07 October 2013

07 October 2013

Today, I got up, got dressed, had a breakfast of kasha mixed with raspberry jam and coffee, and walked to Russian. The cluster was met by S, our TFC, who was walking back to her apt, so we were let in without having to call V down to open the door. We talked about what we did over our weekend, and learned some new verbs. I can now say that I walked to the store to buy products, and that I hung out with my (American) family via Skype. In Russian, the verb “to go” depends on what form of transport you used to get where you were going. So, yes, it’s a different verb for “I went to Kyiv” and “I went to the grocery store,” as I would have taken the bus to Kyiv, but I walked to the store.

After learning those verbs, we practiced making up sentences using the two verbs, but only in the past tense. They apparently don’t follow the standard conjugation scheme, so we aren’t supposed to use them in the present tense yet. We then made up sentences using “to like,” which conjugates using the dative case, not the nominative, so the verb itself only changes for number/gender but it doesn’t “conjugate.” We also played a rapid-fire response game, which is good practice, but it always seems like I get fussed at a bit more than the rest of the class. After this, we discussed who has met who’s neighbors, or another host family. I hadn’t yet met another host family, but I have talked to the neighbors, so I was able to describe the youngest neighbor when asked. Some of my cluster-mates have gotten to know other host-families, but I’m glad that I have met at least one person who isn’t a relative of my host-mom. V seemed glad that I was at least getting to know the neighbors. We then went into the kitchen where we when over verbs, kitchen supplies, and adjectives to describe food, before having a brief break.

I had a small snack of grapes, and we made tea/coffee, and we discussed some of what was happening. We then went back into class, where we went over more cases. We learned what cases various nouns (specifically kilogram, grivnia, and kopeck) are in when proceeded by a gendered noun and a cardinal number. Cardinal number 1 always uses a different noun form than any other number, and 2, 3, and 4 use a different one. 5-100 uses yet another one, but 21, 31, etc, use the noun for 1, and 22, 23, 24, 32, 33, 34, etc use the noun for 2, 3, 4. We also learned the cardinal numbers for 200-1000, as we will need to ask for 300 grams of something, or recognize number when told the price of something.

We then went over the difference between nominative and genetive cases, and when you use them. If I ask you if you have any bananas (like in Go Fish!), and you have some bananas, it’s a different case (nominative) than if you don’t have any bananas (genetive). We practiced making up sentences using genetive – no, I don’t have any _____. You also use genetive to say that you like to eat/drink something without something else: I like to eat salads without onions. Salad would be in the accusative case, which only shows when the noun is feminine.

After that, we moved on to the instrumental case. We’ve brushed the edges of the instrumental, when we’ve said who we like to do something with. As in, “Paul runs in the park with Stephen.” In Russian, you would add an instrumental case ending to “Stephen.” We practiced making up sentences saying that we liked something with something else: Paul likes running with Stephen,” and then moved on to liking something with something and without something: I like to drink coffee with sugar, but without milk.

Then, we practiced for our field trip. Last week, we were told that we had to make an outing to a local café, and we were given some vocab and phrases as to what we might hear or need to say at the café. We went over the dialogue, adding in various new phrases, and the left to find us a café. We had two field trips in one – we had to ask someone on the street if they could recommend a good café in Obukhiv. I asked a older gentleman, and he pointed me towards the one across the street, saying (I think), that it was a café during the day and a restaurant at night. The cluster ended up at a little café at the bus stop. It didn’t look like much from the outside, as it looked like the sort of place that sells halfway-decent food and coffee quickly and cheaply to people changing buses. I was only partly right, but in a very good way.

