Feb 9, 2009

WE MAY NOT LEARN MUCH, BUT WE WILL HAVE FUN!

I have been teaching a conversational English club with one of the local churches here (Christ Fellowship) for three months now. For an hour and a half I teach elementary/beginner-level English, then for the same amount of time I teach the intermediate/advanced-level. We started with about 6 students, and have grown to 14! I am having a great time with these students! I'm not sure how much they're actually learning, but we're having tons of fun in the process.


The students are between the ages of 16-19 (high school & university students), and they constantly challenge me. The beginners class is the hardest because I'm used to teaching advanced (what I always do at English camp), but it is also so rewarding. I am really forced to use what Ukrainian language I have learned. It's such an adventure every week! Plus they all get a big kick out of listening to me speak Ukrainian--or rather struggle through it. All of these students are non-Christians, which is actually really refreshing. It's a clean slate with them. They aren't fake, and are open and honest about where they are in life. Being from Ukraine--a religious culture--they of course know about God, but they don't have that intimate relationship with Him. The closer we all become the more they trust me and the more open/transparent they become. They are a wonderful bunch of students, and I am so blessed to be their teacher!

This week everyone is coming over to my apartment, and we're going to cook two American dishes (per their request--they wanted to learn to make "American food"). We're making apple pie and chicken pot pie. We'll see how it goes!

1 comment:

Lauree "LO" Austin said...

Dude, I wanna come over for Pot Pie! I'm so excited for you and your guests this week, are you going to watch the Bachelor with them too? :) Have a great time and I know that you will love em all up!