Baby Steps to English

So it starts with handing out nametags, smiling at students, maintaining silence and then finally saying slowly, "Hi. My name's J. What's your name?" They are tentative at first. We repeat things a lot. I write simple sentences on the board. I gesture with my hands. There's a decent amount of confusion, but often the student who understands what is going on will chatter a word or two of Turkish translation and the others nod in understanding. Pronunciation must be drilled ad nauseum. "Vere's" is corrected to be pronounced as "where's"; minutes are spent coaxing them to fit their tongue under their front teeth to make a convincing "th" sound that doesn't sound like "tr." And somehow, magically, they begin speaking English.

"Where are you from?" "I'm from Turkey. I'm Turkish." "What's your job?" "I'm a student." "What's this?" "It's an apple." "How do you spell apple?"

Yesterday was my first K1 class. I had massive loads of adrenaline coursing through me when I finished my hour and a half with them. I had a ten minute break to switch tracks and get ready to teach my Intermediate students at K17 (made all the more difficult since I stay in the same room for both classes). By the time my business men were sitting in front of me and I realized that I could talk to them, I was relieved and exhausted.

K1 students are excited and energetic, but also get exhausted. From my brief immersions in Japanese and Turkish for the sake of learning how to teach English, I empathize. Your brain feels squeezed dry. Tonight, at the end of the second class I had them organize a short conversation exchange between two friends. A lot of the vocabulary was new to them, but they worked in two teams of 3 to order the sentences. When they stopped shifting paper around, I played the accompanying CD that read the dialogue so they could check their work. Both teams had gotten the conversation ordered correctly and the look of triumph on their faces was unavoidable. I gave a thumbs up and down sign while asking if they got it correct. They all nodded yes and I yelled "Yay!" which only made them smile more.

I am creating them. I am becoming a teacher. I fucking love it!