Night classes!

Wednesday night English students show off their paper body creation

Every Wednesday night at approximately 5:45pm, I hear a knock downstairs.  The first of my English students has arrived!  Quickly throwing off their shoes and clambering up the stairs, they talk excitedly in the youth room while I scurry frantically to gather all of my materials and ask them simple questions like, “How are you?”  By 6pm, around 15 people, ranging from 7 to 19 years of age, are ready to begin.  “Zaciname?”  I always ask (“Can we begin?”).  “Ano, Zaciname!” they excitedly scream.  It’s a lively bunch, and at first I was quite skeptical about meeting such a range of learning levels, maintaining some semblance of order, and teaching with minimal Slovak language skills.  However, I’ve found that with my students’ eagerness and my educational background combined, I can do quite a lot and have fun, too.  Because I speak almost entirely in English during the hour, the older students practice their listening and translation skills.  I stick to one simple concept each week and always review the concept we learned the week before to reinforce learning.  We sing, act out words, draw, stage skits, and practice dialogues.  In the fall “semester,” we covered basic greetings, food, numbers, colors, the alphabet, clothes, hobbies, Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions, the verbs “to like,” “to have,” and “to be,” and body parts.

My Thursday night English class in Kysak covers the same topics, but at a more advanced level, since the age range is smaller: 13-18.  We meet at the Richtarka’s home, and I have a smaller group of 7 students.  While my Wednesday group is enthusiasm bordering on chaos, I sometimes struggle to get anyone to speak on Thursday nights!  I enjoy being able to do more one-on-one in-depth teaching with this group.  Also, I always get a nice warm dinner prepared by Mrs. Richtarkova after the lesson is over.  Her children, Mimo and Nika, are part of the youth group, and walk me back to Obisovce.  During these walks, I have my own Slovak lesson, so the exchange is complete!

Looking for information on the computer

I’m realizing that my English classes are much more than just that.  I’m able to build relationships with many of the youth of Obisovce and Kysak whom I wouldn’t encounter otherwise.  Although my classes are supposed to last only one hour, my students often don’t leave until after 2 hours or later, enjoying the free Internet, new games I teach them, and fellowship with one another.