Thursday, September 30, 2010

Kargad (means- good, goodbye...and the word I use for everything)

I've almost made it through my first week of school, and I'm loving each day more and more. The kids are so eager to have me in their classes. I especially love the 7th grade. They were learning body parts the other day so I did a brief game of "Simon Says" and then taught them the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." Nothing puts a smile on a person's face like a room full of Georgian kids singing that song! 
I have to say though that I definitely for see many challenges in the future with the teachers in my school. There are three english teachers and they all have openly admitted they do not understand me a lot of the time. I do love them for doing their best to communicate with me, and make me feel at home. The other teacher's in my school however have taken a different approach to me being there. They are baffled as to why I do not speak fluent Georgian, and every day this week they ask me why. Today, in the teacher's lounge, after they clearly were all talking about me and my lack of Georgian skills, I couldn't take it anymore. I told the head english teacher who I love, to tell them that first off I am not a peace corps volunteer so I didn't not get 12 weeks of training, I only had one. Second, off now that I'm living with my host family I am teaching myself Georgian and I do not have a class to attend anymore. Finally, if any of you would like to tutor me I would be so glad for your help. And then I didn't say goodbye to them when I left the room (my way of acting angry). I think they got the message. 
I'm not good a languages to begin with, and on top of everything I have an eager Georgian sister that always wants to translate, and my friend Michelle who speaks fluent Russian. Its definitely easy to coast. I hope that as I go out on my own more it will force me to pick it up faster. Everyday that I'm out I run into my students or someone that I've seen at my house. So far our conversations have consisted of "Hello, How are you? Good. You? Good." The end. I've added in something out the weather if I'm really feeling risky haha. 

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