Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Teaching English To Russian Adults

Thankfully I received my first class of adults last week. For the past month I have been teaching, exclusively, kids and teenagers and one class of 40-somethings. What's with the kids? "You are very good with children." my handlers told me (my handlers are the 3 Russian women who make up our branch administrative staff). Because of that I've been saddled with class after class of kids.

It was such a nice change to start teaching adults in their 20s. This is a group that I can understand yet I'm old enough and experienced enough that I am able to maintain their respect.

When I taught in Korea I was sent to the client's location; that is, if they wanted lessons at home or at their office I had to travel there. With my company in Russia we have a location that is equipped with four classrooms and the students come to us. These classrooms are cozy and decorated in the blue and white colours of our company as well as various phonetic charts, the odd flag from an American state and posters that children have made. They come equiped with white boards and CD players and books and games (including two of my favourites, Scrabble and Balderdash).

Don't get me wrong, I love kids. The little bastards are so adorable and I find it fascinating that kids from Asia, North America and Russia are all the same. They just want to laugh and be engaged and feel safe and loved. That's something I find I can do naturally with the ankle biters and I grow incredibly attached and slightly protective of them. Still, that doesn't make up for the fact that helping a 24-year old blonde with brown eyes and cleavage bursting out of her low-cut shirt is vastly more satisfying.

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