teaching English in (as was) East Germany, 1994- Most of my grant money disappeared at the Deutsche Bank (seriously, the bank manager was never ever in for the rest of the year) so I needs work to eat whilst at our sister uni over there. I was taken on by the local schools for occasional weekend teaching, trips etc - Get on the bus with the kids to go to a super country holiday spot which they called an English speaking weekend- say to the student next to me: trip,seat etc Sharp female voice in front of me in odd German: Frau Colleague, we do not use english on the bus trip!! Got to the place-kids settled in different huts: Ill come and say goodnight (in english) . Colleague ladies (big ladies!) stand in front of me and speak only german so I cannot say anything --I give up half way through and go to bed, they stay up late into the night drinking at the camp bar. Next morning at the breakfast table I try again: do you know what you call this. this..this.?.I say to students around me. Frown from Frau Kollegin on the next table and sharp retort : we do not speak to the children in English at meals... (why?) After that I gave up, no, no lessons took place as I know them, Frau Kolleginen did lots of German talking and being over-protective- mums by our standards. I did take some kids for a walk and did a bit of english with them there. Thus it went for the whole trip- English spoken? A South African guy did a ringa roses game in English on the last day and made a bonfire - and the kids got a map to follow, written in English I believe. Incidentally, I had been teaching Cambridge English to students, young and old, for over eight years at Sheffield Poly and Uni.! I learnt a sharp lesson about the difference between East and West on that trip- and shudder when I hear the word ,Kollegin since then, it is worse than the english face..
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:09:32 +0000
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