POST 3: SOMETHING CONNECTED TO MY CAREER AS A LANGUAGE TEACHER
I have been an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) since 1992 when I got my Master's degree in Linguistics.
Once I got that degree, I started teaching EFL--which I still do, as you know. However, once I had the experience to teach another language: German.
I was working at an institute back in the early 90s, and the German teacher (this institute taught English, German and French) got sick or had to go on a trip--I don't remember. As an emergency solution, I took over that German teacher's class for a month. I was given the post because my mother tongue is German (my mother was German, and I grew up bilingually) actually speaking German better than English until I went to school. I had the methodological skills from English which I could apply to teaching any language really.
It was a great experience because I got to teach something different while at the same time being able to use my teacher skills. The goals were basically the same as an EFL class: encourage the students to use the language to communicate. Yet, the details were different: different vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and all the other relevant details. It was a great challenge and experience. Unfortunately, since then, I never got to teach German again.
By the way, when it comes to German, some things that make it different for learning than English are: noun genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), more verb conjugation but less tenses (there is no "I am doing"--just "I do"), spelling and reading are MUCH easier than English because the writing is generally more or less phonetic. I think English pronunciation is also harder with all the strange unclear vowel sounds. German is more like Spanish: A, E, I, O, U is just that. On the other hand the grammar is more complicated: there is declension of nouns like in Latin--neither English nor Spanish have this concept.
So, when you all write this, you might be writing more about your future. I wrote about a past event because I already have had professional experiences. Your professional experiences are still ahead of you.
So good to read this post and have another perspective, because I always believed that German looks very difficult to learn, maybe it is because of how it sounds in the movies hahaha.
ResponderEliminarIt is interesting to see the variations of the language. English can open different doors for you :)
ResponderEliminarHe did not know that his mother tongue was that, it must have been a great experience to be able to use his skills as a teacher to teach German. <3
ResponderEliminarA nice experience! And how great to grouw up bilingually, to know the differences of each language.
ResponderEliminarI feel great admiration!
What a great experience, I feel like you have very good memories of this. You could try teaching German again!
ResponderEliminarit is very important to learn many languages because we can communicate and exchange experiences. i would like to learn many languages and travel around the world getting to know different cultures and places. without a doubt, language is a door to other diversities.
ResponderEliminarI was always believe that german be more difficult and more distant of spanish
ResponderEliminarwow, that's nice! I speak a little german too.
ResponderEliminari would love to learn more languages, but im too scare of exactly that: speaking that language to practice D:
ResponderEliminarGerman is a very difficult language from my point of view, i would like to learn this language someday to be able to communicate with people from Germany when i visit this country.
ResponderEliminarI would like to learn german, but first I have to learn english jeje
ResponderEliminarI would like to learn German! :)
ResponderEliminarIt must have been great to grow up as a bilingual, languages are very important and can provide many opportunities in life
ResponderEliminarHonestly I was surprised at the fact that your german is better than your english, since in class your english sounds so natural and fluent. It's great to have a parent teach you another language and grow up bilingual!
ResponderEliminar
ResponderEliminaroh wow I always thought that the pronunciation in German was much more difficult than in English
What a great experience, I would like to be able to speak german
ResponderEliminarWhat a great challenge! When I learned Latin, there were also three genders (feminine, masculine and neuter), which made the conjugations more complicated if you have a bad memory!
ResponderEliminarHow great, for me it is very difficult to learn languages, so I think it is a great skill and a great opportunity that you were born in an environment that allowed you to speak two languages.
ResponderEliminarHow great it must have been to have grown up in a bilingual home, it sounds great!
ResponderEliminarHallo! Ich bin Javiera, It's the only thing that I know how to say in German (because my cousins are from Switzerland and they taught me). It's really funny when I heard people saying that Germans sound like they are angry when they talk.. and I think it's kinda true, but at the same time it's a beautiful language and I would love to learn more about it.
ResponderEliminarI remember a funny thing that happened to me in my technical high school and that is that we worked with German machines and their instructions were in German, obviously. We couldn't understand anything but we used them anyway ha, ha, ha, ha...
ResponderEliminarThat's amazing! You can teach us some basics of german one day... I'm just saying.
ResponderEliminar
ResponderEliminarHello teacher, it is great that I know how to speak more than two languages, it is something I would like to do!
The experiences have forged a very good teacher, it is good to know that he is dedicated to what really makes you happy.
ResponderEliminarI never thought the German could be more easier to learn than English . I hope one day you will be able to teach German again.
ResponderEliminarwow, sounds like a great experience, so you speak three languages or even more?
ResponderEliminarIt is very interesting how being raised with a mother tongue changes the way we see the world. I always thought that it could be a great experience to be a native speaker of another language for a moment just to know how different the world is understood.
ResponderEliminarWhen i was in school I had a friend that always used to say that German was way easier than english, but we (the class) never believed him. I feel bad now XD.
ResponderEliminarHow many lenguages can a person speak?
ResponderEliminarI have a friend who went to live in Germany about a year and a half ago, and he tells me about the difficulties he has when learning, especially because there a word can be said in different ways. By the way, why was he never able to teach German again?
ResponderEliminarso nice that you can speak 3 languages! I would love to be able to do it too.
ResponderEliminari love that german has noun genders, i think that makes much easier a lot of things hahah also, my sister is currently living in Berlin doing a working holiday, i hope she can teach me some german when we meet again :)
ResponderEliminarwow this story made me consider learn german XD
ResponderEliminarHow great the language work, professor. The truth is, I admire what he does and I admit that I would also like very much to take the course of languages. Even learn German or maybe Japanese. Brilliant!!
ResponderEliminarHi teacher! I have always been surprised by people who know more than two language! Is it true that after the third language learned it becomes easier to learn new languages? 🧐
ResponderEliminarWow teacher, I would never imagined that you could speak German, it would be quite nice to hear you speak the lenguage sometime.
ResponderEliminarWow! sounds like a great experience,
ResponderEliminarMaría paz Guzman: How interesting that he is German and bilingual, I think it is super important to learn about these things about languages. I would really like to learn it, but it is difficult for me because I have always learned Spanish since I was little.
ResponderEliminarHow interesting experience!
ResponderEliminarwow, that sounds like a great teacher experience!
ResponderEliminarHello teacher, I am commenting on blog 3, but it is not the same topic as the one you sent us.
ResponderEliminarI had a different conception regarding the German language, I can't believe that the pronunciation is easier than in English, I'm shocked.
ResponderEliminarHi teacher! Very nice experience, you can see that learning languages and being able to teach them to others fills him with joy, I hope that in the near future he can live that experience again.
ResponderEliminarOMG in my mind German was one of the most complicated languages... Interesting blog!
ResponderEliminarIt's great to know how to speak so many languages, to me it's too complicated but they are necessary in life.
ResponderEliminarHii teacher, it must be great to grow up knowing two languages!!!
ResponderEliminarEste comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarHello teacher, how impressive to have the ability to teach 2 languages at the same time!!
ResponderEliminarhi teacher, I have a hard time learning one language at a time, I can't imagine learning two at the same time, how great!
ResponderEliminarhi teacher!! i find so exciting that you grow up as a bilingual kid!! excellent post
ResponderEliminarI am trying to learn German using Duolingo and probably the thing I like more about it is the similarity in various words with English words like apfel or sieben, but overall I liked very much.
ResponderEliminarI would love to learn to speak German
ResponderEliminar