So, lots of stuff to say. Wedding, ok that will be a new post.
Job: Right now I'm working as an ESL teacher for a company called Quick Learning.
It's a private company that targets hispanics who want to learn English. The headquarter is in Mexico, and there are many branches in US. DFW area has 4 schools (dallas, irving, arlington, and fort worth). Allen was just telling me the other day that my uniform looks like one for a flight attendent... I guess so, we've got a bowtie (I forgot what it's called in Spanish)
So with this job, i've been learning lots of spanish too! Pluma Roja = red pen! The company has a very well-established system, I think. It pays the teachers $10/hr, which is not bad. But it has very good bonus, range from $200~$600 extra per month if you meet all the requirements (such as no more than 3 tardies, no absence, attending every meeting, and score of 90 or above when someone comes to grade your teaching, etc.) Majority of the bonus actually comes from student re-enrollment. I know, this factor is not something you can control, but being a good teacher is definitly helpful. Pretty much it would help if you are a very encouraging teacher. We learned that hispanic people are very social, which means they want you to call them up if they miss a class, and it would help to also offer them extra help (like 30 mins~1 hr before class, unpaid of course).
I'm enjoying it so far. It's somewhat a lot of pressure, interacting with students. I've made many mistakes in class (like not repeating the lesson correctly) and the students would correct me. But overall I think, I hope, they like the class. I'm not very good at explaining all the vocabulary in english (we are not allowed to translate), so I'm making it up by offering extra help everyday, so i'm going to work 1 hr early everyday.. I hope the bonus pays off. Which is also why i've been learning Spanish, it all comes down to customer satisfaction really...
I'm also getting along with my coworkers (this is rare). But it's good to be in good terms with them because i'm always asking for their help. Yesterday, I had to explain to my students the word "Anyway" in the sentence "The subway is faster anyway." Now you try to explain that word w/o spanish. the concept of the word does not exist in spanish, and the students only understand minimal english (they don't know past tense yet). Oh boy, it was hard.
I will post the solution in the next post.
So my work schedule is 9am~12pm M~W, and 6pm~9pm M~F, and 8am~3pm Sat & Sun.
oh and another weird thing is, supposedly it's common in a hispanic working environment for everybody to sing together daily...... so we have to sing the company song every morning before class starts. you can hear the song somewhere on the website by clicking on the image above.
Now I've worked there for almost a week, I've noticed (allen too) that I've been speaking very slowly and clearly, and putting a gesture to almost every single word (that's what I do in class) and using very short sentences (in class, we don't say the word "sentences" we say "lines" so i feel weird using it here) and simple vocabulary.
anyway, so that concludes my new job. I gotta to pay the water bill and study now.
