– Anastasia Anatolievna, I haven’t done my home assignment because I have music classes on Tuesdays. And I come home late in the evening. I never do any home assignments on Tuesdays. – I HAVE done my home work but I’ve done it orally and I’ve forgotten what I’ve done. These are just some examples of how creative my students are. By the way, do you think they’re senior students? No, they’re only pupils of the second grade. They’re extremely nice and so on but at the same time they ALREADY do not do their homework, skip school and copy their home assignment from each other. You won’t believe me if I tell you how surprised I was to realize they’re not those little angels I supposed them to be. But these were some sketches from my experience as a teacher of English. Now I’m going to tell you some interesting (hopefully) facts about my German classes. My pupils study German as the second foreign language (after English) and know just some bits of grammar and vocabulary because they’ve been learning it only for one year, 2 classes a week. That’s why all my attempts to fulfil the requirements of the methodologist to conduct the entire lesson in German were met very aggressively. But nevertheless (finally) we’ve coped with it. And everything would have been all right but for my pronunciation. I know it’s not perfect. But unlike their teacher I at least try to make German sound German, so that my [r] is more French than Russian. And I do pronounce it as a schwa-vowel at the end of words. My pupils considered my pronunciation to be completely incorrect and once I heard one girl say to her desk mate, “We shouldn’t criticise her [me, I mean] for her pronunciation. German is her second foreign language. It is also difficult for her”. That’s what I call “Surprise!” If you having read my article think that I have some negative experience as a teacher, you’re completely mistaken. I like this work. It’s really a pleasure for me to see their shining eyes when they UNDERSTAND and when they manage to say these few but still English (or German) words about themselves! That can’t be compared to anything! Being a teacher is like being a magician. When the lesson is over, pupils are able to do more than could before. When some lazy-bones start working and begin to raise their hands – that’s what I call “Wonder”. Teaching is really a wonderful profession.
