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!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
CELTA Course Finished, Back in Wien
I didn't have a ton of time to write while I was in Budapest. They kept us very busy but no doubt I could have made some time to update my 10 loyal subscribers.
To give a quick summary of the course will be difficult but I'll try to fit everything in. We had engagements from 9:00-17:00 every weekday. In the mornings was teaching practice where we taught or observed our peers teaching a real class of adults. They knew we were teachers in training so they were very nice, the course also cost a lot less for the students than a normal English class. We had to teach a 45 minute lesson every other day and we taught 8 total. For the lesson plans we had to follow very specific frameworks and fill out of the paperwork so they took several hours to prepare. In addition to teaching we had 4 assignments due throughout the 4 weeks and each of them took several hours so together with the lesson plans we had 2-3 hours of homework per night. In the afternoons we had our own lessons from the teacher trainers where we learned new methods for teaching.
Apart from class I had a fantastic time getting to know the other course participants who were all from either England or the USA. It was of course easy to get to know everyone since we all had a lot in common and I could speak English with them. That's the main thing that's been hindering me making any real friends in Vienna, I don't feel I can get to know someone real well speaking German. When I came back to Wien on Saturday I bought a round trip ticket, since they're just a couple Euro more than a one-way, and I'm really looking forward to going back. The return trip is during my birthday weekend and if it's anything like a few of the nights we had out in March it'll be a great time. Unfortunately most of the people from the course aren't staying in Budapest but I'll get to celebrate with a few people.
Since returning to Wien on Saturday, I scored my first goal in a competitive match for the FC Adrenalin Reserves, I also scored for the first team in the match before I left but it was a pre-season friendly. I should be back in the first team for this weekend. Also since returning I've sent my newly re-written CV to 14 language schools and have already gotten 4 responses. I may have an interview with one this Friday. However getting a job with one school isn't enough since none of them are full-time positions. Normally someone works for several schools along with having private tutoring clients in order to have an approximately full schedule.
I think that's enough of an update for now. I'd really like to get back to writing more often, but for now I need to watch the thrilling conclusion to the first leg of the ManU-Chelsea Champions League match!
To give a quick summary of the course will be difficult but I'll try to fit everything in. We had engagements from 9:00-17:00 every weekday. In the mornings was teaching practice where we taught or observed our peers teaching a real class of adults. They knew we were teachers in training so they were very nice, the course also cost a lot less for the students than a normal English class. We had to teach a 45 minute lesson every other day and we taught 8 total. For the lesson plans we had to follow very specific frameworks and fill out of the paperwork so they took several hours to prepare. In addition to teaching we had 4 assignments due throughout the 4 weeks and each of them took several hours so together with the lesson plans we had 2-3 hours of homework per night. In the afternoons we had our own lessons from the teacher trainers where we learned new methods for teaching.
Apart from class I had a fantastic time getting to know the other course participants who were all from either England or the USA. It was of course easy to get to know everyone since we all had a lot in common and I could speak English with them. That's the main thing that's been hindering me making any real friends in Vienna, I don't feel I can get to know someone real well speaking German. When I came back to Wien on Saturday I bought a round trip ticket, since they're just a couple Euro more than a one-way, and I'm really looking forward to going back. The return trip is during my birthday weekend and if it's anything like a few of the nights we had out in March it'll be a great time. Unfortunately most of the people from the course aren't staying in Budapest but I'll get to celebrate with a few people.
Since returning to Wien on Saturday, I scored my first goal in a competitive match for the FC Adrenalin Reserves, I also scored for the first team in the match before I left but it was a pre-season friendly. I should be back in the first team for this weekend. Also since returning I've sent my newly re-written CV to 14 language schools and have already gotten 4 responses. I may have an interview with one this Friday. However getting a job with one school isn't enough since none of them are full-time positions. Normally someone works for several schools along with having private tutoring clients in order to have an approximately full schedule.
I think that's enough of an update for now. I'd really like to get back to writing more often, but for now I need to watch the thrilling conclusion to the first leg of the ManU-Chelsea Champions League match!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
In Budapest?
