Private Lessons

While I've managed to approach my classroom teaching with less dread, then trepidation, I have come to approach my private lessons with an eager anticipation. Since my first few months of bleak employment prospects, people wanting private English lessons and native English speaking tutors for their children have begun to come out of the wood work. It has gotten to the point where I have had to turn people down. While I wonder where all these people were in October when I needed them, I am grateful for their business and for the interaction that it allows me, to learn and to grow as a person and an "English teacher."

I now have four students and two potential students hanging in the wings. On Wednesday and Friday mornings, I work with a Korean woman who wants to improve her English to keep up with her young girls who are beginning to speak more English than Korean, spending their days at a local International School. From her, I learn more about Korea, a country I knew very little about and spend enjoyable mornings trading stories and enjoying her dry sense of humor. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, I work with a fourth grade Korean student whose mother wants him to improve his English, but who prefers to talk to me about all things American and turn every conversation into a bloodbath of terrorism or a detailed listing of scientific facts. From him, I've gained a desire to improve my knowledge of world records and my prowess at 20 questions, as well as a desire to shield my own children from violent computer games. On Sunday evenings, I work with my new student from the copy shop who peppers me with questions on pronunciation, the most recent being "thalidomide." From him, a challenge to actually learn how to teach the difference between "p" and "f" to someone who cannot hear the difference. And Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings find me home with my 12th grade student from AIS whom I've been working with since October, who always challenges me with assignments on the stock market or interests me with stories from World Literature, leaving me satisfied that I'm helping her to understand and even more so that I can make her laugh.