"Dont forget those CCQ's!" A TEFL Tour of Duty

Heading off to Bangor today to look at Hilary's slavery exhibition at Penrhyn Castle. This has become the pinnacle of her work since she was appointed as Project Interpretation Co-ordinator for the National Trust. Looks like we'll be living in Bangor for a few months after we're married so it will be interesting to look around.

25 years since the Falklands invasion. Two bald men fighting over a comb. More about that later.

This must be the laziest blog ever written. I havn't updated this since December last year, so now that I'm taking a week long break in Wales, why not write something. Since I last wrote, I became engaged to Hilary (not all that surprising) and life is fairly dominated by wedding organisation. The ceremony takes place in Donegal of course, The Church of the Sacred Heart in Carndonagh. Everything is more or less booked although the priest in Carndonagh is naturally inquisitive regarding my Christian background: I am after all not a Catholic so suspicions are naturally aroused. The situation grew desperate when he enquired whether I was confirmed in the Methodist Church or not. Goodness me, I made sure I was as far away as possible from Truro School when all that was going on.

Spain life is carrying on nicely. School is going really well. In February I was able to showcase my EFL roleplay adaptations in front of 14 EFL teachers at the St James teacher's conference and last week I received my PDI (prof development interview) with Borja. Apart from my terrible organisation skills, he was very happy with my progress. At the moment, the Semana Santa festivities are taking place...

This is basically Seville's Holy Week festivities, a week long devotion to the death of Christ and everybody wearing Klu Klux Klan type outfits. Some unfortunate young men have to parade the streets carrying heavy loads of stone in the name of penance. Yes, this is a good time to get out of Seville for a week.

June sees my stag weekend in Barcelona. Flights with Clickair are booked and it looks like I will have a total of 13, 5 or 6 from UK, the rest from Spain. More soon.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Blog is back and so is poker. Nine of the boys from the football team and work turned up at ours to play some Texas hold em' poker. I hadn't played properly since Korea days and have been itching for a session(the "cadillac" of poker as interpreted in the movie "Rounders") since I got here. As it was, none of the people who turned up had played before really, so it was a financially beneficial night for me if a little dull on the quality of hands that came up. The ammount of times that 2 pair won the hands was amazing considering that 7 or 8 people were on the table at the time.

Its all testing at school at the moment. With the pre Xmas holiday coming up, parents want their kids reports finalised before the big holiday. That's fine by me. It more or less means that the last couple of weeks will be relatively laid back with the bulk of the paperwork out of the way. My A1 class (beginners) is becoming my flagship class and the subject of great enjoyment. We've been doing a lot more practical usage of language and a bit less on the everyday vocabulary and grammar workshops. Lots of roleplay and acting out scenes from airports, hotels and restaurants. Its always fun to teach practical English because the students see it as the most important tool they can gain. Many of them plan to travel either for work or pleasure and will no doubt be eager to practice what they've learnt in a real setting. Obviously.

Wish I could see Utd play on Tv at the moment. They are, by all the accounts I've read, playing the best for many years. It was so much easier watching them over in Korea because of the Park Ji-Sung connection; it seems daft being just 2 borders away from the UK here and yet cant even get highlights. Enough moaning. Xmas is 2 weeks away now, I just cant wait for that flight that takes me home to my baby and a rest. Peace out.

Wow. Finally went out properly for the first time in weeks last night. My recent lapses in my health have restricted me to quiet nights in lately. A group of foreigners share a house near the Alameda (17 of them in fact, mostly different nationalities. German, American, Icelandic, Thai, French and Australian to name a few) and they were celebrating the departure of one of their friends. Plenty of wine swilling, smoking sweet tobacco from a "hubbly-bubbly" and listening to tunes. Later we headed off to a bar-club for more dancing before heading back to theirs for more drink. Stumbled home around 8am this morning. Good form.

Latest pictures:
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I really must improve my diet or do something. For the second time in a month I have a cold, mild chest infection and blocked ears. It´s no joke trying to organise lessons, teach and the rest of it. I´m dreading the visit to the doctor, who knows how long I will have to wait being a foreigner and with the general chaotic bureaucracy of this country. Thankfully, I have a social security number now so all should be well.

