I can now teach good England.

Hello everybody!

I am sorry for the lack of interesting things the last few days but I have been busy completing my Teaching English as a Foreign Language practical course! Good news is I PASSED! The 2 day course (8-530!) consisted of talking as a class about what makes a good lesson and how to plan them. Yesterday, to give us a taste of what it is like to be taught in a language that wasn't familiar, we were taught a lesson in Latvian! It was really interesting as the teacher only spoke Latvian and yet we understood what we needed to do. It showed us how we could teach English without any knowledge of Mandarin!

We had to plan and present two 10 minute lessons to present to the class (no kids for us until we get to our schools), one yesterday and one today. Yesterday I was working with Eddy (my ex-room mate) and we decided to deliver a lesson on the vocabulary of five items of warm clothing. It went really well, we had a warmer, a section where we taught through eliciting, a controlled practice (a game where people had to race to put on certain items) and a free practice (talking about what clothes you'd pack to go to hot/cold destinations). We got good feedback and enjoyed ourselves.

Today I worked with Jemimah (a girl from London) and we planned and taught a lesson on colours. Again we had all the parts we needed, including a game where people had to move to a certain place when we shouted a certain colour. We were pretty happy with it and got some excellent feedback from our tutor (an aussie called James who is AMAZING). One of the other groups taught us some Irish which was really cool! Everyone passed and its been a really interesting and enjoyable couple of days, I am so tired though as its been a rather full on few days!

In answer to some questions I have received: most of the interns I've met have put a geographical preference more than an age group preference, though many would prefer primary/middle.

I find out where I am placed on 20th and we travel on 23rd. Most people will be getting a train (for anything up to 2 days!!!!!)

In other news interns are dropping like flies! There are various bugs circulating and loads of us are getting sick, luckily I still have my Berocca!!

Oh and the food! I am so sick of it! Its just so frustrating not knowing what you are eating! OH AND I AM SICK TO DEATH OF RICE! It has got to the point where I am missing the FREE meals and buying something myself. ME TURNING DOWN FREE FOOD?!

Oh and I miss my bed! The beds here are so bloody hard, I wake up and feel like I have been beaten up. I have jumpers thicker than the mattresses they provide. I can certainly see myself investing in some extra comfort when we find out where we are going (apparently on 20th!!!).

However its not all doom and gloom! Tomorrow we are heading on our trip day which means THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!!! We also get a Peking Duck meal and an acrobatics show! Unfortunately this trip leaves at 715 in the morning so no rest for the wicked!