Learning to teach English

Teacher training. Not quite as bad as it could be. I’d heard it was dry, but we’ve got a good group and it’s normally pretty lively. A wide variety of people learning how to teach a language. Four Americans, two English, one Scottish and one Australian, along with a Japanese, German and French person learning teaching techniques. It’s a little tricky for the non-native English speakers to follow along with everything, but they’re doing good. We all practice teaching and so I’ve gotten some free lessons in Japanese and French. And the German is a good review, such as with directions and such.

I’m at training from 10 until 5:30. Berlitz is putting me up at a nearby hotel. Or at least a hotel in the area, not really too close. A 20 minute walk each way. But it’s a good warm up to the morning, and it’s paid for. Tiny room in a hotel with free internet.

After training I’ve been going into Frankfurt to explore the city. Pretty cool place, with a good blend of modern with the skyscrapers to the old buildings. More of an American city with the amount of English spoken, and the high buildings. Lots of finance as well, with most banks having a building there.

I’ve attached a photo of the town hall square. While I was taking this photo, a police van was driving around with a megaphone informing people that a painting had been stolen from a local museum earlier that day. They described the suspect, a white male about 30, wearing dark clothes, with a dark bag, brown hair and speaking German without a foreign accent. Turns out I fit the description, from my clothes to my hair. Except for the accent part, but as I wasn’t speaking, I started to feel people start to look at me, as I definitely fit the bill. Kinda awkward, just trying to be a tourist at 6:30pm. I kept doing my thing, then went into a bakery and spoke in a horrible American accent. Think it did the trick as I was never confronted.