Becoming a teacher!

Despite my contentment with my one little English class once per week, it is starting to look like I am going to be busier than that.

On Wednesday evening, I got a call from the language school to see if I would be willing to take on 2 students who both wanted private classes. They both wanted to meet on Thursday evenings at a school branch in another neighborhood. (My language school has locations in about a dozen different neighborhoods around the city.) I agreed and so last night I went to meet my students and have our first class.

The first student is a soccer player. He is 17 years old and currently plays for one of the two professional teams in town on their junior league. (I am still trying to figure out how soccer works here, but it sounds like it is a 'minor league' sort of thing.) He attends night school for half of the year and should finish up high school in December (if he passes all his classes, he says.) He aspires to play professionally and possibly in the US. He is interested in few things other than soccer, but his father is insisting that he learn English so he can play internationally. He has taken English classes in the past, but admits he never tries too hard. He was a nice enough guy, but certainly had a jock attitude about him...he should be real fun to try and motivate!

My second student of the evening is seriously going to be a joy to work with! She is around my age, completely fluent, and has an incredible vocabulary. Her goal and reason for wanting to have class with me? So she can get rid of her accent and learn how to sound more like a native speaker by using more colloquial language. Poor thing, she doesn't even realize she is going to sound like a Southerner if she learns from me, but hey, I don't think the occasional "y'all" is a bad thing! ;) Basically, she wants an hour of "free conversation" to talk about anything and everything and learn more about American culture. Our hour went by really fast last night, since it really felt more like chatting with a new friend than a class! She is going to be fun to work with!

After my classes last night I met with the branch's coordinator and she is totally great. We had a nice little chat, and she asked if she could call me to substitute for other teachers, since my schedule is generally pretty open.

And then today, I received a phone call from the American school (where I volunteer two days per week) to ask if I would consider being a substitute teacher for them. It didn't sound all bad and I really like it out there, so Monday I am filling in for the fourth grade teacher.

It is looking more and more like I am actually sort of turning into a teacher. I suppose I just need to develop a love for apples now. ;)