Xenops wrote:I’m so glad iTalki is working for you
It’s encouraging when someone can get back on his feet again.
I suggest doing some language study before your classes: maybe fit some Greek in, too.
Thank you so much! I truly feel so happy - I went through more than a girl should ever go through last year, but teaching English is helping me so much. I feel so much more fulfilled, and motivated to 'go to work'. It has always been my dream to do this, but I really didn't think it was going to be practical. At the moment, I'm teaching for 8-11 hours per day, so it's pretty much impossible to do anything else. Although I'm making sure to do 1-2 Darija/French lessons per week (just for fun, really - I have no reason to learn it), with hopes to pick up my Spanish lessons when my tutor is back from holiday, and add Greek once a week to work on this little project. Unfortunately I can't have the teacher I want because apparently he doesn't reply to messages.
My plan is to evaluate my financial situation at the end of March, then adjust my schedule to something more reasonable, then lead a healthier lifestyle. My father brought me up to always consider "mind, body, soul" in everything I do. I neglected to care for my soul last year and my mind and body suffered in major ways. Now, I'm going to repair it piece by piece: first, soul, then mind, through this work. However, it actively works against the body (sitting all day, staring at the screen, etc), so the idea is to follow some regime from April to address that aspect too.
Okay. So. I really can't help myself at all. Hahahaha -
TEFL | español | français | الدارجة | ελληνικά | русский | адыгэбзэ | slovenčina
English | Spanish | French | Darija | Greek | Russian | Kabardian | Slovak
I'm also playing with zenmonkey's Georgian alphabet app ahead of my trip in the summer. I doubt I'll actually learn any Georgian beyond the absolute basics though, because we'll only be there for a week, and between my English and my friend's Russian, we'll probably be fine.
TEFL | italki
Teaching full-time is motivating me to upgrade my own language learning habits. Because I KNOW how to learn a language. I'm using that knowledge to help other people. So why am I too disorganised and lazy (and now, busy) to follow my own advice? I already planned to get a TEFL qualification, but now my motivation is so that I can get "Professional Teacher" status on italki. Not because I want to offer more expensive or generally more structured classes, but because there is one specialist course I'd love to advertise. I'm really not a fan of '
accent reduction' as a phrase, because I believe there's nothing wrong with having a non-native accent (because there are usually hundreds of native accents for any one language anyway), but I
love phonetics and working with people on really specific pronunciation issues, and I'd like to develop a robust and dynamic set of skills in order to teach this as a dedicated class.
Spanish | español
Doing the minimum due to lack of time. Sticking to 365 but mainly through measly Duolingo sessions. Devising an intensive regime to boost myself from shaky to strong when it comes to production.
French | français
- & - Darija | الدارجة
1-2 italki lessons per week, playing around with creating sentences in darija. Not studying any grammar, just learning through working it out. This is the kind of approach which I enjoy the most, and why I probably should have been a field linguist. As for French; I'm impressed that I can conduct these lessons in French after not using the language for so long, but... the other day, I was very sleep deprived and had a morning class, and ended up so embarrassed because I couldn't string a sentence together. It knocked my confidence quite a bit. I was planning on starting lessons in French with a Spanish/Russian teacher, and Darija in Spanish, but now I'm kind of hesitant.
Greek | ελληνικά
I've decided to go for it and learn something. I think I'm going to live in Greece for a few months from the end of the summer onwards, as well as being there for my friend's wedding. So I'm going to have to upgrade my Greek from jokes, chat up lines, and cutlery vocab.
Russian | русский
- & - Kabardian | адыгэбзэ
I've been helping my Kabardian friends (who are also bilingual in Russian) with their English, so now they're repaying the favour. I learnt the correct pronunciation of the two very essential words,
пхъэдакъэ 'stump' and
лъэхъуамбэшхуэ 'big toe' the other day.
Slovak | slovenčina
You live with Slovak people and you're still thinking of getting an italki tutor, whaaaa-?! Yes, because I'm a little bit too lazy to study grammar alone, I'm on italki all the time anyway, and my housemates are terrible teachers.
As for the timescale on all these fancies -
TEFL - at my own pace
Spanish - exams in May (reading, writing, listening, speaking)
French - at my own pace
Darija - at my own pace
Greek - visiting/moving to Greece in August
Russian - visiting Russia this summer
Kabardian - visiting the Caucasus this summer
Slovak - at my own pace