by Yesterday was an interesting day. In the morning I had lessons with my latest brother-and-sister combo. (The previous pair seem to have blipped off the radar. That happens.) I tried to help the girl navigate her way through the “reading and use of English” section of the Cambridge exam, which isn’t exactly a breeze even for me. There’s a lot of emphasis on collocations in that paper: things like “under no circumstances” and “under no illusion” which you either know or you don’t. That makes actually teaching for the test relatively hard. Her speech is excellent though, so explaining things to her is relatively easy. Then came her brother. Body parts! They make such a great topic. We did the “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” song which I remember from when I was five, then Simon Says, then some matching exercises. Simon Says is always fun. “Now sit down.” [Sits down] “But I didn’t say Simon Says!” We also touched on pronunciation. At his young age, learning correct pronunciation is so much easier, so I really want to make sure he nails it. Then we worked on numbers. His school teachers appear to have taught him that English numbers stop at ten, so I was keen to put him straight. Finally we played some quick games (he won all of them; that helps) and at end of the lesson he said I was a much better English teacher than his one at school. Perhaps he was just buttering me up.
At 4pm I had my first lesson with a guy who contacted me last week. We’d spoken Romanian on the phone, but when he was here it was obvious that he could speak English very well. I’d put him at an 8½, perhaps even a 9, on my 0-to-10 scale. It was equally obvious that he was a complete twat. A truly odious man. He talked about his exploits at the gym (“I’m a really big guy”), his Mensa membership, and his ambition to be Romania’s president in ten years’ time (heaven help us). Then he said, “I’m not a humble person.” You don’t say. “I don’t like humble people.” I told him that I considered myself to be a humble person. He introduced several other topics, saying at one point that luck doesn’t even exist, a contention that I find absurd. He reminded me of the New Zealand man who John Campbell interviewed following the terrorist attacks in Norway in 2011. “When the bomb went off I was on my eighth repetition of a however-many-kg bench press, but naturally I finished my set.” I asked my new student if he wanted to come again at the same time next week, and he said he was so busy that he couldn’t possibly give a day or a time. I wouldn’t be surprised if I never see him again.
Later I met up with my Tinder friend (I’ve called her X previously on this blog, but I’ll now use her real first initial, S). We chatted in English (dammit!) and took a walk around Piața Unirii, which I think is her favourite part of the city. She showed me the map stone – a cool-looking stone inlaid into the square, showing a fairly vague outline of the old fortress. We then grabbed some food and drink at the popular Hungarian market in the centre of town before I invited her up to my flat. She seemed to really enjoy the view here, and it is fantastically wonderful. I told her that when I moved into this place it felt like a dream. We discussed the UK and New Zealand and our various plans, including the idea that I could set up a proper language school. She asked me whether I’d be happy to take on all the hassle that would entail, and I gave her a one-word, two-letter answer. Sadly I won’t be seeing S for two weeks at least: she’s off to Prague on a business trip.
Today I took my new (old) bike to Sânmihaiu Român. It’s not a bad Timișoara bike, and I love the simplicity of it. On the way I met sheep, goats and cows. It was all blissfully Romanian, and a great workout for me. When I got back I played six games of online Scrabble (talk about a change of scenery), winning four. My best move was PAcKAGED for 98, down from the P. I’ve still yet to play (or be on the receiving end of) a 100-point move. Before this session I was on a five-game losing streak, which included some ghastly games, such as a 311-249 loss which would be terrible in a home game, and an encounter that I dominated but because I forgot to check how many tiles were in the bag (partly due to being low on time), I allowed my opponent to go out with a bingo and claim an 18-point win. It was good to put those experiences behind me.
