Language
by Teresa Peipins—Age 49—Barcelona, Spain
After 20 plus years of classroom teaching I decided to have a go as a freelance language teacher. My decision seemed practical since in Spain everyone is studying English although it doesn ´t seem like anyone is making much progress. My usual day can start at 8 AM with motivated (but not very exciting) students at an insurance company or as late as 2pm for the after lunch stragglers at a toy company. In between I teach chemists, English majors, a recovering stroke victim, and thirtysomething go-getters at a multinational firm. What is it I do?
Primarily I chat. Depending on the level of the student and her aversion to getting down to work, this can last up to 20 minutes. With the older gentleman who had a stroke, given that his eyesight and memory aren ´t that good, that is all we do. I ´ve learned to follow the local soccer team which is a Catalan nationalist symbol; that’s always good for some interaction.
After the warm-up as we call it in ESL, there is usually a short reading or grammar lesson followed by more talk. The longer I spend with the students the more intertwined our lives become. Some barely wait for me to take out my books and papers before they launch in to their latest dilemmas. There is the woman at 50 whose mother died and who considers herself an orphan, the one at 37 who wants to get pregnant, and one who has just returned from a sick leave for depression.
So there you have it. It doesn ´t seem like that hard of a day but it’s wearing me out far more than standing in front of a classroom ever did.
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