We all went in (after V asked us if we wanted to find another café, as this one was take-out only; I muttered something about it still being an experience to the PCT closest to me), and looked around. It looked and smelled right – pastries behind the glass counters, and loaves of bread in racks behind the counter, and it smelled like a bakery/pastry shop should. I was the first one to try to order something (raspberry strudel; she was out), so I waited and tried to decide what I wanted. I thought I saw something else that I wanted to try (chocolate croissant), but she was out of that as well. As I was asking V if my translation was correct, the shopkeeper said (V translated) that she had strawberry croissants, and they were still hot. I had to try that – strawberries and still hot? Yes, please. I also got a coffee. The cluster got our lunches and walked over to the nearby park to sit and have lunch. We all said that what we had was very good. My strawberry croissant was a very good croissant filled with still-piping-hot homemade strawberry pie filling. Excellent. The coffee was instant, from a machine, but it was still pretty good. The people working at the café were all very polite and willing to help us, and the prices were very reasonable.

After lunch, M* and I walked back with V to her apt, because M had tutoring and we are teaching a Tech session on Thursday, and wanted to plan the lesson after his tutoring. I did all of my homework for today, and took notes on half of the chapter about teaching vocab in More Than A Native Speaker (which is fast becoming my favorite textbook) during his tutoring. We then walked across the hall to S.’s apt, to ask her advice, but she had to kick us out after a few minutes, as she had to leave. We then walked to M’s host-families apt, where we spent a long time planning lessons.

I was able to asked his host-grandmother some questions, and she fussed at M for never writing with a pencil, as I kept making mistakes, but was able to erase them. At least, that’s what we think she was saying. She looked at M’s notes, and asked some questions about what he had written. As the younger host-sister thought my dad’s name was funny (and brought out a doll to prove it), I got to show off my photo album. M’s host-grandmother then wanted to see and correct my homework notebook, and she seemed to like my handwriting, unless I slipped and started to form a few letters in the Latin alphabet (a lowercase Latin ‘m’ looks like a lowercase/cursive Cyrillic ‘t’ for those of you keeping score at home…).

After we had tea, and I asked her my questions, M and I got started on our lesson planning, and his host-sister did her homework. She was writing in cursive Ukrainian, which makes my head hurt: what looks exactly like a lowercase, cursive ‘g’ is actually a ‘d’ sound, as well as the ‘m’/‘t’ distinction. Our lesson is to teach how to teach vocab, so we came up with a warm-up, 8 new words, a Jeopardy! style game, and then how we were going to present what we just did – this is how the TEFL Manual suggests you teach vocab, and these are the important things to remember when teaching vocab. We chose music as our broad category, and created 8 Jeopardy! answers (one easy, one hard, per each of the 4 categories), decided how we were going to present the answer, and what we wanted as the question. That was as far as we got, and it took us well over an hour, but I think that this was the truly hard part of the plan – deciding how to present the new material. Next, we have to create what we want to use as handouts, etc, for our class on Thursday. M’s host-family came home as we were working, so I got to meet his host-father and host-brother. As it was after 7pm (and getting dark), Ukrainian custom said that M should walk me back to my host-family’s apt, which he did, after telling his host-brother what he was doing and when he’d be back. We walked back, chatting about what we were going to be doing for the next few days.

Once I got back to the apt, dropped off my stuff, and changed out of my dress pants, it was almost 730. I lit the gas stove, and started heating dinner – soup and coffee. The soup was very good. Host-Mom came home just as the soup was heated through, but she didn’t want any. She started cooking something, but by the time I asked her, she was halfway done making sweet cottage-cheese vareniki. These are dessert dumplings, and are amazingly good. The recipe made a lot, so she called her son to come and get a bowl (the younger granddaughter loves them). Her son came up and asked what I was writing (a small glossary of what I’ve learned so far; Russian, pronunciation, English), and asked me the question I had just written (who are you (nationality)?), so I answered it – American, NC, W-S. If “Winston” gets a spark of recognition, I mime smoking and say “cigarette.” Her son said that he likes Winston Lights. He then thanked his mother in perfect, practiced, English, which made us all laugh. I finished up my glossary for the night, had one more vareniki, and spent some time online. Today was a long day.

(*name redacted)