Equal Goes It Loose
The World Of Teaching & Learning English
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.
The Sweat, The Stress, The Very Nice Student
[ No Comments ] Posted on 07.03.08 under 365 project, Germany, Language Learning, travel
I will fully confess to the fact that one of the big attractions to teaching English for me is the time. For those of you who know of my time schedule in Germany - stop laughing, I really am serious. ;-P This particular year has been brutal it is true, but then this is the first time ever I took every and any class offered to me in an effort to pay off debt (student loans and credit cards, of which one student loan still stands, still one down one to go!), take vacations when I can pay in cash, (and I have) plus I bought a new motorcycle and am about to go on a 3 month vacation. (Note: I worked A LOT!!! Plus I never buy myself gifts anymore, which is sad, but 3 months vacation is good. Ill let you know if the sacrifices of the past year were worth it).
However I digress, and the point is, I like being able to set my own schedule, and part of that is not having to wake up early. So that the past 2 days involved me waking up at 5 45 as I had motorcycle lessons to attend before going to class for 4 hours of private lessons did little to amuse me.
Lucky for me the student is lovely. Of the four hours I would say 2 is spent in general conversation, and 2 is spent on actual vocabulary building and grammar (as in work specific, as the entire time is spent speaking English, and I am a firm believer in any practice is better than no practice). I feel a little guilty, but not incredibly so, as I am correcting her and we are practicing the ever elusive “small talk,” that every student begs for and comes down to being able to chat. I sometimes wonder though if that much talking without real focus is good for her, and yet 3 weeks of 4 hour private lessons a day will quickly become dreadful if stuck to work vocab and prepositions.
Either way, I am so glad she is nice, as the week turned out to be a ball of heat and stress otherwise. I have my driving test on Saturday and I am terrified I am going to do something stupid to mess the whole thing up. Forget cheap Phentermine, between the stress and the heat I should be back into my old pants this time next week!
The World Spins Madly On
[ No Comments ] Posted on 05.19.08 under Germany, Language Learning
And doesn’t seem to care that my days and hours are eaten by the time monster.
I’m still trying to do the catch up thing, the nice thing is this week I have some free time. So until I get a chance to enter a proper entry, I will leave you with this little German/English mix up from my students.
This time the scene takes place at a bar where they were toasting their successful meeting, and the Germans sang out “Up YOURS!” when they really meant “To you!”
Or at least they claim to have meant that. 
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)
The Problem With Language Learning
[ No Comments ] Posted on 04.14.08 under Language Learning