試試看。。give it a try and see what you think ...

So, yesterday I had school in the morning, rode home, Alisha picked me up and we drove to Joyce's house for lunch. (I must point out that on our way over, we stopped for tea ;) lol and that was the white cup that you saw in the garbage can, two blogs earlier.) Joyce prepared a delicious meal for us and we had a great time laughing, eating, talking, laughing some more and talking about hair. lol



I think you know what this is ... ;)



Alisha looks cute in my hat ... she and Joyce are photogenic! Such beautiful smiles! Yesterday, they showed me pictures from before and after they came to Jesus. Wow! What a difference! You can see the change on their faces!

English teacher for a night ...

Last night, I went with my teacher to cram school. She picked me up from my apartment and on the way there she asked me, "Do you think you want to come back to Taiwan and teach English?" And I said, "Yes I think I would." To which she replied, "You will have a change tonight to practice and see if you like it." ... I was surprised! I said to her, “老師，我還沒準備好!" Meaning, "Teacher, I haven't prepared!" She calmly replied, "It's okay, you can look at the magazine on the way over there." And thus my first experience as a language teacher began. :)

Before we went to school, she took me to her house where I met her parents and ate some dinner with Jennifer (my teacher's English name). I ate pig's feet for the first time ... I thought it was thigh ... but I'm fairly certain is was feet. It wasn't bad at all. Also, we had some fish, seaweed, berry/red bean soup with milk, cucumber salad, cabbage and mango to top it all off. It was delicious!! :)



Can you guess how old her parents are? ... Her dad is 81 and her mom is 76 ... can you believe it??? they look so good for their respective ages!!

After eating, we left for class in the car. On the way over, I began to review my lesson for the evening, which was on the pharmacy/getting well. She teaches this class from a cool magazine called, "EZ Read." Jennifer said that it's pretty popular here and that they also have a version that teaches Chinese in the same manner. I want to buy them ... anyways, I read over the new vocab and the dialogues and managed to get some chatting in with Jennifer, all on the way to school. Before I knew it, we had arrived.

We walked inside and I met Jen's boss. Upstairs, I met a co-worker of hers and some other younger students who were also there to study Enlgish. Then we went into Jen's classroom and I laid eyes upon my first group of temporary students. When they all arrived, we had six girls in this group.

To begin class, Jen took role, did a quick review of the last class' study topic and then gave a quiz. Afterwards, she had me sit in the front of the room on a stool and talk with the girls to practice casual conversation. I introduced myself briefly and then asked all the girls to tell me their names, age and one of their hobbies. Rita, Polly, Mina and Alice are 16 and Sinny and Vickey are 17. After the girls introduced themselves, Jennifer told them to ask me questions in English ... so they did. It took a while for them to get comfortable with talking to me since they didn't know me and because they were nervous about using English. I got asked some of the following questions:

-Why are you so tall? (This was the very first question that I got asked ... Vickey asked me)
-How long have you been in Taiwan?
-How long will you be in Taiwan?
-What do you do when school is over for the day?
-What are your plans for the summer?
-Why did you come to Taiwan?
-Why do you want to study Chinese?
-Do you have a boyfriend?
-Have you ever eaten Stinky Tofu?
-Do you like Chinese food?
-What is your favorite thing to eat?
-How tall are you? (This was the last question I think and Jennifer wrote my measurements on the board and transferred them into cm so they would know in their terms how tall I am. It was funny. :)

After this question and answer session was over, Jen came back to the front and asked if they were now ready to start class. Then she handed me the book and it was "Go time." I can still remember ... "Okay, on page 52, we are going to go over our new vocabulary words." ... I was stepping into unfamiliar territory ... I am used to being in a classroom, but not at the front. ;)

After we went over the new words briefly, I asked if there were any questions so far and then proceeded to read the first dialogue out loud. After having read it, I asked again if there were any questions and tried to clarify any English that might get confusing. Next, I asked two students to volunteer to read the dialogue out loud themselves. Following the second reading of the dialogue, I called again for questions. then we moved on to the next vocab words on the list, having to do with the same subject.

It is amazing how fast time flies! I think I taught for about an hour all in all and it did not seem like it! I really enjoyed the time in the classroom! Near the end of class, the boss came into the classroom and brought us tea. :) So sweet! She wanted to take a picture with me and the students with Jennifer. :)

Before class dismissed, the students had to get their class journals out and have the teacher sign them. Yesterday, they told Jennifer that they wanted me to sign their books instead of her lol. So I signed their books with my English name because it was the fasted way ... and when I had finished, they asked if I could sign my name in Chinese, as well. So I gathered the books up and sat down to write in them again. :)


My very first group of ESL students. :) Rita is on the left in pink and purple, next to her in the front row wearing white is Polly. Behind Polly is Mina in the yellow shirt. Next to Mina is Alice, who is wearing white. Behind Alice is another girl in white and her name is Sinny. Last but not least, Vickey is in the back corner wearing yellow.



My teacher! :) She is very kind and thoughtful!



The material that Jennifer uses in class. It's a popular magazine that is set up similar to a language text book. It is colorful and very useful I think because it teaches everyday ways of saying different things, rather than teaching the more common "book language" which isn't used in spoken language often.



My tea, with Jennifer in the backround



This is me, apparently, after a long, but very rewarding day ... time to wash my face! ;)
Speaking of which, it is that time again ... I need to sleep so I can be up in time for school tomorrow ... I can't believe it's already going to be Friday! Crazy how fast time flies!

Thank you all for reading my blog and for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers.

Kate