I just finished my first full week as an English trainer. I taught a class on Monday at Berlitz, then classes on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at Inlingua, as well as a private student Monday afternoon and a volunteer tutoring session on Wednesday afternoon. The teaching has already gotten easier, for example today, it only took about 45 minutes to prepare for my 2 hours and 15 minute class. Then next week, I've got the same Inlingua class on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, plus two private lessons on Tuesday and Wednesday at the same school.
My soccer team is one game away from winning our league, which I explained last week is an amazing accomplishment. However, as soon as we win this weekend and celebrate being champions, I'll switch my thoughts to St. Paul FC. During the summer, I'll do a short loan move to the USA where we'll also hopefully be fighting for a league championship. Currently St. Paul FC is in first place in the Minnesota Amateur Soccer League Division 4. Personally, (very selfish, I know) I hope they don't have the title wrapped up before I arrive, because I'd like to feel partly responsible for their winning, but we'll see what happens. I'd much rather have them have first place guaranteed before I arrive, than get second or third. I won't even contemplate less than that.
I mentioned on facebook that Marlene and have concrete plans to return to the USA this summer, but I don't think I ever gave any details here. We'll be flying to London on July 8 and staying for 2 days, hotel/hostel is yet to be booked. I plan on finding one this weekend. After 2 days in London we'll fly to Minneapolis through Gander, Canada, which is quite strange. We only have a 35 minute layover which you may think is not enough time to run through the airport to another gate. Well, you're right! Luckily, we don't have to. We're only stopping there to re-fuel so we won't be switching planes at all! Hopefully we'll at least be able to exit and stretch our legs a bit, but who knows.
Finally, you may have noticed I added a number of new bands to my current music section. Just look up and to the right if you're reading this. The Cars are obviously an old band but just released a new album which rocks, especially the song "Blue Tip". If anyone was able to get tickets to see them at First Avenue this week then I'm super jealous. The Strokes put out their first new album in 5 years and I love it. They were the indie rock to catch my attention back when I was sixteen so they'll always hold a special place in my heart. The other two, Yeasayer and Wiz Khalifa, just check 'em out, I don't have anything special to say...
Friday, May 20, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Friday the 13th: Nightmare on Franzensgasse...
Well nothing spooky happened to me today, but I don't think Friday the 13th is really unlucky here in Austria. You Americans have a few hours left yet so watch yourselves...
This upcoming week I'll have about 9 hours of teaching that I know of so far, which is pretty good. Over the next few weeks it'll only increase. Over the weekend Marlene will be travelling to Neusiedl for a cousin's birthday party but I'll stay in Wien to play/attend some soccer games and prepare for my lessons.
The team I play for is first place in our league with 2 matches left to go. If we end up in first, we'll be promoted to the next division which would be a great accomplishment since they were promoted to this current division last season. For any Americans out there unfamiliar with the promotion/relegation system of European football; imagine if the best team in triple A baseball was moved to the major leagues then won the World Series in the next season. In principle that's similar to what to what we'd be doing, but in practice it's much easier to be promoted two years in a row, especially when I join the team for the second year :-D
The soccer team I support, Austria Wien, is in third place at the moment but there's still a really good chance that they could win and play in the Champion's League next year (or drop down to 4th or 5th and not even play in Europa League but let's not think about that).
Finally, I got some new glasses today. My old ones had been hanging on by a thread, well, actually by a paperclip which I'd used to repair them. But these new ones are great. They look pretty similar to my old ones, except just a bit more hipster-y and they did an eye test at the store so they've got my most up-to-date prescription. I wasn't planning on wearing them very often but I might end up doing so because they're noticeably better than my contacts.
This upcoming week I'll have about 9 hours of teaching that I know of so far, which is pretty good. Over the next few weeks it'll only increase. Over the weekend Marlene will be travelling to Neusiedl for a cousin's birthday party but I'll stay in Wien to play/attend some soccer games and prepare for my lessons.
