 This week at Inkreaable, dear reader, marked the beginning of the Chinese midterm season. It was of course, reflected in my schedule across all of my teaching platforms. VIPKid cancellations ran rampant through the week and while they weren’t complete days off, they may as well have been. I expect this to continue over the next week as well, as most of my students are older and their workload in China is getting more and more difficult. The loss of Scarlet for the moment, makes my Sundays end at 2 PM normally, though this past Sunday ended at one because George and Jerry were studying for midterms. I have not seen them since last Tuesday. The next time I see them will be 15 November.
I am a little annoyed that it is a slow time for me teaching wise as we’ve gone into a lockdown and there really isn’t anywhere to go. Restaurants here are open for take away only and most everything else is closed. So even if you’re walking around there really isn’t anything to do. The good thing about that is that I can lesson plan. But even TEC has slowed down quite significantly. I only have two more lessons with Sander and my Filipino student Glaiza. My client in the suburbs does not wish to meet online, and currently does not wish to meet in person because of Covid restrictions. He has asked that we finish our lessons next year. So the bright side is tat I still have some work to look forward to next year.
I’ve been thinking about my next steps and it seems that being an examiner for the IELTS is a bit more difficult than I thought. They only have a certain number of examiners around the world and they want to keep that number constant. So the only way to become an examiner is if there’s space. I will continue monitoring, but I think that that is not an option right now. I’ve been thinking about how best to move forward and maybe the answer is to design classes that are more targeted and specific. I have found that I really enjoy talking about and teaching the English associated with different fields. So I’ve been thinking to try and design a course for adults that are specific to their jobs for example, teaching the language specific to real estate as well as how to be able to speak clearly and well when dealing with international clients. There is also a writing component because I’ve noticed that most descriptions of real estate listings in English are simply run through a translator. The idea I guess, is that the English is good enough for real estate agents to get their point across. But sometimes there are words in Dutch which simply don’t translate to English. I’m going to do some research and see if I can then expand into the medical terms for doctors or other industry specific terms in English. I’m not sure that it will work but at least it gives me a little bit of hope.
Over in the writing world, some people are doing Nanowrimo online and I have popped in to say hello when I can. I have not been able to actually sit down and write because with the new lockdown, I’m actually working seven days a week. The rest of my social life has gone online and so I’m not taking Saturdays off anymore. At least not for the next couple of weeks. We will have to see what happens with the next press conference in mid-November. But if I can’t go outside and there’s nothing to do why not work? I’ve also scheduled some online Thursday night sessions and we will see who decides to come and what happens. It’ll be interesting to see if the Writers Group can transition to an online model at least until we can find a space where we can meet in person.
By far the highlight of the week was the US elections results. I am excited to see what the future holds for my country with a female VP who is also a person of color.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always, there is more to come.
Inkreadable 