On the odd occasion I read the message board on the Cheonan World website (www,cheonan.blogspot.com). This was the teachers website that I used when I was working in Cheonan, South Korea. It serves a great purpose. One is able to introduce themselves to the foreign community, get involved in local activities, such as hapkhido, Korean lessons, know all about any social events going on, read other people´s blogs and have lots of useful local information at your disposal. Unfortunately, in the last few months a minority of individuals have hijacked the board to air their grievances about world politics, Korea in general, foreigners and whatever else. Most of the comments are negative and even cruel at times. On some occasions, innocent messages expressing information about upcoming events have been met by patronising respondents who claim to have superior insight into how one should lead their life in Cheonan. Often people can get bored over there and the only answer is to offend others behind the safety of a PC screen. Thats fine. However, I have noticed that some of the regular contributors are not contributing to the message board. Maybe they are concerned that they may receive a negative reply. Who knows. Nevertheless, I despair a little that some people in Cheonan are apprehensive about leaving a message in case they are greeted with some of the responses that have appeared. That to me is a problem. Ok, I'm 8000 miles away, why should I give a toss. But I do. I had two fantastic years in that bizarre town mainly because of the people I met through the website and the good times I had as a result. What annoys me most is that the culprits repeatedly patronise people for spending their free time in places such as M Bar, Dona Marcos and so on. Fuck you. Many of those emotional fairwell meals took place at these establishments. It doesnt matter what these places have to offer, the type of food, drink, music, etc. It's the people that turn up that count. What Cheonan needs is another Roy Freer or somebody with balls to harness the foreigner element and make the Masssive massive again. Forgive me for hankering for the old days (in fact they sometimes wernt that great) but there certainly wasnt that cynical poisonous side that is evident there now. I hope the Cheonan World website is free of these morons by the time I get back next year.

"Blind Date" and its various concoctions may be ridiculed for the way it dumbs down the relationship building process, however, it certainly provides splendid teaching material for activating questioning techniques using the present simple tense. The formula exploits the target language (for example, "do you like reading newspapers?" "what is your favourite food?") whilst providing entertainment and a very accessible context for English learners. At an advanced level, learners can activate conditional questions (such as "If I was to ask..."etc) in the same simplistic fashion. What may seem trivial to native English speakers can so often be used in a more positive style when teaching language.

I visited the Merchant's Irish bar in central Seville tonight for a pub quiz that didnt happen. I have to admit that despite the stimulation I'm experiencing at school, I am yearning for more. The pub quiz would have been fun and a chance to speak fluid English with my colleagues in a setting that is always engaging. I suppose I could study some more Spanish. However, I do enjoy talking shite and it will be many many years before I can do that in Spanish if that makes sense.

Latest pictures:

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What a long day. Monday and Wednesday are bastards. Four lessons and one hour & half adult class in the evening. Today, however, wasnt too bad. In fact I rather enjoyed it. The reason being is that I had a relatively quiet weekend on the drinking front, I felt fresh and invigorated for once in my life. Unfortunatelt though, I am running out of patience with my first K5 class. It's infuriating because there are some able, enthusiastic kids but it's severely affected by a couple of individuals who insist on speaking in their native tongues and generally being silly beggars. Nine sets of parents are getting a raw deal because of two pricks. Thankfully, Borja popped in today for a random visit and I was able to convey to him the situation. He hinted that he may be altering the class. Happy days.

The A3 class (intermediate) went well today despite a sticky topic, past simple, continuous and perfect. Timelines are the best method to teach these complex tenses, no doubt. A couple of them struggled to be honest but the rest got it. That will do.

Fecking brilliant, we've got a holiday next week and its payday on Thursday. Time to go shopping. Great victory for Utd over the weekend, Scholes has found a decent optician by the looks of it.

Latest photos:
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I am online at home at last! Here's a link to my photos featuring action from CELTA in London, OISE in Bristol, life in Winchester & Rhyl, Scotland wedding and of course Seville.
Great little night last night drinking the wine and listening to shameful old skool club tracks from the early 1990's. Who could possibly forget "Pump up the jam" huh..

http://community.webshots.com/user/mattstonham

I am still f$$$$$g waiting for my internet connection to be finalised by those incompetent morons, Telefonica. Hence the non-activity phase of this blog. It´s nigh impossible to write stuff of this nature and in such detail at work because PC´s are supposed to used primarily for work purposes, and quite rightly so. Telefonica arrived at the apartment last week and although they installed a line, they left the broadband equipment for us to do which basically involves putting in a disc, following the instructions and Robert´s your mother´s brother. That´s the theory anyway. The codes to install the software dont work, the Telfonica helplines are only available during office hours and we suspect the router equipment is faulty. It´s times like this when I miss Korea: the efficiency, the strong work ethic and a constant desire by its people to make things work properly. However, more about that country later. A major development is taking place in my private life which involves that part of the world. As a good friend said, "You can check out but you cant leave.."