Familiar line - nothing posted lately, but it's not for a lack of things going on. Currently, I'm in a crappy apartment in Budapest, where I'll be staying for another 3 weeks (except for a quick trip to Vienna this weekend). Hopefully Marlene can come visit on one of the other 2 weekends.
The course I'm taking is the Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA). It lasts 4 weeks and I'm almost a week into it. It's extremely intensive. There's 8 hours of teaching observation or class per day along with an average of maybe 2 hours work in the evening. The amount of outside work depends on if I need to give a lesson the following day, which happens every other day. The classes we observe and then teach every second day, are real students. They are aware however that it's a class where teachers are being trained and I was told it's a lot cheaper for them compared to courses with one real teacher.
The first day was extremely overwhelming and then first thing in the morning on day 2 I had to teach a lesson. After that it's been more relaxing and I feel I've already learned a ton. Tomorrow I'll teach my second lesson and it took about half the time to plan as it did for my first try. I'm sure the rest will get even easier.
Because I don't have much free time I haven't done any touristy things. Hopefully I'll have more time for that later in the course when the homework doesn't take as long to finish. I forgot to bring my camera so I don't see too much point in seeing the sights since I wouldn't be able to "prove" it. My camera's one of the things I'll want to bring back when I make the 3 hour bus ride to Vienna.
The course I'm taking is the Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA). It lasts 4 weeks and I'm almost a week into it. It's extremely intensive. There's 8 hours of teaching observation or class per day along with an average of maybe 2 hours work in the evening. The amount of outside work depends on if I need to give a lesson the following day, which happens every other day. The classes we observe and then teach every second day, are real students. They are aware however that it's a class where teachers are being trained and I was told it's a lot cheaper for them compared to courses with one real teacher.
The first day was extremely overwhelming and then first thing in the morning on day 2 I had to teach a lesson. After that it's been more relaxing and I feel I've already learned a ton. Tomorrow I'll teach my second lesson and it took about half the time to plan as it did for my first try. I'm sure the rest will get even easier.
Because I don't have much free time I haven't done any touristy things. Hopefully I'll have more time for that later in the course when the homework doesn't take as long to finish. I forgot to bring my camera so I don't see too much point in seeing the sights since I wouldn't be able to "prove" it. My camera's one of the things I'll want to bring back when I make the 3 hour bus ride to Vienna.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Hallelujah!
Big news everyone! After the Xbox troubles detailed in my last blog, we sent back the faulty European Xbox power supply, and we received the replacement yesterday. This time, everything worked! We cautiously plugged it into the wall in the kitchen first, because the kitchen and bathroom are on a different electrical circuit from the other rooms where we have clocks that needed resetting every time we caused power outages. After the power supply worked in the kitchen, we tried it in the living room. After it worked in the living room, we plugged it into the Xbox, hit the power button and woohooo!
Marlene had the first session, playing the classic Civilization Revolution. If you can believe it, Marlene has been looking forward to having a functioning video game system at least as much as I have. She's got Civ Rev along with The Sims 3, which she's been waiting to play since Xmas. Here's some photographic evidence of how happy she was!
In other awesome news, my soccer team started training again yesterday. It was pretty freezing cold to be playing outdoor soccer already, but it'll be good to have more opportunities to exercise. The competitive matches start in a couple weeks, until then we have friendly matches against other Vienna teams to get back into real fitness. I'm really looking forward to it because I was starting to get some decent playing time with the first team at the end of Fall, and I had a great time playing indoor with my teammates over the Winter.
Marlene had the first session, playing the classic Civilization Revolution. If you can believe it, Marlene has been looking forward to having a functioning video game system at least as much as I have. She's got Civ Rev along with The Sims 3, which she's been waiting to play since Xmas. Here's some photographic evidence of how happy she was!
In other awesome news, my soccer team started training again yesterday. It was pretty freezing cold to be playing outdoor soccer already, but it'll be good to have more opportunities to exercise. The competitive matches start in a couple weeks, until then we have friendly matches against other Vienna teams to get back into real fitness. I'm really looking forward to it because I was starting to get some decent playing time with the first team at the end of Fall, and I had a great time playing indoor with my teammates over the Winter.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
First post in a month!
