It was starting to get dark as the team of English teachers arrived at the language school where we give free lessons once a week on Wednesday nights. For only being in Bulgaria for a little over 24 hours, I had a surprising amount of energy for my very first English club. My friends and current roommates, Erin and Molly, were teaching the beginner/intermediate level and Katie (the other redhead!) and I were going to teach the advanced.
This week's lesson was on weather. Our clubs are more conversation based--we try to provide both instruction in how to speak English as well as a setting to improve fluency through having conversations with native speakers. We discussed weather in the US, weather in Bulgaria, and even talked a little about climate change. Katie led most of the lesson, and I got to go over some weather related idioms as well as being a partner during pair work. It was a good introduction to how the class usually goes and who my students will be.
Solunska / Солунска
R. greeted me with a big smile, a hug, and even snuck in a few pets to my head* when we arrived at the coffee shop owned by our church Thursday night. They allow us to use their coffee shop to host English Club every week in a very casual setting. R. speaks English well and enjoys practicing with us. I think when I start learning Bulgarian she'll also enjoy making me practice!
For the lesson, we set up chairs in the cafe in a circle. Katie, Erin and I sat together and I kicked off class by asking each student to tell us their name and something that they did yesterday. For most of the class, the Americans give a topic, model a conversation and then ask the Bulgarians to team up in pairs and practice the same conversation or one on the same topic. We then walk around, answering questions and helping with pronunciation. I'll be team-teaching this class with Katie and if this class was any measure, Katie and I will have a lot of fun teaching together!