Work is going fine. Well at least in the nature of what I do. The classes are settling down into my routine and apart from a couple of restless students who need extra supervision and appropriate seating arrangements, everything is generally fine. The adult classes are the highlight of the day especially the A1 group. This is a complete beginners class. They are thirsty for vocabulary and understanding tense structures and forms. We are still working on the present simple with vocab and I have teased them with the present continuous on occasion. I am in a quandary regarding whether to steer them through the past tenses first or hit them with the continuous. Considering that Spanish has three conjugations and reflexive/non-reflexive options, either should be fine. The past tense is always good for conversation besides. On a more interesting front, there are two wonderful MILFS in that class which is always a bonus.

Seville life is moving along at the usual pace. Slow, sedate but relaxing. Hils came over last week and it was pure bliss. We visited a few tapas bars along the river and strolled around Triana. We hit the beach at Matalascanas (near Huelva) and despite my sinus pain, it was a great day. The other weekend I found myself in a VIP flamenco bar with the club secretary of some local football team, whether this was Betis or Sevilla i´m not sure. Probably neither, I was too drunk to fully comprehend his English but he refused to let me buy my own beers and his car was huge. More importantly though the bar was amazing. It was like looking at a parody of traditional Spanish life, a cliche almost but it was in fact the real thing. The women were dressed mostly in traditional costume and were stunning whilst the men looked dashing with their black trousers, frilly white shirts and immaculate hair styles. The dancing was astonishing. The steps look fairly easy to imitate but the style, bravado and blatant knowing sexuality of the moves must take years to perfect. By far the most amazing night life I have ever seen. I just wish I had been more sober. It wasnt the sort of thing you would see in South Korea but that country has other attractions..

Yes. We´re going back. Hils and I need to raise a large ammount of cash in short time so that we can purchase some property and we both decided that we should return to Korea for September 2007. Particular destinations have not been discussed, obviously Cheonan is an option due to the familiarity of the city and of course the finest pool competition in the world. Hopefully, a few of our old friends will still be there. However, the money is the biggest decider and will affect any decision we make. Personally, I cant wait to eat that food again. Christ almighty I have missed it. Anyway, thats it for now. More updates when I know it..hasta pronto.

The first week is down at last. The induction session was useful, informative and set everyone´s minds at ease. My boss, Borja, is a patient guy with an open-minded attitude. He seemed to like my running dictation exercise using "Mysterious Girl" by Peter Andre. Last night, we had dinner up near school. I had a good chat with James, the financial director of the school and Borja´s partner over carbonera pizza. He actually taught a lot of Koreans when he was living in New York, so we had a good discussion about hagwan teaching methods, Korean peripheral selling techniques ("Hey we´ll spend 30 million won on the fountain at the front of the school but f**k those new board markers" etc etc) and galbi eating. This was followed by a few cocktails at Fiona´s at the Plaza de Victoria before I finally wandered home to my apartment in Triana for some well deserved sleep.

Overall, things are going well in Seville. We finally got an apartment last week: a beautiful 3 bedroom modern place in Triana which Jose (landlord) toatally ikea´d out today. Brand new tables, chairs, kitchen stuff etc etc. I like Jose. My Spanish is crap, his English is the same. Phrasebooks are continually exchanged and there´s a lot of laughter and celebration when communication reaches it´s goal. Tom and Sam are delighted with things also. Certainly being two single guys they might have preferred to be closer to the action in Amareda but they saw the sense of getting a cheaper place south of the river. Taxis work out at 6 euros to get home so its not such a hassle.

Monday sees my first proper day at school. I´ve got 4 classes including two Kids (8-10) and 2 Juniors (12-14), the adult classes commence in October. I´m fully prepared, and so I should be considering we had 12 hours of planning time last week. I´ve probably taught 70 or so introductory lessons since 2004, it should go fine. I´m more curious about the manerisms of the students. Korean kiddies tended to be hyperactive and aggressive due to the high carbohydrate content of their diets but I suspect the Spanish will be a little more relaxed..what am I saying. We´ll know more by 1700 on Monday.

Anyway I´m sitting next to some NewYorker in this internet cafe who is using one of those MSN phone things. She´s talking a load of shite and distracting me so I´ll end there. Telfonica start our account next week so at last I will have the peace of online utopia at home.