Wednesday 24 November 2010

Pretending to Be a Teacher

My college offered me a scholarship (yay!) and I asked if there was anything I could do for them in return, since I stay in the dorm for free. We're crammed in six to a room and not treated very well, but still. They said no, but I got back from the souq this afternoon, totally exhausted, and was just about to shower and eat and then lay down for a bit, and my instructor and an Arab student knocked on the door. The student is taking English composition but knows zero English - I don't even know why the school let her take the course, but that's Jordan for you.

So now I'm pretending that I know how to teach English, and the word is spreading, and all sorts of people want me to teach them. Most of them want an hour a day EACH, which seems unrealistic to me, especially since I'm not charging anything. Or maybe that's why they want an hour every day.

I haven't told anybody that I don't actually know English grammar myself. At all. I studied science briefly in Canada, and promptly forgot all the grammar I supposedly learned many many years ago in high school. Trying to explain English grammar in Arabic is not all that easy, especially since English grammar is nothing like Arabic grammar.

I'm going to look for a copy of the college's English textbook tomorrow, study it myself, try to figure out how to explain all this in Arabic, or very simple English, and hope nobody realizes that I have no idea what I'm doing. It's the best plan I can think of. Fake it till you make it, right?

7 comments:

  1. LooooooL, some people do love it free :D..
    I remember reading a blog on Egypt and it was mentioned that posts never reach anyone either..that's disaster :O.
    alhamdulilah we've a very good system which respects confidentiality..
    and congratulations on your scholarship..:)

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  2. Whoa whoa whoa, that is exciting! I am sure you will do fine, there are tons of materials on the internet for teaching English. I would mail you a book, but heaven knows it would get there and come straight back after being thrown around a bit.
    http://www.usingenglish.com/handouts/ this place has a whole bunch of printable (free) handouts and lesson plans, and all kinds of stuff.

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  3. hahah, good luck, inshallah you will do ok.

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  4. Moon: Thanks! I feel less guilty about getting a free ride now that I'm giving something back to the college. I'm glad you have a better postal system there, I didn't realize how important that was until I came to Jordan.

    Boxie: Insha'Allah! I'm managing so far but I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.

    Meg: Lesson plans! Yay! Thank you, that helps a ton :) I suspect you are right about the book, thank goodness for the internet.

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  5. I have some books if you want me to mail them.

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  6. Omani Princess: Thank you my dear, but none of the mail sent to me has ever arrived, and I would hate for your books to get lost.

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  7. They aren't my books anymore since I don't teach english anymore but we could try. I will ask some Jordanian friends if they could get them to you with a visiting relative or something.

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