A Little German

In one of the sections of the English book I use, the students are supposed to learn how to get to know someone. One sentence always gets to me. It says,

"Jose speaks Spanish, English, and a little German."

For some reason, every time I read that, I think about a small German person instead of the amount of the language he can speak. Ha ha.

So in June I was asked what all those office hours were that I'd been putting on my work time. It turns out that I don't get paid for the half hour I have to be there before classes start. I found that really annoying, but at least they didn't make me change all the earlier months.

Somehow my one English class just loves me to pieces. They say that I'm organized, know what I'm doing, and know what they need compared to the other teachers. I laugh every time I hear something like that, because I always go in not really knowing what we're going to do. I guess I have a good feel for what needs work and just focus on that. And since I can read fast, I can quickly see what each page works on. One of the students is a lady from my ward (Christina Heidler) who has helped me several times now with health issues. I was actually disappointed when she signed a contract with the language school, because I thought she wanted to do private lessons with me, which would have been less expensive for her and more money for me. Not to mention that every time I get a new student in one of my classes, I don't receive any more money than before but I have to work harder to get the group dynamics just right and catch up new students with the old students.

One student who has joined the class is especially difficult. She's joining at chapter 5, but she actually needs the class that leads up to the elementary class. She has a hard time remembering anything and takes a long time to answer questions, so I feel bad that I can't help her more.

On Monday, for the first time since I was told in March to be at least twenty minutes early and not wear jeans or sports shoes, I showed up five minutes before class with jeans and sports shoes because I was getting everything done for the Halloween party and so I could leave thereafter to go to Poland. And guess who was at the school who is almost never there? My boss. That was great, having her tell me to be earlier and having her give my jeans a look. Oh man.

The only reason I'm still working there is because if I can't find another way, that school can offer me a work visa. There is a lot of drama in this office which is exactly why I come exactly on time and leave immediately following classes. I don't want any part of it. I do my job and get out. I would love to find another, real job, but I am focusing on my health right now. I would love to find something really, really flexible so I can do my own thing. We'll see.