No one who knows me in real life, can’t say that I don’t know how to adult. I know very well how to adult, but often choose not to. It comes from having a partner with whom you relate to in the manner in which you met. Jasper and I met In middle school in the United States. He was in sixth grade and I was in seventh. Thus our interactions are sometimes those of two children of that age. Actually, they’re usually interactions of two middle schoolers. So I sometimes find that having to adult can be very difficult when it comes to my life in Amsterdam. The same is not true Of my continuing life in the US. I am in essence split between two places. I may live in Europe but I have too much going on in America to let my control there go. As a result, I find that when the need arises for me to adult I do it very well.
This was evident across all fronts of Inkreadable this week. Felix and I have cut down to four hours a week currently so that I can accommodate Rex. Monday is my heaviest teaching day currently. This Monday I work for five hours for VIPKid, an hour for Felix, and an hour and a half for Rex. But things seem to be picking up on the adult front for me as I now have a semi-private lesson on Monday mornings from 11 to 12:30 starting on 13 May. This is to teach two colleagues who want to improve their English both in the context of their work and social lives. If I can do it, Monday will still be my heaviest day provided I can get back to my house from my 1230 lesson by one and work there from 1 to 4. The first lesson will be a test run of that, And if it works I plan to keep it up.
I have decided to consolidate my lessons with Felix and Janice and start teaching them both the same thing. Well, kind of. I have taken it back to basics with both of them and we’re starting this week with nouns. I don’t think I’ve actually taught nouns to Felix and it might be a good refresher for him as English nouns are different from the way they are used in French. In English, we don’t have gendered nouns in the same sense as in French. In French, “the chair” is a feminine noun. But in English it’s neuter. And there are oodles and oodles of other things about nouns that I can teach. To that end, I did the same lesson on both Friday and Sunday last week. It worked a treat.
As you know, I had my first lesson with Rex last Monday. Our second lesson was last night, and per his instructions, I have decided to teach him pronunciation in American English. To that end I found many different resources online for the mistakes that Spanish speakers make in English and have printed out materials so that we can practice correcting those common mistakes. There isn’t that much I can do in an hour and a half lesson to be honest. There are 11 or 12 specific mistakes that Spanish speakers tend to make. This week we tried to correct four of them:
Spanish speakers 10 to drop the final consonant blends when there are two consonants in a row at the end of the word. For example, “mind” becomes “mine”.
They also tend to replace an M at the end of a word with an N.
They also tend to replace a J sound like in “job” with a Y and of course vice versa. Y words where the Y acts like a consonant Sounds like they start with a J. So “yes” sounds like “jes”
They also transpose A z sound for an S and, while I found words and information on that I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get to it.
Over in the suburbs of Amsterdam, Carlton was again a no-show as he was sick. His mom is kind of cagey and has now started canceling just under the 24-hour window. Actually, she’s acting just like VIPKid parents, who have started doing the same thing.
It was a busy and stressful week at Inkreadable trying to combat some tech issues. My Mac has one working USB port and the fix online that I found does not work. So on Sunday, I went to Apple to see if they could fix it. No surprise, they could fix it and while it didn’t cost me anything, I had to give up my computer to them. In addition, I found another problem with my Mac. The headphones that I like to use with it are not being registered by the computer. So I had to Switch to a pair of back up headphones that I don’t like as much. Read: not at all. Given all of these problems, this week is it any wonder that I had to adapt to an adult very quickly? I have prepped lessons through today. I’m not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow. But I did manage to almost get the backup computer that I bought in the States when I was having trouble there, up to scratch with all the stuff here. Jasper, bless his heart, called me from the airport last Tuesday evening telling me to google iCloud for windows. This I duly did and I do have all of my iCloud Inkreadable documents on the backup computer as well.
Now all I need is to figure out how to enable Internet via ethernet on the backup computer. I had wondered why it was so easy in the US and realized: I had Jasper there. I’ve come to the conclusion that one must be an expert in a particular field to be able to be good at fixing the issues that come up. I’m great at fixing your English, and your writing, and talking books with you, but I am not is good at figuring out tech issues. This too shall pass. I hope.
Let’s hope that next week (and next post) will have a lot less drama. I don’t think my heart can take it.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always, there is more to come.
Inkreadable 