My First Teaching Week

Sean Hennesy is his name, born in Ireland and moved to England when he was young. His Russian wife’s name is Maria, though everyone in Russia by that name is called Marsha. They have a two-yr old son named Daniel, and a Dalmatian named Patrick. They took me and James out on Sunday to get a few supplies and show us the basics of surviving in Mongolia. We met at the branch, and got on the bus. It was packed, and there’s a little lady that comes around collecting fare: it was only 300T’s. We walked around, stopped at this little eatery and had some lunch. We had the kushur again, which was good because I was really hungry. Marsha said we should try the cabbage salad and the Mongolian tea. The cabbage salad is made with cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes or something and is cold and not tasty. The Mongolian tea is made with milk, and I tasted salt. That would be an acquired taste. The little child Daniel is rambunctious. He runs around biting things, pulling the dog’s tail and drooling on people’s heads. When we finished our food Daniel proceeded to dump out his apple juice on the table. Now by this time I’ve summed up that the kid needs a few good slaps, and when I saw the apple juice falling I said something like, “Oh no, that’s…that’s probably not a good thing.” Sean turned to me and sort of smiled and said, “You know, we tend to let Daniel do what he wants. We’re very open to Daniel being an individual and we support that.” He looked at his son and wife getting up to leave. “ You know, people disagree or think we’re bad parents but, you know, to each his own. We’re his parents.” So we got some meat, cheese, bread, white pepper, juices, etc., and then went to watch “football” at Sean’s house. Aston Villa was playing against I forgot who. I fell asleep seeing as they didn’t score until about the 80th minute or so.

On Monday was the Opening Ceremony and I would not be teaching anything, but would just be observing Sean and Marsha’s classes. I showed up in the same clothes that I’d been wearing here in Mongolia since my arrival and overall since I left the U.S. on Thursday morning. I was smelly and uncomfortable, and seeing as it was the opening ceremony, people were extra dressed up. Luckily, Aruina offered to have one of the ladies there take me to get a shirt, pants, socks, underwear, and Santis would pay for it. I was very thankful. So I got a shirt and we started looking for pants. The place is a shopping center but looked like what a flea market would in the U.S. with merchants all over the place selling the same stuff. We stopped at the first place looking for a pair of “trousers” and so I had to try on a pair that the seller suggested. There aren’t any changing rooms, and I wasn’t surprised by that. So the lady pulled out a purple shawl or afghan, and the Santis lady took the other side and told me to come behind it and “undress.” We were in the wide open and the shawl didn’t cover much. Granted, I’d been wearing the SAME thing for almost a week now, but I thought, “when in Mongolia…”. So I just went ahead and quickly changed. No one passed by. The pants didn’t fit. We went outside and walked into another one of these shopping centers. But to my luck, there was a trousers booth right there at the entrance. Three young Mongolian girls were there, two from surrounding booths. My representative talked, they dispersed. Now the booth has this sort of jewelry case in front of it that has displays of different belts and stuff. It was about waist high for me. They told me to get behind there and try on another pair of pants. It looked like it would barely cover me and, like I said, it was right at the entrance, with the door wide open, people walking outside had a good shot of me, and there were many people entering and leaving this whole time. So when I got back there, I found that it was also a raised platform. Meaning, the transparent case being waist high would now go about halfway up my thighs. I crouched down and quickly tried them on. They fit. The Santis lady suggested I try another pair of trousers that looked good, I said no! thanks. I’m…I’m good. I got a pair of undies and also socks and a white t-shirt.

Sean’s classes were good, some classes older than others but generally from 17 – 50-ish. Marsha had the Children’s Fundamentals classes. I walked in there and felt at home. The children were nice and talkative and loud like I’m used to. I felt I really could teach them more comfortably than I could with the older people I’d be teaching. But Marsha says they’re a pain in the neck, as all kids are, so perhaps I would have a more difficult time if I were to teach them. For my first week, I would only be working 16 hours. Usually, you get 28 with 12hrs being allotted for prep, though this is sort of optional. If you go over 28 hrs for the week, you get paid overtime at $6/hr. This doesn’t sound like much US, but in Mongolian terms it is moneey. If you work on Saturdays, you get paid $10/hr, which they usually pay you on the Monday for that, so you don’t wait til the end of the month for that money. The student’s proficiency is broken up into 5 general levels: Top Notch 1 – 3, then Summit 1 and 2. The summit classes speak English pretty well. Level 1 students are at the basics. Santis has classes from 9am to 9pm. My first class on Tuesday would be a Summit 1 class at 5pm, and I was nervous because I knew they would generally be older than me. But first, on Tuesday afternoon, Aruina called and told me that they found my luggage. I was more than happy, and we went to the airport and got the stuff. I went home and checked my things. Then I went to school and got into my first class. One of the first questions they asked was: “So have you ever taught foreign students or mostly American students?” It was an older lady asking this and it didn’t seem like she approved of my teaching methods, as I was only in there for about 15mins. I lied and said I’ve taught both. I didn’t like the way it was going and my confidence was shot. The classes are given on a 2-hr block, and the students have a break after 50 mins. So when the break came I went back to the office and pretty much felt not so good. The students didn’t seem to understand what I was saying or were in a general disapproving mood. Sean and Marsha said it was okay. The first week would be rough. I went in for the second hour and I don’t know what happened but the students seemed much better. The lesson plan went smoothly and we laughed and made jokes. The next class I would have was the TN-1 class at 7pm. Marsha said that Level 1 would be tough for me. Mongolian students don’t generally like to talk and in 1 they especially don’t talk because they’re very shy. I hoped that if it went as well as my Summit 1 then I could make it out alive for my first day.

