Back to Basics

Now that I am almost done my undergraduate degree (only a few weeks left!) I have been thinking more of the Diploma of Applied Linguistics I’ll be taking next year. It’s exciting to realize that I’ll soon be learning how to be a successful ESL teacher, but I am a little nervous. Do I really know English well enough to teach it?

It might seem like a strange question. I can hear you thinking “Are you nuts? English is your first language! You’ve already mastered it!” But in order to teach a language, I feel you have to know it inside-out and backwards — and in a way you don’t get automatically when you learn your first language. I know I can speak the language fluently, and I know I’ll learn some in my Diploma next year, but I’m kinda dense in two areas that really matter: spelling and grammar.

Back when I was in elementary school, I was a master speller. My grade 6 teacher rewarded our class with slushes if we all got good marks on a spelling test, so I studies my little heart out for that cold, liquid sugar. It paid off, and I’d always do well. So why is it that now I can barely spell “lettuce” right on the grocery list? In fact, I initially typed it wrong in the last sentence, and had to be saved by my computer’s spell checker! But therein lies the problem. Grade 6 was the last time I really had to think about my spelling: ever since, I’ve been able to type my essays and school work, so I’ve just had to watch out for red underlines. I don’t feel too badly, as I’m not alone in this — in China and Japan, people are starting to rely on their phones and computers to remember how to write kanji characters — but it’s still something I need to improve. I have the feeling that a company isn’t going to want to hire an ESL teacher that can’t spell lettuce!

I’m also ashamed to admit that my grammar skills aren’t what you’d expect from an English minor. This is even worse for my future ESL career, because I will need to be a grammar master to explain it in a way my students can understand! I never really got any grammar training in high school English, so I always get my fiancé to look over my essays and fix my comma splices and blatant misuse of colons and semicolons. So, my solution to this problem (as is my solution to every problem in my life) is to study, study, study! I’m going to start from the beginning and learn grammar the way my students will. I bought a beginner’s grammar book for ESL students, so hopefully I’ll improve my skills and learn about teaching ESL at the same time. So once I’m finished hitting the books, I’ll be hitting the books…. again. *Sigh* It never ends does it?

Food guarding and fire starting

Since I have been so shamefully neglectful of my blog the past few weeks, I thought I should make it up with an extra post this week! Luckily, my work day today was a bit of an adventure so I have something to share.

My shift today consisted of taking some ESL students to Goldstream Park for a nature walk and hot dog roast. Normally this is a relatively easy shift to do, but today a few things seemed to be a bit more challenging than usual. My first job today was to help a fellow co-worker load all the supplies we would need (chips, juice, wood, etc.) into the buses. This was a bit odd — we usually send the supplies up in a CA-driven van — but we figured it would be no big deal. Boy, were we wrong! The difference between a van (which can park right next to the building) and a bus (which can’t) is a lot of trips with a cart which steers as well as a cart that doesn’t steer very well. And when you are trying to feed over 100 people there is a LOT of food to move!

After some sweat spent (and a little help from the bus drivers) we finally got all the supplies loaded up. But then I decided to take a look through the supplies to make sure we hadn’t missed anything. Condiments, check. Hot dog buns, check. Hot dogs… “Oh no, we forgot the hot dogs!” After yet another trip to load up the hot dogs, we loaded up the students, got everyone signed in, and were good to go. But then my co-worker poked her head in the door: “Leah, did we bring the sticks to cook the hot dogs on?” After one last journey for more supplies we were on the road.

Once we got to Goldstream, the students were sent off on a nature hike while some of the CAs set up the camp site for lunch. Putting out the food was easy enough and we started on getting two roaring fires going for our hungry students. Or that was the idea. Now, most people who know me know that my parents live out in the boonies, and everyone who lives out in the boonies loves to have bonfires. Thanks to my father, I know how to start a pretty damn good fire! So I arranged the wood into a tent, stuck a good amount of kindling and paper underneath, and lit it up. The paper caught fire quite fantastically and I was congratulating myself on a job well done when I realized that the paper was the only thing that was burning. The wood would catch fire a little bit and would seem to get going, but soon enough it would pitter out leaving us only with a bunch of sad, puppy-dog-eyed, hungry students. And this is how the fire saga continued for the rest of the day. My co-workers and I did our best, and we managed to keep the fire going just enough for people to cook their hot dogs and marshmallows, but it involved a lot of smoke, and a lot of frustration, and a new “Y U NO” Guy made by my co-worker Liz and me.

