Day 5

Day 5: 1/5/09

The first day of classes. Because of a late night, Andy and I just slept in; he in the bedroom, I in the living room. Amanda comments on how big our place is but it is kinda small in comparison to the house in Lynchburg or the townhouse I had in the fall. Her place must be cramped. We do have a lot of 'negative space' as she put it. Must be a Massachusetts thing.
At noon, we walked up the five million flights of stairs to the school after getting buzzed in at the door. Classmates include: Peter from New York, Pieter from somewhere in England, Chris from Birmingham, Sophi from Birmingham, Loli from France, Andy, Amanda, and myself. We are all friendly and an easy going bunch with a team of trainers to get us certified. Loli, though not a native English speaker is very capable of the English language and knows more grammar than the rest of us.
Today, Anelka, one of the trainers, a native Czech speaker. The first things she said was in Czech. Dobry Den, something something what is your name. We tried to follow along because she used mannerisms and gestured but we still had no idea what she was talking about after a while. She explained that that is what is like for a Czech student to face a English teacher. But the students we will have will be far more advanced in English than I will ever be in Czech.
She then introduced us to the course and it was a pretty easy day. We took a break for an hour and half, headed to lunch. Most of us went to a suggest cheap restaurant around the corner. It was difficult to find, possibly to keep tourists away. It was through a lobby, down some stairs, and around a hallway. We had to seat ourselves so we grabbed a big table and the waitress came over and started chatting in Czech. We all looked dumb, probably very similar to when Anelka was talking to us. Someone said something in English to her and she went “Ah!” she got our drink orders in broken English and returned with English menus. Some just pointed at the day's specials in Czech; cause no matter what you get in Prague, its gonna be delicious. I ordered the goulash, a Czech specialty with dumplings and meat sauce. Hearty, filling, and as I said, delicious.
We came back to Mila, another trainer and Czech citizen. His accent was slightly less distinguishable and he is a good teacher. Granted, the class consists of eight people but he does a good job of it. Before we left however, he gave us an example of what it is like to teach a lesson to a Czech student. Olda, a slightly older/middle aged woman came in for free English lessons. She is categorized as Intermediate in speaking English, which is what most of us can expect our students to be. Mila opened the lesson with a game of naming nations in order alphabetically. He started with Argentina, she said Brazil, and so on. She could read and comprehend a simple article about a travel agency and answered questions. He closed the lesson with a review of vocabulary words such as 'island' and 'Iceland' and 'hippo' and 'rhino.'
We ended early and Andy, Amanda and I (the American bunch) went for some dinner. We ended up back at that same place and got a different waitress who spoke a little better English or 'Anglicky' as they call it. Between the three of us, three meals and three drinks cost about $20. Not too shabby.
Also, behind the school building is a little park, just some lines of bushes and a monument of some sort. But we chilled in the snow for a little but as Andy from Georgia made two tiny snowmen.
Over the rooftops towers the beginning of a giant church. But because of the world war, this to-be biggest church in the world only got an east end.
We then proceeded to walk around Prague at night, around the National Theater and looking out towards the other side of the river. But it was cold so we called it a night.