Teach a Little, Relax a Little More

               This past week has given me a good understanding of Turkish culture and how working in it will be different than I am used to.  We found our way in on Tuesday, and met the owners (well, three of the five of them), two of whom spoke excellent English, the third is a computer teacher and also in charge of our visa process.  After the customary offer of coffee or tea each day, we settled into business.  There was some concern over Joe’s visa as he doesn’t have a degree, but it turns out there are grey areas and with his high school transcripts, it can easily be side swiped.  Ironically, it is my papers that are causing the problems due to a single letter.   I was registered in university as Jordyn, while my passport reads Jordan.  This was not a problem with the Indonesian government nor the Japanese government, so I did not foresee an issue here: but it is indeed an issue.  I have spent a week on shitty internet trying to find ways to resolve it, and although there are a couple of options available, we shall have to wait and see.

                

The main park

                 By Thursday when we went in, we were informed that they needed us to teach on Saturday and Sunday- just a one off weekend.  The previous teacher who was here had to leave suddenly a few months back due to health issues, but they had promised the kids they would have a native teacher an hour a week all summer.  This was, of course, impossible, but the school didn’t want to retract on their promise and so they decided to cram these hours into one miserably long weekend of English fun.  Joe and I understood their position and so on Friday we went in for four hours to plan sixteen hours each of lessons over two days with only two different classes.  No books.  No materials. Vague topics at best.  In the midst of our planning we met the other two owners.  Güngör, who described himself as a “bad Muslim” (he drinks) and also stated that, “People have these funny ideas about what is important in religion.”  He is an interesting man, and although he says the Turkish language is not sexist (no differentiation between he/she) I can’t help but feel that I have stepped into a boys club.  Joe has been invited to play football, go fishing, have a tour of the city and most of the owners address him when speaking to the both of us, although I hope that I am noticing things (I do have an overactive imagination) and will butt in on anything I deem interesting enough.  (It didn’t help when Joe got an extra class during the week- rendering me a week of no classes, and causing the secretary to remark that I could stay home and cook dinner.  There was no malice in her tone, but my gut reaction was to never want to cook again.

                

Old men in the park

              Saturday morning we woke early (not that either of us have yet slept through the night-  jetlag is a bitch) and went to the school to ensure everything was ready for our lessons.  We had been warned that Turkish students are quite shy, afraid to make mistakes, and unchatty, but neither of us noticed that with our students.  My first set were Grade 6 students (about eight) and although there were ample breaks- four hours is a long time for kids to sit in a foreign language class.  By the time they left, I had a group of Grade  7 students (perhaps my least favourite age group of all time) for another four hours, and by the time we got home, there was no supper, no nothing.  We were sound asleep by 8pm in anticipation of repeating the same thing the next day.  Day 2 went smoother, perhaps because I knew what to expect.  By hour three of each group though, lesson plans were more or less out the window and it was survival mode.  Get these kids through without having them hate me, each other, or English.  They all seemed happy when they left, so all around it was successful.  Now, other than going in to work to get some semblance of an internet connection, and a dinner and meeting on Tuesday, I really have nothing going on.  Study Turkish, exercise, explore and of course fight with whatever slight amounts of internet I am able to get- perhaps I will get around to cleaning that oven after all….