be about figuring out what they know and what they don't. Random things just got in the way.
My arabic (like I have said) wasn't good enough to understand slash answer their questions. My mudeera wanted me to write the words in arabic and in english and I was like uh I don't know how to do that. I felt like I over pre-prepared then got there and wasn't prepared at all! I feel like my mudeera knew how she wanted the classes to go but never told me.
I tried to teach them some phrases but I didn't know how to explain them... neither did my translator. They are somewhere in between knowing simple sentences and not understanding simple questions. Somewhere in between understanding a sentence but not a paragraph... where in this heck are they?
I don't know. Between not knowing the language and not knowing what they wanted to learn/me to teach I feel like I was set up to fail... and the worst part is I still don't know the language and I still have only the smallest idea of what they want to learn.
To add insult to injury they told me I should teach this with another volunteer whom they have met who has better arabic than me... that stung a little. (Only because they always make comments like oh the other volunteer would know that word and such... you can only laugh it off so many times). They make me feel like "sorry you got the lemon volunteer" which I know isn't true but I was kicked when I was down.
So after all that fun I spent 2.55 JD on cookies and wafer crackers. I know I shouldn't eat my feelings but as of right now all those pins on pintrest that say things like "you are not a dog don't reward yourself with food" or "what to look forward to: no muffin top" or "running is cheaper than that pint of ice cream" can go die in a hole. (Man these things are the worst... these sayings are like the girls who can pull off the messy and cute look, blech just get out of my sight). If I want to wipe crumbs out of my cleavage instead of sweat let me do it without you reminding me that I have a muffin top... let me make my poor decisions in silence! (sorry off topic).
I also bought these wafer crackers that I thought had a strawberry filling and then after I bought them looked at the picture and thought it was fig (yuck) but then tasted the cookies which then turned out to be hazelnut. Gah! Deceived by a wafer cracker!... so you know I will probably never trust again.
Ok guys till next time,
XOXO
Laura
p.s. If it isn't a duck outside my window waking me up at the crack of dawn it is a goat! Come on farm animals! Let a girl get her beauty rest... god knows i need it!
Oh Kristen the similar problems we share.
I love you Laura! Chin up girl, you're awesome!
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