Szkola Jezyka Angielskiego

The cemeteries are beautiful at the moment. I mentioned All Saints Day a week ago. Well, the graves are still being tended and flower stalls are outside each one.

Wednesday was a Bank Holiday - Independence Day. A lie in and a meal in town in the evening - lovely.

I've been meaning to tell you about the school so here it is: International House, Torun is one of about 150 International House schools around the world. Ours is owned by a Polish chap called Romek and is run by Robert. The DOS (Director of Studies) is Malcolm who moved from Britain 15 years ago, got married, and now lives here. Most of the teaching staff are Brits and we all get along well. The photos show you two of the classrooms - fairly simple rooms with a whiteboard although we do have two interactive whiteboards (linked to a computer) and these are in great demand amongst the teachers.
I have six classes. On Mondays & Wednesdays I teach the following:
2K are a bunch of six 9 - 12 year olds who I teach from 3:45 - 5:20 twice a week.
6K are twelve teenagers (13 - 16) who follow 2K from 5:35 - 7:10
The Proficiency class are mostly adults who meet from 7:25 - 9:00

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach the Advanced class from 5:35 - 7:10 and I have recently been given a one-to-one student who wants to study Legal English. Fortunately, this doesn't require much legal knowledge, and what it does require is in the course book. All the same, I've got some reading to do.

I also meet one-to-one with another student, a businessman who mainly wants conversational classes but I try to squeeze in a bit of grammar too. In these lessons I have learned quite a bit about the Polish political system and history as well as the scrap metal business and sailing on the Baltic Sea...

The main challenge with all of these lessons (apart from 2K) is the grammar. I used to think English grammar was straightforward (three tenses - past, present and future etc...) but now I've changed my mind. There are over 30 ways of expressing the tense (perfect tenses, passives etc) and my head spins. And don't get me started on the difference between the use of 'must' and 'have to'. That one kept us busy for some time on my training course.

I've finally started Polish classes - an hour every Sunday afternoon and I really look forward to them. However, since I've got to learn this I think you lot should too. The pronunciation is in brackets. There'll be a short test if I see you at Christmas. (Alex and Martyna are excused these lessons as you're both pretty good at Polish. Sorry the accents are missing!):

Tak - yes
Nie (n'yeh) - No
Czesc (chehsh'ch) - Hi/hello

A few more photos of Torun to finish (it looks great at night - not sure that these photos do it justice):