The Level 1 class had met before. They had gone through 2 teachers, the last one they didn’t like because he wasn’t dressed well. From what I heard he was a sort of hippie. American. I found this out before I went to class and it didn’t help. Luckily I had changed clothes. I went in there and played a quick name game where the students had to state their nick name (I couldn’t pronounce their full name) and their hobby, then go around in a circle and state the previous person’s info and then lastly their own. The person at the end had to remember everyone’s info. The students were extremely friendly and very talkative. Granted, they spoke a lot of Mongolian, but there was one rep who translated to and from me. It is by far my best class. They are so happy to see me. So in the second hour we stopped with the lesson and just talked for the last 20 mins. It was wonderful. We started talking about Mongolia and I said that I hadn’t had a chance to see much of the country seeing as I’ve only been here for a few days. They talked about the Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan) Monument, which every tourist or visitor should see. I said okay, maybe one day I will. Then they talked in Mongolian, and I just sat back and enjoyed it. They’re a very nice group. The translator then turned to me and said in broken English (it took about a good 7 mins. before I could understand what she was trying to say) if I wanted to go with them, the entire class, to the Monument on Saturday. I was shocked and happy. I said of course. This class was going way better than I thought.

So my first day was pretty good, and I picked up a Level 3 class the next day, which went okay as well. By Friday I found out that most of my classes felt the lesson was going by too slowly, so now for the next week I am going to speed things up. On Thursday my Level 1 class said that this Saturday wouldn’t be good because there was going to be a blizzard on Saturday. I agreed. It was hot on Friday. Saturday there was indeed a snow storm. Not blizzard, but it was shocking that the temp dropped so much from Friday. On Friday I got my schedule for the next week and realized that I had a new class. Level 4 on Tues. I thought it must’ve been a Summit 1 class, but they informed me it was Children’s level 4. I have no idea how it will go, but I’m feeling more confident in that. Maybe try out a few things I learned at Breakthrough. In general, I miss my Beta Tam Fam. Miami was kosher before, with my actual family, but it wasn’t too exciting. Over the summer I lived in a condo and spent time at the mansion. Met some really cool people who knew how to be professional during the week and really get down on the weekends. Some experiences I wouldn’t forget, nor would I want to, and in general it was a fast pace, wonderful experience, the people who I hope to stay in contact with. In Mongolia, from this first real week, it seems I’ll be hanging out with James and Sean, et al., mostly. Sean and James are Brits, and the atmosphere is much slower compared to the summer. We hung out with Sean on Friday night and went back to his apt. and watched an older Brit show called “Steptoe and Son,” which I think “Sanford and Son” is somehow related to that because they both have the same format. The dog, Patrick, played roughly with James and I, which I liked. I don’t like sissy dogs. But we got a bit scratched up and I joked about maybe having contracted rabies from Patrick seeing as they bought him here in Mongolia and the country probably doesn’t require rabies shots. James seemed to be paranoid about that.

Yesterday, Santis threw a welcome dinner thing for James and I. It was at a buffet restaurant called Mongolian Barbecue. Wonderful place. For 11,000 T’s you can stay there all day, from 10am to 11pm. Food is amazing. I stayed away from the horse meat and the horse stomach salad, which was cold. Yeah. But it was great and free. James asked me questions about rabies again, and Sean, Marsha and I joked with him. I told him that all I knew about it was from a movie called “Quarantine,” and told him we should watch it sometime. Today Sean and Marsha invited us to Sunday dinner. Sean seems to be very happy to be hanging out with James and I. The Mongolian English teachers are all women, and they talk amongst each other in their language. Sean seems relieved to finally talk to some men, because all he had was Marsha and, obviously, being a wife, that is a different convo to have. Looks like he really appreciates the man-time. So I expect to see a lot of him and James, but I soon will be expanding. I didn’t come here to hang out with Brits or even Americans or any Westerners. But I’m taking my time. I have a whole year and this first week was extremely long.