09 October 2013

09 October 2013

Today, I got up, had a breakfast of kasha, and walked to class. Today, we went over time – we learned how to say what time it is yesterday – and then played tic-tac-toe, where we had to say the time to get the points. After that, be learned how to conjugate and use “to see.” We also went over something that we had seen – consonant interchange. When the conjugation stem of various verbs end in certain letters or letter combinations, the consonant changes. Sometimes (usually) only in the “I” form… While this helps me remember how to conjugate certain verbs, there is no way to tell if the verb does consonant interchange only in the “I” form, or if it is completely irregular. We also learned some expressions that use “to see.”

After that, we moved on to complex sentences: I know that you like to read. I know why you read historical fiction. I like to eat borshch because it is delicious. I know that you like to read because it is fun. Basically, a sentence with (at least) two subjects. After making up some sentences to practice this form, we reviewed “so that/in order to/as to.” We’d written sentences using that phrase earlier in the week; ones like “I went to Kyiv so that I could buy a kettle” and “Paul went to the park so that he could run with Stephen.” We reviewed/learned the difference between “I’m home” and “I’m going home.” We then learned the last case – the Locative. Well, half of it. We learned the endings for masculine, feminine, and neutral. Still have the plural endings to learn.

After a brief break (where I ate about half of my lunch, as I would get 15 minutes to eat during our later break), we continued. We went over the verbs of daily routine: I wake up. I get up. I eat breakfast. I teach English. I learn Russian. I eat dinner. I hang out with my family. We had to come up with sentences for them – usually, I get up at 8am. I usually iron clothes during the day. We also learned the words that would help us progress the story – first, then, and then, later, what’s more, after that. We paired up, and told our partner what we usually do during the day. We then read a short text, which we translated. We had to infer some words from context, so we learned a few more new words. We also learned what cases the nouns have to be in. We created sentences using our new words. Then, it was pushing time to go, so we got our home task – write up a very short text about our daily routines, write some complex sentences, and go over the daily routine verbs, as well as the days of the week.

After that, I had a very short time to eat – my tutoring had been moved up by 10 minutes, we went over, and I needed to be at School #5. I ate quickly, and was ready to have tutoring. V. started by asking some questions about how I am integrating into my host-family, if I have any x/c questions, and how I’m feeling over all. Then, she asked me to ask her questions, in an interview type set up. After about 10 minutes of that, she started to ask me questions. In order to graduate PST and become a PCV, I have to pass a language test, which is essentially a one-shot-only interview in Russian. I have to reach a certain level, and that is the highest level that anyone who has not previously studied Russian can get. So, V. is having us practice our interview. I have to figure out how to remember a few long and complicated words, as “educator,” “to knit,” and “to go hiking” are words that I will have to say. I will also be asked to recite a recipe (the girls tend to get asked this question), to describe my families (American and Ukrainian), as well as myself. I am not the best at doing interviews, in any language, so this will be a challenge for me to face. Not only do I have to give a good interview, I have to not speak in French. I’ve noticed that if I get flustered, confused, surprised, or flat-out don’t know a word, I will speak in French. I didn’t hear/understand the question: Répétez, s’il vous plait… I’m trying to describe something: Il y a… I’m surprised by a question: answer in French. I flat-out don’t know the word: I say the word in French. Otherwise, I think I am learning Russian pretty well: there are some words and phrases that I think I know.

After tutoring, the cluster trooped over to School #5, where we had English Club. We didn’t have much time to prepare activities, so we tried to stick to some basic activities. We introduced ourselves, in the way that we will be addressed by our students tomorrow. I’m the only one using my last name, but that is because “Miss Megan” is not something I can be called for the next 2+ years. We then had them introduce themselves. Not everyone was brave enough to introduce themselves in English, so we don’t know all their names yet, but we did have about 45 students turn out. Big group. After a few of them introduced themselves (they stood at their desks), we passed out slips of paper, where we wanted them to write their age and form, what they were interested in learning about, and what they wanted to do during English club. I spent about 10 minutes working with 2 students, who didn’t understand the assignment, but they were 10, and were at English club to learn.

We then split the group into 10-11, 12-15+, which effectively split the group in two. I went with the older group, who played hangman for a bit, before we switched groups. We tried a new game, which encouraged a lot of participation (good), but which was confusing. The came was that a student had to think of an animal, and the rest of the students had to try to guess what the animal was. We tried to get them to ask limiting questions (what colour is it?), but they kept asking “is it a blank?” They seemed to be having fun, though.

After English club, we all had lesson plan tutoring with S. M and I went last, as we wanted to finish our vocab planning. We were able to get it mostly finished before the rest of the class was done with their tutoring. We then went over our plans, got some advice, as well as some class materials that we could borrow. We had to make a few tweaks, but overall we had a solid lesson plan. Then, I went over my personal lesson plan with S. She had only a few suggestions – better ways to have the students practice/review their new material – which makes me feel more confident over all. If I can plan one lesson, after only having learned what I needed to cover on Tuesday, I think that I might, just might, be able to plan lessons. After my tutoring, M had his. I worked on my home task for V, and was able to complete about half of it, while M went over his lesson plan with S. After they were done, M and I worked together to finish our vocab lesson plan. We decided what we needed to know, needed to do, and needed to finish before tomorrow.

After that, I walked back to my host-family’s apartment, where I had dinner (mashed potatoes, pan-fried chicken, and cottage cheese vareniki), and finished my homework. I was able to go over the new vocab words, and ask my host-Mom some questions. We don’t have hot water, so I had a bucket bath, which made me feel more human after my full day of learning and practicing. My day starts and ends late, so I can sleep a bit more tomorrow morning. But, I won’t be back until close to 7pm, which is much later than usual, but might become a new normal, especially when I’m observing and teaching more lessons each week, having 2 hour tech sessions and 3 or 4 hours of Russian following.