The team I play for is first place in our league with 2 matches left to go. If we end up in first, we'll be promoted to the next division which would be a great accomplishment since they were promoted to this current division last season. For any Americans out there unfamiliar with the promotion/relegation system of European football; imagine if the best team in triple A baseball was moved to the major leagues then won the World Series in the next season. In principle that's similar to what to what we'd be doing, but in practice it's much easier to be promoted two years in a row, especially when I join the team for the second year :-D
The soccer team I support, Austria Wien, is in third place at the moment but there's still a really good chance that they could win and play in the Champion's League next year (or drop down to 4th or 5th and not even play in Europa League but let's not think about that).
Finally, I got some new glasses today. My old ones had been hanging on by a thread, well, actually by a paperclip which I'd used to repair them. But these new ones are great. They look pretty similar to my old ones, except just a bit more hipster-y and they did an eye test at the store so they've got my most up-to-date prescription. I wasn't planning on wearing them very often but I might end up doing so because they're noticeably better than my contacts.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Toby Neal: English Trainer
I've had a lot of good leads since finishing my CELTA certification. I've applied to about 30 language institutes in Vienna and got called in for 5 interviews, all of which want to offer me courses to teach. That's definitely good news, but now I need to worry (a little bit) about over-committing myself. Because I'll be working as a freelance trainer for several schools simultaneously, I'll need to keep a close track of my own schedule and make sure classes never overlap. It's a better problem to have than not having any work though, so I'm very pleased about that.
My first official paid lesson will happen on Monday for Berlitz, an institute which Americans might be familiar with from their foreign language phrasebooks. Unlike the other language schools, Berlitz had their own training course which was 8 hours a day for 6 days. A lot of it was similar to what I learned during the CELTA course except for Berlitz doesn't teach grammar directly in that they don't want trainers to explain grammar rules in black and white. Rather we're supposed to subtly slip it into conversation, which is actually difficult for me because I've been studying English grammar a lot since I decided to try my hand at teaching. I want to show off what I've been learning!
The Berlitz training was also a good time to meet some other native English speakers living in Vienna. It was super easy to make friends in Budapest because I was always with Americans and Englanders and the same goes with the Berlitz training. Looking back on my time in Budapest, I was hesitant to go there, but I met some great people. They were so great that Marlene and I ended up spending my birthday weekend there celebrating with them. We did some touristy things during the day and met up with them in the evenings. The highlight of the trip for me was going to the karaoke bar where we sang a few duets without much response until we did "Got My Mind Set on You" by George Harrison and the place went crazy! Since then I've had the song stuck in my head and have played it dozens of times on youtube.
Another super great piece of news in the last few weeks is that we've officially planed a trip back to the USA for summer. We'll be back in Minnesota (and who knows where else...) between July 10 and August 5. The awesome thing about being a freelance worker is that I can take holidays for basically however long and whenever I want. Marlene has all of July and August free so we could potentially have the opportunity to spend a month or more every summer in the USA which I would love!
My first official paid lesson will happen on Monday for Berlitz, an institute which Americans might be familiar with from their foreign language phrasebooks. Unlike the other language schools, Berlitz had their own training course which was 8 hours a day for 6 days. A lot of it was similar to what I learned during the CELTA course except for Berlitz doesn't teach grammar directly in that they don't want trainers to explain grammar rules in black and white. Rather we're supposed to subtly slip it into conversation, which is actually difficult for me because I've been studying English grammar a lot since I decided to try my hand at teaching. I want to show off what I've been learning!
The Berlitz training was also a good time to meet some other native English speakers living in Vienna. It was super easy to make friends in Budapest because I was always with Americans and Englanders and the same goes with the Berlitz training. Looking back on my time in Budapest, I was hesitant to go there, but I met some great people. They were so great that Marlene and I ended up spending my birthday weekend there celebrating with them. We did some touristy things during the day and met up with them in the evenings. The highlight of the trip for me was going to the karaoke bar where we sang a few duets without much response until we did "Got My Mind Set on You" by George Harrison and the place went crazy! Since then I've had the song stuck in my head and have played it dozens of times on youtube.
Another super great piece of news in the last few weeks is that we've officially planed a trip back to the USA for summer. We'll be back in Minnesota (and who knows where else...) between July 10 and August 5. The awesome thing about being a freelance worker is that I can take holidays for basically however long and whenever I want. Marlene has all of July and August free so we could potentially have the opportunity to spend a month or more every summer in the USA which I would love!
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