Just wanted to share because I got some got news

[Martina]

As some of you may recall, I am going to school to learn to teach English as second language. It's been hard and demanding --taking up a lot of my formerly free time, but I am really interested in linguistics so I don't really mind too much. I hope to eventually get out of my office job, even if its just a couple of days a week to do this instead. Anyway, I was talking (via sky*e) to the ESL coordinator today from the Alliance for International Womens Rights and she has decided to put me on the list of available volunteer instructors. I will be teaching English twice a week for 45 -60 minutes each day to women in Afghanistan over the net. Well I just think it's really cool and cannot wait to get started.

Martina

[spitfire]

congrats when you do something you love it is so rewarding. hope you have much success in following your dream

[Millymollymandy]

Wow Martina that is really cool - I had no idea you could teach online so to be able to do it to women on the other side of the world is just amazing! Congratulations! One step closer!

[george]

That's great! You will be helping those women and also it will be good experience for you for when you start looking for a job.

Teaching English can be rewarding but it is also pretty hard work.

Some of my work collegues here are learning English via the telephone or online. It is cool when technology is used for useful stuff.

[becks77]

Fantastic news well done

[Green Aura]

That's brilliant Martina. Not only great experience but such a benefit to the women in Afghanistan. Your tutor must think very highly of you - well done

[MuddyWitch]

Well done!!!!

Thank-you for sharing you great news,

MW

[Milims]

Congratulations! Very well done! Do you mind if I ask how you got into it?

[shamie]

gud on ya, that sounds cool.

[Martina]

Thank-you everybody!!

Milims, I have had a long-standing interest in languages. In fact, when I was in primary school, I loved doing "language arts", where you learned grammar and such. I sort of put that interest on the back burner to do other things and, as things usually do, it has come full circle. I actually decided to get back into it two years ago when I made a job change and quickly realised I made the wrong change. So it was a matter of finding a good programme (there are a lot of scam programmes that are supposed to qualify you to teach but they are not regarded well by employers. So, if you are thinking about getting into it, do your homework!). So I looked and found this rather intense programme that actually teaches linguistics (theory and methodology) and then teaches you how to teach English. It's really interesting and I hope one day to get my full teachers licence and teach language arts at a primary school full-time. But right now, I am happy to be teaching English to newcomers and others abroad as a way to get classroom experience and to do something that matters to other people. Like MMM stated, one step closer!

George, I am sure your colleagues must find it very difficult. I know from my own language learning experience, talking on the phone is extremely difficult. For the first nearly two years, when I was learning French, I really relied on facial expressions, body language and gestures to help me gather understanding of what was being said. So, good luck to your friends, that is a really difficult way to do it. I will not have a camera feed because the internet connection to Afghanistan is not the greatest, so I will be talking to them over the web and typing at the same time! So the ESL co-ordinator emphasised the need for patience. It should be interesting though, this being my first time teaching and doing so in the new/cutting-edge learning environment that the web represents.

Again, thank-you to everyone for your kind words and encouragement.

Martina

[Millymollymandy]

talking on the phone is extremely difficult. For the first nearly two years, when I was learning French, I really relied on facial expressions, body language and gestures to help me gather understanding of what was being said.

I still do and am terrified of the phone! Why am I so understanding of other people trying to learn my language and speak slowly and clearly for them, but nobody does it for me in French - even when you ask them to!

Your new method of teaching sounds quite fascinating, talking and typing. I wonder how I would respond to trying to learn how to spell/write and speak all at the same time! It sounds quite hard I think!

[Brij]

I still do and am terrified of the phone! Why am I so understanding of other people trying to learn my language and speak slowly and clearly for them, but nobody does it for me in French - even when you ask them to!

I still avoid calls (in French or English!), but I do think that because French has a sort of different rhythm to it, getting the knack of picking out individual words in a sentence is half the battle.

Nice one on the teaching job! Plan to get TEFL certified in the New Year, myself

[mamos]

Cool, very exciting

mamos

[Martina]

[/quote]Plan to get TEFL certified in the New Year, myself [/quote]

Very exciting Brij. Let me know what you think of the programme.

Martina

[snapdragon]

I still do and am terrified of the phone! Why am I so understanding of other people trying to learn my language and speak slowly and clearly for them, but nobody does it for me in French - even when you ask them to!

It is difficult - when I lived in Germany and <whispers>sold tupperware to the british/american community after a few difficult starts we agreed that although face to face we would speak in a mixture, on the phone my manager would speak in english and I would speak in german, it was the easiest way for both of us as we'd both speak slow enough for the other to understand - and it helped us both to practise too.