First classes, near-car crashes and… I can’t think of anything else that rhymes.

I’ve done my first day of work and had my first day off! (Yes, that’s right, I don’t work at all on Tuesday. Not bad, huh?)

So how was it? Well, I think it went pretty well. Actually, it went so well in fact that one of the guys I worked with commented on my ‘teacher training’. When I told him I’d had none, he  said (with a slightly French-Belgian accent); ‘well, if you can survive a class like that with no training, you can survive anything’. OH YES.

‘What does he mean by, a class like that?’ I hear you cry! (Well, not really but I’m in my optimistic, cheery teacher mode, so just go with it, kay?)

Well, let me start from the beginning. I hope you’re sitting comfortably.

On a Monday I have 3 classes. 2 with my mentor then and one with a different English Language teacher.

‘And how did these classes go?’ I hear you cry! (Again, just go with it.) Well, the 2 classes with my mentor went incredibly well. In fact, I managed to get both classes talking to me in English for a whole 50 minutes, asking me questions and generally chatting about England.

Then I had the other class – this one wasn’t with my mentor but was with one of the other English Language teachers. Well, that class just did not want to talk. It was basically me talking at them for a full 50 minutes. I even got to the stage where I handed out some pictures of Sheffield and asked them to describe them to everyone else in the class. Yes, it was that bad.

I can understand the students being nervous, seen as I’m a native English speaker and I’m asking them to talk in my language, in front of their friends. I remember being in school myself and hating it when teachers did that to me. However, considering where my French is at now, I’m glad they made me talk.

En plus, I now appreciate what it feels like to be stood in front of 20 students in a conversation class where they won’t utter more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’… And sometimes not even that, just a head nod or shake.

However, it’s my first class with them so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they were nervous. Their English was absolutely amazing though, so they seriously had nothing to worry about. (I did tell them this but was just met with about 20 blank stares.)

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I was congratulated at the end of the lesson by the teacher. No, he didn’t congratulate me because I made up some amazing lesson plan or because the students loved me, but simply because my head is full of enough rubbish that I can babble on for 50 minutes, keep smiling and can successfully  do the whole ‘tell me what you think of that AND WHY’ thing that language teachers do.

N.B: For those of you that haven’t been a language student or teacher, the ‘AND WHY’ is a life saviour when it comes to teaching languages. The class isn’t talking and is just giving yes/no answers? Stick a: and why/et pourquoi/y por qué/e perché? on the end of your question and it forces them to speak in sentences.

I finished work at 4:00 (classes here run from 8:00 – 4:00) and then had a nice tour of all the local shopping centres in Arlon. Here, they have a Carrefour, Aldi and Lidl.

I didn’t volunteer for a shopping tour, don’t get me wrong. Actually, someone offered me a lift at the end of the school day and I reeeeaaally didn’t want to take them up on their offer because car journeys with them are awkward and silent. The best excuse I could think of was, ‘ah no, I need to buy a few things before I go home!’

Well, the unlucky soul that I am, I then got told by the guy I’d just had the last class with, ‘I need to buy a few things so I can take you if you want. It’s cold and rainy so you don’t want to be walking there and back.’  See the thing is, I was happy for him to give me a lift, he actually talks to me and it’s nice to have someone I can chat to who’s also in their twenties. However, shopping was just  an excuse… so I had to come up with a list of things that I needed and fast.

The first two things I could think of were sugar coke (diabetes is always on the brain) and tissues. God knows why I thought of tissues, I didn’t even know the word in French. But anyway, off we went to Carrefour… Where they didn’t have tissues and they didn’t have what he needed. So then we went to Aldi, which was shut. We then almost ended up in a crash with a lovely gentleman who stuck two fingers up at us both through his car window and then finally got to Lidl. I got tissues there (and now I’m stuck with enough to last me my entire year abroad) and he got most of the things he needed, before dropping me off home.

So, it was an eventful evening. I got in and the host dad here had a right laugh over questioning me about this teacher I’d been with. You’d think I could escape that kind of torture by moving abroad but OH NO, they jokingly question you about any male you happen to have been alone with for more than an hour here too. Just this time, it was in French.

And finally, today’s been my day off. I’ve gone and got myself a Belgian SIM card from BASE (it cost me 15€ and that 15€ is now on my phone as credit), I went to the train station to get a Go-Pass (which gives me ten journeys anywhere in Belgium for 50€) and stocked up on classroom resources.

This afternoon, I sat in the middle of my room and cut out 192 (I kid you not, 192) match up cards on the Yorkshire dialect including words like ‘aye’, ‘all reight’ and ‘bobby dazzler’. My hand hurts from all the cutting and writing.

I put a picture below – it doesn’t look like there’s 192 cards, but there are. I counted. Twice.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to over the past 2 days! I’ve been a busy, busy bee!

Hope you’re all super-well, hugs to you all!

P.S. Thanks to all the lovely people who’ve been emailing me recently to tell me they’re enjoying my blog! It’s fab to know that it’s going down well with you all, considering it’s my first ever blog! 🙂