And so it begins

On my first day of the TEFL course I anxiously awaited the introduction of my instructor along with my fellow students.  While I didn’t know it at the time, the scene had already been carefully set… 

The audience was seated, the programs had been handed out and finally the curtain was drawn.  From stage left entered an enthusiastic and cheery fellow- a teacher, a Czhesky, another student? We did not know.  As he took center stage, he began: “Dobry den!”  “Dobry den!” “Jak se jmenujete?” “Jmenuji se Pavel.  Jak se jmenujete?” and so on and so forth. His impressive performance consisted of a series of simple facial expressions, relatively odd gestures, and animated role-play.   Dan, who we later learned to be our trusted instructor, proceeded to go through the traditional Czech greeting and teach it to our entire class of both native and non-native English speakers.  He’s British, doesn’t know how to speak Czech and he didn’t use a single word of English.   And I’m supposed to learn how to do this?!

Oh now, don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll give us ample time to adjust, adapt, prepare… NOPE! I start tomorrow :)  Day 2 and I’ll be teaching my first English lesson to a class of Czech students.  The poor souls.