TGIF! Although I can't believe how fast the weeks go...
My students made me smile yesterday...and by smile I mean grin like a fool. It was with one of my 10/11 year old classes, upper-beginner level. At the beginning of class, one of the girls kept saying something to me in Polish, and the rest of the class would giggle. I obviously had no idea what they were saying. So I asked if they were making fun of me, to which they said "yes". I think they misunderstood this. Anyways, the only boy in the class decided to translate for me and write the word on the board that the girls kept calling me. The word was pretty! AWWW! They made their teacher blush. Teehee
My 7/8 kids yesterday were impressed with my (newly accomplished) ability to count to 10 in Polish! Haha Imagine that eh? 7/8 year olds helping ME! I love it. And yes, I can now confidently count to 10. Before I knew only 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. This limited my produce purchasing to just these quantities. Haha. But now I can count to 10! I am quite proud of this! Yesterday in one of my 11/12 beginner classes, one of the girls asked a classmate the answer to number 10, and she said it in Polish. I knew what she was saying though! I've been picking up some other phrases too. Conversation is far off at this point, but I can make broken sentences with key words. It's something!
Oh! And two of my 7/8 kids on Tuesday (one boy - so adorable - and one girl) gave me really great hugs at the end of class.
Random note - a couple weeks ago Heather said I would make a perfect Tim Burton character...whatever that means. Haha She said it was a good thing!
More notes on Radom:
-there is a local volleyball team (I think they do quite well)
-there are hardly any houses here...most people live in an apartment building
-if you stuck any of the buildings here in Waterloo, you would think it was the ghetto of all ghettos, but because it's like that everywhere here, it's not so bad
-despite the appearance of low-income housing everywhere, people always dress nicely
-the centre/downtown is very lovely and well-kept - lots of trees and benches and a park, and the cobblestone roads where no cars are allowed to drive
-apparently there ARE smoking laws here - you have to be 10 meters from a building to smoke and at restaurants there has to be separate smoking/non-smoking sections that have at least three walls dividing them
--> though these laws exist, no one seems to follow them; people ALWAYS smoke inside the building where I teach classes in Radom (gross eh?); at this one restaurant we like to go for soup, the non-smoking section is ONE table in this little room...we never have any trouble getting that spot
-right now in the centre there is a display up on posters/panels for Witold Pilecki: he founded the Secret Polish Army, volunteered to be imprisonned at Auschwitz, organized a resistance while there, escaped, and was part of the Warsaw Uprising. (November 11 is Independence Day in Poland.) (pictures)
-the sun has been a rare treat the past couple weeks...! I want sunshine!
Alright. That's all for me right now. I am really excited for my classes today...I always have fun with my Friday groups...especially the adult class of power plant men!
My students made me smile yesterday...and by smile I mean grin like a fool. It was with one of my 10/11 year old classes, upper-beginner level. At the beginning of class, one of the girls kept saying something to me in Polish, and the rest of the class would giggle. I obviously had no idea what they were saying. So I asked if they were making fun of me, to which they said "yes". I think they misunderstood this. Anyways, the only boy in the class decided to translate for me and write the word on the board that the girls kept calling me. The word was pretty! AWWW! They made their teacher blush. Teehee
My 7/8 kids yesterday were impressed with my (newly accomplished) ability to count to 10 in Polish! Haha Imagine that eh? 7/8 year olds helping ME! I love it. And yes, I can now confidently count to 10. Before I knew only 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. This limited my produce purchasing to just these quantities. Haha. But now I can count to 10! I am quite proud of this! Yesterday in one of my 11/12 beginner classes, one of the girls asked a classmate the answer to number 10, and she said it in Polish. I knew what she was saying though! I've been picking up some other phrases too. Conversation is far off at this point, but I can make broken sentences with key words. It's something!
Oh! And two of my 7/8 kids on Tuesday (one boy - so adorable - and one girl) gave me really great hugs at the end of class.
Random note - a couple weeks ago Heather said I would make a perfect Tim Burton character...whatever that means. Haha She said it was a good thing!
More notes on Radom:
-there is a local volleyball team (I think they do quite well)
-there are hardly any houses here...most people live in an apartment building
-if you stuck any of the buildings here in Waterloo, you would think it was the ghetto of all ghettos, but because it's like that everywhere here, it's not so bad
-despite the appearance of low-income housing everywhere, people always dress nicely
-the centre/downtown is very lovely and well-kept - lots of trees and benches and a park, and the cobblestone roads where no cars are allowed to drive
-apparently there ARE smoking laws here - you have to be 10 meters from a building to smoke and at restaurants there has to be separate smoking/non-smoking sections that have at least three walls dividing them
--> though these laws exist, no one seems to follow them; people ALWAYS smoke inside the building where I teach classes in Radom (gross eh?); at this one restaurant we like to go for soup, the non-smoking section is ONE table in this little room...we never have any trouble getting that spot
-right now in the centre there is a display up on posters/panels for Witold Pilecki: he founded the Secret Polish Army, volunteered to be imprisonned at Auschwitz, organized a resistance while there, escaped, and was part of the Warsaw Uprising. (November 11 is Independence Day in Poland.) (pictures)
-the sun has been a rare treat the past couple weeks...! I want sunshine!
Alright. That's all for me right now. I am really excited for my classes today...I always have fun with my Friday groups...especially the adult class of power plant men!
What a nice blog today! That first story is definitely a warm fuzzy moment! :)
ReplyDeleteI also can't wait to skype with you and hear you count to 10 in polish - and all the other words you know!
Still loving the random notes about Radom! Keep them up!
xo