Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Settling in/The trials of being an Engligh teacher

We have been in Namibia now for over two months, and I am finally getting used to some of the various systems of interactions. These include working with teachers and learners, talking to people on the street, meeting new friends, grocery shopping, transportation, etc. This has made everything a little easier, though there are still big challenges. I have relooked at my goals for the year, and I am now excited about a few projects, especially the library and English club.
I have not yet made any decision about next year. Some volunteers choose to stay longer than a year, and I want to keep that option open. I must admit that I am leaning in the direction of returning home, but I gave myself a deadline of June to make a final decision. Who knows if there will be jobs left when I return…
On an unrelated note, it is very fun to teach English. There are some local idiosyncrasies, however, that can be a bit frustrating. I will share two. The first is pronoun usage. “Me myself, I don’t think this homework is difficult.” Or, “The girl, she is not serious.” Very unnecessary. My favorite, and subject of recent tirades, is the use of the phrase “used to.” Along with being spelled incorrectly, this is used here to talk about things in the present tense. For example, if you play soccer every day here, you might say “I used to play soccer every day.” Needless to say, this leads to some confusion on my part. I explained how it really means an activity is complete, and it was like dropping a grammar bomb on my learners. Fun times.

1 comment:

Sara said...

My myself, I think you should stop being a dink and start calling them "kids" or "brats" or "nonenglishspeakingcretans" instead of "learners."