I also had a rather unexpected and odd job today: guarding food from students. We actually had two different groups of students coming to Goldstream: one in the morning, one in the afternoon. So we had to make sure that the food was divided evenly to avoid starving students in the afternoon. But who would have thought a bunch of Japanese students would be so ravenous? We put the extra food to the side to save for the afternoon but the morning students still got into it. So I was the designated food protector for the rest of the trip. I hung around the table with the extra food and had to shoo a few people away but, after a while, I felt I could wander 5 feet away to warm myself by the little fire. No sooner had I left my post did students start getting into the chips! After that I realized the grave responsibility of my job and stuck to that post like glue! No further chip-related incidents occurred.

Coffee-free for an entire semester?

久しぶりですね？ (It’s been a long time, eh?) Like every other student at this time of year, I’ve been drowning in schoolwork lately and haven’t had a lot of brainpower left over for blog posts. But, despite all the work and stress, I realized something amazing today: I haven’t had a single drop of coffee since November!

Surprisingly enough, it took me a while to discover the ‘joy’ of coffee and I didn’t start drinking it heavily until last year. I actually used to hate the taste of coffee, but once I discovered you could get cavity-causing super-sweet coffee from Starbucks, I was hooked. I started drinking it every day. Any time I felt anxious over whether I could finish an essay or get through a study session, I ran to my nearest caffeine supplier and got myself a euphoric blast of energy in a cup. It was a magical relationship. Or so I thought…

Although coffee gives you a boost of energy, this isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes, it would allow me to be super focused and get a whole bunch of work done, but other times it just gave me the energy to freak out about all the work I needed to get done! My anxiety-prone brain would race around in a never-ending stress cycle like a dog chasing its own tail. Making matters worse, the coffee would occasionally make me sick to my stomach! And then there are the crashes — anybody who drinks coffee regularly knows what I’m talking about. One minute you’re Hercules, ready to conquer the world; the next, you’re looking for a nice hole to crawl into so you can die in peace. We won’t even mention the cash I was burning in order to feed my fancy coffee cravings.

By the end of last November, I had had enough. Between the anxiety and stomach problems, coffee was causing more trouble than it was fixing. I decided to make a change: no more coffee for Lee Lee! That’s when I found Hell. I felt like I had been hit by a cement mixer. I had a splitting headache for a week straight. Just getting to my bus stop — a five minute walk — was an epic journey. So many times that week I wanted to give in: maybe if I had just one cup I would be able to do the things I needed to do. Starbucks was right there. My friendly baristas were waiting for me. It would be so easy, and everything would be better!

I realized then that I was substituting coffee for confidence. Did I really believe that I was incapable of completing any task without a $3 cup of magical liquid? That’s when I put my foot down. I would endure this coffee-free lifestyle with the power of a positive attitude! I know it sounds corny, but it actually worked! Whenever I felt like I needed coffee, I said to myself “no you don’t, you can do it!” Once I realized that I could live my academic life successfully without coffee, I was home free. And I can say with all honesty that I don’t really miss it. When I visit a barista now, it’s for my tea latte.

If you want to quit the caffeine craze too, here’s what I found helpful.

• Replace coffee with whole-leaf teas. My favourites are the green teas from Silk Road (try Moonlight on the Grove or Japanese Sour Cherry!)
• If you are tired, rest! I know that we are all busy in this crazy world, but your body is trying to tell you something when you are tired. I found that even a half-hour nap works wonders!
• Try meditation. It helps you relax, so you feel refreshed and energized after a good meditation session. The “mindful meditation” taught by Jon Kabat-Zinn has been very helpful to me lately.
• Have a positive attitude! Having started turning myself from a pessimist to an optimist, I can say that a positive attitude gives you a lot more energy than a negative one.