Do you speak English?

This post is about the English language. A big shock I know. But I spend about 30 hours of each week teaching it and about 20 hours a week planning lessons for it. It pretty much consumes my life. Anyway, I promise this post won't be about anything boring, like transcriptions or perfect tenses.

Last week my school had their 2nd annual "Miss English Language Contest." Sounds like a beauty contest, right? It was modeled after one (several girls compete publicly for a crown and a title), but thankfully, it was much more interesting and thought-provoking than a beauty contest (in other words, I didn't feel like any of my brain cells were dying as I watched it).

The first year of the contest 5 girls in the 10th-12th grades represented different English-speaking countries and had to present their country's culture (through music, dances, oral presentations, etc.)--and the entire program was done in English. The girl who proved to be the best representative of the English language was the winner. This year they chose entirely different countries (like Spain, India, Turkey), but the English theme stayed the same. In addition to presenting a country, the girls had to act out a scene from a movie and answer some general knowledge questions.

The program was absolutely amazing. The girls had clearly put so much time and thought into their presentations. There were elaborate costumes, complex movie scenes (which included sets and numerous other students to act in the scene), and slide show presenations. Some of them even went so far as to memorizing their country presentations in addition to their movie scene so that it all was done orally, rather than from a script. (If that doesn't impress you, think about how nerve-wracking it is to memorize music for a concert or lines for a play and then think about having to do that in another language.)

I was so proud of my school for hosting such a unique event (I think I can safely say that we are the only school in Moldova to have anything of this kind). And, even though I can only claim 2 of the 8 girls as my own students, I was extremely proud of them as well. As a teacher, of course I want my students to learn English. But soooo much more, I want them to learn how to think outside the box, to be independent learners, and to never stop asking questions. Seeing those girls display so much intelligence, creativity, humor, and enthusiasm--all in a foreign language--was such a rewarding experience for me.

Unfortunately, every day can't be so euphoric and fulfilling, but momements like that remind me why I'm here--and help me get through the days when obnoxious 8th grade boys and ridiculously hard grammar topics make me want to go crawl into a hole.

**If you want to see a few pictures, I put them up on my Picassa album. Unfortunately, most of the good stuff is in videos, and I can't put those up on Picassa.**

Ups and Downs

This has been a rollercoaster of a week in terms of my relationship with technology. Last Tuesday I got high-speed Internet installed at my house. Thus followed 4 blissful days of Skype, email, and online ESL resources.

Saturday morning my computer started to blink the orange light of death, indicating that I needed to plug it in and revive the battery. About 5 seconds after doing so, the converter that is built into my power cord started sparking and smoking. If I hadn't immediately yanked it out of the outlet, I probably would have had to explain to my host family why an electrical fire started in my bedroom.

To my great dismay, there are no DELL products sold in Moldova, so I am at the mercy of my parents to order me a new power cord and ship it via the ever-so-finnicky Moldovan postal system. So, while I have wonderful, high speed Internet and a laptop that works just fine, I have no way of using either. Sigh.