Equal Goes It Loose
The World Of Teaching & Learning English
Because Sometimes Its Too easy….
[ No Comments ] Posted on 11.03.08 under From The EFL World
Why the world continues to need cultural lessons along with their English lessons:
more the engrish!
Be Dangerous
[ No Comments ] Posted on 07.12.08 under From The EFL World, Language Learning
Hee hee, I love Engrish.com, they have some real jewels on there, and anyone who has ever taught English in Asia will have a special appreciation for them!
In other language news I just have to share this email from my mom on my 2 year old niece, who has a higher command of the language then some people I know:
Had Skye for a couple of hours last night - Mikey and Steph went to a BBQ - She doesn’t like the Pottie - she sat on the step and I could tell she was trying to poop - I said what are you doing - she ran in the corner and said I don’t stink - you stink. Thought I would die laughing.
Love it!!! Depending on her mood as well she either holds court from her Bugaboo stroller and waves and calls out hi, or she just shrieks at people to “get out of way.”
Sigh I miss her.
Just When I Thought I Could Be Bitter
[ No Comments ] Posted on 06.09.08 under From The EFL World, travel
You find someone who is even more so!
The Slavery of Teaching English
It is no secret that I have a love/hate relationship with my job. Some of my students I really like. They are fun to talk to, and they are active in their language learning. If I am focusing on something they feel is not useful they express it, and we try to find a way that leaves them learning and feeling like they are making progress in the direction they wish to head in.
But then you have the students who no matter what you do or don’t do, will never be satisfied unless you are able to open their heads and pour in your knowledge. They bought the book, they already have it 50% learned. Now they just need me to wave my magic trainer wand and there we go. Or if not then it is obviously the fault of my wand.
But in the end it is a job, and like any job, I choose to stay in it. More so because I am single and I do not have kids waiting on me at home. There are even times I love it, and I do love the freedoms that come with it. I have traveled the world with this job. I don’t know how else I would have been able to do it, and I’ve met so many wonderful people along the way.
So if your thinking about the job, take everything you read with a grain of salt.
Still Around
[ No Comments ] Posted on 05.06.08 under From The EFL World, Germany
I am just busy showing my parents all that Germany has to offer, while still putting in a full teaching load today and yesterday!
BUT the best way to find out the greatest insider tips is not to buy a travel guide, but to enlist your students help as an English lesson. 
Tee Hee Hee
[ No Comments ] Posted on 04.18.08 under From The EFL World
Sent to me by a friend, I thought this was cute. 
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby
English will be the official language of the European Union rather than
German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that
English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year
phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’.
In the first year, ’s’ will replace the soft ‘c’.
Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.
The hard ‘c’ will be dropped in favour of ‘k’. This should klear
up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when
the troublesome ‘ph’ will be replaced with ‘f’. This will make words like
fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be
expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which
have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent ‘e’ in the
languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing
‘th’ with ‘z’ and ‘w’ with ‘v’.
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary ‘o’ kan be dropd from vords
kontaining ‘ou’ and after ziz fifz yer , ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten
styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi
tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey
vunted in ze forst plas.
13 Things About Equal Goes It Loose
[ 6 Comments ] Posted on 04.17.08 under From The EFL World, Language Learning, Thursday 13
2.
Having taught English in Japan, Korea and in England to Italian kids, I am aware that false friends and literal translations are bound to cause embarrassment. But in Germany it appears that they are particularly so. Here the word “geil” is used to mean cool, awesome, excellent, etc. However its original meaning was horny. My friend Samara teaches at a school here, and a student tried to compliment her by announcing (in English) that she was a “horny teacher.” The class went silent before erupting into laughter, and both Samara and the student went a little red. The class then had to explain to him that the proper translation of geil in that case was not horny, but cool. You can find the full story here, but it was treasures like that I wanted to save and so I began another blog.
3.