So again I've gone quite a while without posting but it's definitely not because of a lack of subjects to blog about. Earlier in the month, my grandpa unfortunately died so I made a quick trip back to the USA in order to attend his funeral. It was a sad time but it was actually really nice to see my family and friends who I haven't seen since the summer. During that time, I did some thinking about job and decided it wasn't something that I'd like to continue long-term since, even though my job title was "IT-Administrator", my boss had me doing more secretary work. When I came back, my boss had been thinking a similar thing so I stopped working there last week. I'm not really sure if I was technically fired, since I didn't want to stay on. I suppose it doesn't matter too much except for I liked keeping the record in my mind that I'd never been fired from a job, kind of like how I've never had a cavity (sorry for the dental hygiene bragging!).
My last day was on Jan 27 and I've already had an interview yesterday, Jan 31, which went awesome. They said they'd be contacting me back this week and I could be starting as early as next week. I also have another interview tomorrow where I think I've got a great chance at getting a job offer so I feel like I'm in a good position which was not the case a few months ago when I felt like I hit the lottery by getting a job offer.
Here's a pic for everyone in Austria. This is from my week in Minnesota so you can see how much snow they have there, it's well above my head (in a parking lot). In Vienna we get snow every once in a while but it always melts pretty quick. So far, I have not been missing the Minnesota winter. It's fun to brag about living through it in the past but I'm glad to not be in the middle of it now, my soccer team will be starting outdoor practice in a couple weeks, that's definitely an example of something that would never be happening in Minnesota at this time of year.
Returning from my visit to the USA I brought back my Xbox and several games so you'd expect by now I'd be a gamer again but it's a little tougher than that. First, we tried plugging in the Xbox power supply using a cheap travel converter (which works for laptops, cell phone chargers and other electronics) but that just caused our apartment's power to go out. We did a bit of research and found that a step-down converter was required so we ordered one and when it arrived had a little bit more luck. We plugged it in and it looked like it would work except when we plugged the Xbox power supply into the converter, nothing happened... So we returned the step-down converter and instead ordered a European Xbox power supply which had the same output voltage as my American Xbox power supply but it arrived today and when we tried plugging the European power supply into the wall, it caused the power to go out again! So we don't really know what the problem could be, it looks to me now that there might be something strange with the electricity in our apartment, but of course now when we try plugging in the European power supply nothing happens, so that means a fuse blew out in the power supply itself. It's all very frustrating and I just to want to play Oblivion again while Marlene is dying to play The Sims 3.
My last day was on Jan 27 and I've already had an interview yesterday, Jan 31, which went awesome. They said they'd be contacting me back this week and I could be starting as early as next week. I also have another interview tomorrow where I think I've got a great chance at getting a job offer so I feel like I'm in a good position which was not the case a few months ago when I felt like I hit the lottery by getting a job offer.
Here's a pic for everyone in Austria. This is from my week in Minnesota so you can see how much snow they have there, it's well above my head (in a parking lot). In Vienna we get snow every once in a while but it always melts pretty quick. So far, I have not been missing the Minnesota winter. It's fun to brag about living through it in the past but I'm glad to not be in the middle of it now, my soccer team will be starting outdoor practice in a couple weeks, that's definitely an example of something that would never be happening in Minnesota at this time of year.
Returning from my visit to the USA I brought back my Xbox and several games so you'd expect by now I'd be a gamer again but it's a little tougher than that. First, we tried plugging in the Xbox power supply using a cheap travel converter (which works for laptops, cell phone chargers and other electronics) but that just caused our apartment's power to go out. We did a bit of research and found that a step-down converter was required so we ordered one and when it arrived had a little bit more luck. We plugged it in and it looked like it would work except when we plugged the Xbox power supply into the converter, nothing happened... So we returned the step-down converter and instead ordered a European Xbox power supply which had the same output voltage as my American Xbox power supply but it arrived today and when we tried plugging the European power supply into the wall, it caused the power to go out again! So we don't really know what the problem could be, it looks to me now that there might be something strange with the electricity in our apartment, but of course now when we try plugging in the European power supply nothing happens, so that means a fuse blew out in the power supply itself. It's all very frustrating and I just to want to play Oblivion again while Marlene is dying to play The Sims 3.
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