September 23, 2010: Started out my day with that 9E class 2 class!! No way to start the day. These students really don't care about studying and put very little effort into what I was attempting to teach them. Perhaps I'm being a little hard on them; maybe they truly have no English background to work with and rather than being "False Beginners" are really "Beginners" with no background whatsoever. After my disappointment subsided, I've decided that starting tomorrow, I'll teach them from a beginners' book that I used when teaching English in Korea. We'll see if that produces some interest (I doubt it but I can hope). The rest of the classes lifted my spirits again. The other classes all were prepared as usual and seemed to enjoy the lesson, each other, and the moment. However, working with 14 and 15 year old boys, I've come to realize that many of them are actually small boys within young adult bodies. One of the students I had trouble keeping quiet during class came to me afterwards saying "I'm sorry I'm so noisy in class; I don't seem to be able to help myself from being noisy." At least he's aware of the problem.
At lunch I joined the school librarian and we discussed the books that the students need for the academic year. He said that most of the books are paid for by the boys (20,000 forints in the earlier years because they need to buy books from England which are far more expensive, to around 7,000 forints in the later years). He said that the school subsidizes the book costs of the poorer students. After hearing the numbers, I figured that the cost of each book is around 1,500 forints (~$7 each).
After lunch Laci picked me up to take me to the school doctor. I had to fill out a standard form written in Hungarian of course giving personal data (unfortunately, I hadn't had time to convert my weight, height, etc. into metric units so I sort of guessed there). Then they took an EKG (they just measured this by attaching cuffs to my ankles and wrists) and took my pulse (The nurse was very impressed with that reading – 120 over 70). Then since I'm about out of one of my medicines, I asked if she could prescribe that for me and she said "no" and that I'd have to get a personal GP for that. So, later in the afternoon, the school found a GP for me and I'll be visiting him tomorrow to get the prescriptions filled (I hope).
Later in the afternoon there was an informal English department meeting. Since I wanted to be prepared this time, I picked up my notebook and prepared to hear everyone talk in Hungarian about how things are going. I was pleasantly surprised to be invited into "The Club" of the school (really a rec center for the boys) where we sat around a table drinking wine and eating cookies, chips, Hungarian cakes, etc. After a bit of socialization, Kati asked each teacher to discuss how things were going after having taught for a few weeks. This was all done in English. I'm not sure if it was for my benefit, or because this was an English department meeting, but everyone spoke in English the whole meeting without any teacher having any trouble communicating their thoughts or ideas. (That's one thing I love about this department is the quality of English spoken by the teachers – others in the CETP program have commented that they've observed errors in English usage, but to date, all I've noticed is occasional usage of British English which is foreign to us Americans but is perfectly acceptable to English speaking people of Great Britain.) Kati started with the "young teachers", me being one of them. In fact I was the first who was asked to talk. I reported that I am very happy with my teaching experience in general (pointing out a couple of my problems – need I say which class?). However, I was not the only teacher who mentioned discipline/motivation problems with students. There were plenty of examples and much laughter as well as serious discussion about what's going on. However, one of the teachers reported her experiences with one of the ninth grade classes, a class I had never heard anything about before. Kati said that this class is by far the most problematic class in the grade. I really feel sorry for the teacher who has to teach that class. It looks like that's 100% of her job and it would be no fun to have to deal with that class on a 100% basis – better for her to have some classes to savor as well. She seemed so nice and dedicated, too. In fact all of the teachers who spoke were clearly very concerned and interested in how to motivate the students and make them succeed. Again, it sure is nice to be teaching on a staff that really has the hearts of the students in mind. There were many ideas that were presented on how to deal with some of our problems. And it was great to see the head of the department fully supportive and open to problems being posed – I've been on staffs before where one is afraid to bring up a problem for fear there could be repercussions.
After the meeting, a few of us teachers played table hockey. It was really fun to socialize with the other teachers in a informal setting. Then we walked outside from the "Club" into the school courtyard where a practice session of handball was taking place. This handball is not the kind I've seen played in enclosed court by two players banging a ball against a wall. This was a team sport that looked like a combination of soccer, American football, basketball, and soccer! There was a goal just like there is in soccer, but the players bounce the ball and can take only three steps before throwing the ball to a teammate. The object of the game was to throw the ball into the soccer net. The teachers told me this sport is quite popular in northern Europe and that Hungary has a pretty good team. The school does, too, incidentally. After watching this for a while, it was home for us.
Meanwhile, during the day, I learned of a new route to get home from school where I would have to take only two buses instead of two buses and a tram. I decided to try that route out going home. The bus took a long time in arriving and it was not a direct route home, choosing instead to go through some residential areas that were definitely not urban. It was interesting, but I'm not sure if I saved any time taking this route.
When I arrived home, I saw that the school had delivered a room full of furniture and other essentials. Everything delivered was brand new. I now have most of the things from my list including even a vacuum cleaner, new iron, ironing board, pots, pans, new couch, curtains (that I'll have to figure out how to hang up), many other kitchen utensils, etc. It was like another Christmas in September. One of the items is a clay pot type cooking vessel that I imagine can be used like a Dutch oven. (I asked about this later and learned that indeed it can be used to make great tasting roasts so that's what I'll prepare this weekend.) I also called Andras to ask about the internet wireless connection and he said he had it and would come Sunday (Monday at the latest) to install it for me. Andras lives outside of Budapest and so he needs to find times when he's in the city to meet me. I really appreciate his assistance and look forward to the day when I can be in touch via Skype again. I'll also be able to upload all of my blog entries, so you'll be submerged with things to read in a few days hopefully.
Received an e-mail from CETP about a trip that they're planning to Transylvania (which used to be in Hungary but is now in Romania due to the Trianon Treaty). Transylvania is much "poorer" than Hungary, but CETP will place us in homes there for us to experience Transylvanian life. Sounds interesting.
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