To be fair however the embarrassment works both way. The first time I met my German partner’s family had its fair share of blushes. Halfway through the afternoon I bit into an apple that was less than crisp and I declared (in English, as at this point I spoke 4 words in German) “ugh, this apple is mushy!” The was followed by shocked silence, and a tentative “what did you say.” I explained that the apple tasted mushy. And my partner laughed so hard before explaining what mushy in German was. Think the term for female genitalia that we have that means a little cat.
4.
In addition to such treasures of mortification I also wanted a place that I could try to keep some of my own ideas for teaching English on. I know myself that I am forever finding great places, and then forgetting what they are or were. So I hope that with this blog I can keep track of some of my favorite links and places, and lesson ideas.
5.
I travel, I love to travel, and if I could I would do nothing BUT travel. And so I do take paid posts on my other blogs (I have two, Sticky Apple Kisses and Confessions of A Gypsy Princess). It means I can travel and get paid without having to have a regular job that requires me to actually BE somewhere at a set time. The problem was that I noticed Gypsy became a little too saturated with paid posts. BUT I liked the income that meant my debt was decreasing and my travel stayed the same. So I started Sticky, but after Gypsy was google slapped Sticky is the only blog that brings in decent paying posts. I dont want to have the same thing happen to Sticky that happened to Gypsy. Yet I dont want to lose an income that lets me travel. The solution? Another blog with a different focus so that I hope between the two I can eventually have the same income without losing the quality of the blog.
Wakeboarding in Switzerland: having the time and money makes blogging worth it!
6.
I love to write, I have always loved to write. But I never have the time. Blogging gives me that time. While I will not make time for other things, I will make time for blogging, it is like online journaling. And with Equal Goes It I hope anyone thinking of working ESL, or wanting to, can read it and ask questions, as I think its a great idea, but not the easiest one. So helps me, helps someone else, hurray!
7.
Videos! For some reason I could never get videos to work on my wordpress blogs until recently, and another place to post them is a good excuse as any!
8.
Other bloggers! It seems like with each blog you start you get a different readership. Sure some of the people are the same, and thats awesome too. But with Gypsy I met different people in the blogsphere than I did with Sticky, and despite Equal being less than a month old I have already found some new blogs I never would have found otherwise.
9.
And since every blog has a blogger, the last couple will be directly about me! I am an ESL teacher who just can not seem to escape. This is one of the better lives for those who have a Gypsy heart. And I am quite the Gypsy at heart. This is the first time I have renewed a VISA, and I already have itchy feet, despite taking off for another destination for travel every month.
10.
I am slowly learning German (I am in a class), but really I wish I could speak Spanish and Russian. But they won’t exactly help me here, and besides Oma would murder me for learning another language first.
11.
I want a pug. Badly. So badly my friend sent me this link, and I do sometimes pop it into my browser just to whimper and sound pathetic in an effort to get one. But in all honestly we do travel too much for a dog, but even if we didnt, though I have broken my partner down to the point where a dog is ok, he could have written this article.
12.
I have learned not to use the “pop” in the German classroom. It is another one of those words that translates with sexual connotations.
13.
And last, but not least, no matter where i go or where i live, the center of the world for me will always be Newfoundland!
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. (leave your link in comments)
Laugh Out Loud - When The Joys Of EFL Meets The Joys Of Pugs
[ No Comments ] Posted on 03.30.08 under From The EFL World, Pugs
(and pug haters).
I promise that I will come back and properly work on this website. Make it pretty and all that jazz. But I found another great article that I just have to share and it takes all of 5 minutes. 
Plus this hits home right now. Without further ado, an excerpt from
Once upon a long time ago, I used to teach English as a second language. One of my clients, with whom I focused on conversation, told me that she wanted to get a dog, but it wasn’t working out very well.
“Why?” I asked.
“I want a pug,” she said in her delightful Russian accent.
“Pugs are great!” I exclaimed.
“Yes, but my boyfriend no like.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
“He says,” she said, “pugs not dog. Goblin!”
____________________________________________________________________
Love it! Though I of course think pugs are most wonderful and cute, not demon like at all.
You can find the full article by Racheline Maltese here.