Only one of my favorite movies ever: Home Alone 2, Lost in New York. If you haven't watched this movie before, I really don't know if we can be friends... :)
So, today was my FIRST day of true, honest-to-goodness, English clubs (of which I still have no clue how to run). We're going to ignore that last little part in parentheses though. I'm going to give you a quick run-through of each group that I had today...and then I need to prep for my peewee class (5 year olds) that I meet with tomorrow morning at 8:30 am.
Group 1: Most advanced group I have. 3 students in their 20's who are yearning for more English time. They go to English clubs at the library and are so interested in learning the language. My goal with them? To teach them phrases and sayings that we use every day without even realizing it. Today I explained what the difference between "skimming the surface" and going "in depth" about a topic/idea/book/whatever is. This also brought up topics/words such as appropriate, the difference between mad vs. crazy, and perhaps the most funny that I quickly had to correct them on: the phrase "I'm pissed." I'll let you use your imagination on the last example.
Group 2: six 8 year olds who are in 3rd form. They are PRECIOUS. I love them already and I only spent 45 minutes with them today. The hopefully now know the words and colors for some of these guys:
The 8 year olds have an amazing brain. I had a picture slideshow of about 15 images and would call on each kid individually. They got to where they knew which slide was coming next only after going through the images 2 or 3 times! So, I had to put it on random to trick them! Also, they're adorable when they say turtle. "TU" is hard for them say...so it comes out "tyortull." Absolutely adorable.
Group 3: This group of adults started off as a group of five, but we are switching it next week to a group of 3 and a group of 2. The group of 2 have had English classes a while ago (10 years or more) but simply haven't practiced in many years. They are far past beginner status,, but need help remembering sentence structure. The group of 3 is a bit more advanced--able to carry on a full conversation in English. They simply need practice speaking. Their main goal will be to develop confidence when speaking...because I know they know the words, they just depend on Russian still! Also, the group of 3 has watched some tv shows and movies before (in English). We may watch a 20 minute tv show in English each week and then discuss it. My suggestion? Friends (duh). It's actually incredibly popular over here and they loved this idea. So. Excited :)
Group 4: Staff from the center for creative youth (where I work) beginner class. 8 or so ladies (and two of their daughters) who have taken a few English classes many years ago. They know the typical phrases: hello, my name is ____, I live in Kirovograd, I have a mother, father, sister, brother, etc. We're starting at the beginning with them--the alphabet and pronunciations. They have the information already somewhere in their heads...they simply have to find it again!
That was my day! I fully didn't mean for this to be so long. In fact, I planned on writing about my cooking adventure on Sunday night and a little discovery I made. But, I'm too lazy to upload pictures of my cooking right now. So, that will hopefully be in tomorrow's blog. Or maybe Thursdays :)
Also, I should probably let you know that I am going to be on a blog sabbatical for a bit. Why? Because I'm going on a TRIP :) :) :) My first trip out of the country during my Peace Corps service. Fall break is the last week of October (next week) and I will be going with my work on a trip to Germany, Poland, and Czech Republic. One of my PC best friends, Kym, is getting to come on the trip too. On our bucket list for Ukraine (which btw, after typing that, I think I should make an actual bucket list for Ukraine) is to go to as many castles/fortresses as we can in Ukraine and in the countries surrounding it. We've already been to three:
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| Belgorad, Odessa Oblast |
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| Kamyanets-Podilskyii, Khmelnytskyi Oblast |
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