In 2004 I went to Prague to study TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). For me that was a means to get there. I let a friend talk me into enrolling in a four-week course in a school. The school was a disappointment. People who went to the school, after being certified by the school, would be teaching business English one on one to employees at companies in Prague mostly. During the course there was one seminar on teaching business English and we had one session teaching a student one on one. The companies that hired the teachers certified by the school were often unhappy with them, because they were not properly to do the teaching expected of them.
Usually in studies and work I am very organized. It seemed I kept having problems getting organized for the seminars I was taking and for the classes I taught. The main structure of the class was to have a warm-up game for the students, followed by the main classwork followed by a closing game. During the main classwork there would be tasks for the students to do together. We were supposed to have them switch around when working together so they would get to know each other. There were some groups of students who felt more comfortable working together, and they did not want to switch. If we could not get them to work with different students it was seen as a failure on our part. Also when the students were working on tasks we were expected to have proper background music playing. This music had to start and end at just the right time. We had two instructors who were teaching us to teach. One of my instructors looked like a Romulan from Star Trek. She would sit at the back of the classroom with a severe look on her face. The other instructor was the type who could not make a point about our mistakes and move on. She seemed to feel the need to go on several minutes after her point had been made.
I did have an enjoyable one-on-one class with one of the students. The school was across the street from the Staropramen brewery. The guy with whom I had I had the lesson wanted to have it at the brewery at lunch time. At the brewery there was a restaurant and a bar. I thought that since we were meeting at lunch time he would want to go to the restaurant. No, he wanted to go the bar. I had not eaten except for maybe a light breakfast. He stated that he did not want to talk about weddings or shell fish, as he had no interest in either of them. Mostly we talked about the superiority of Czech beer to German beer. Over the course of the lesson I had two beers (1/2 liter each), and having an empty stomach I was definitely effected by the beers. It was very good beer, unfiltered and unpasteurized. After the lesson I had a meeting with Romana (the Romulan). She did not seem to be fazed by my being slightly drunk.
One thing I did like about the school was the cafe. As a part of the meal plan I could have small beer with lunch. Some of the American teachers seemed to be shocked that I was drinking beer at lunch. While I was in Prague, I would carry a flask with me, and much of my time there it was filled with Absinthe. One day one of the guys working in the cafe asked me what I had in the flask. He did not believe me until I had him smell it. He was quite surprised when he smelt it. I would just take a sip from the flask once in a while, especially before teaching a class.
Even if I had passed the class I do not think I would have been happy teaching for the school. Most of the people taking classes at the businesses did not want to do so but were forced to do so by their employers. I was more interested in learning Czech and learning about the culture. I did not feel comfortable going to another country to teach English to people who did not want to learn it. I was able to learn enough Czech to communicate in stores and on the street. I definitely want to go back to Prague and travel around Eastern Europe. It feels like my spiritual home. I felt more at home there than I have in most places where I have lived in the U.S.A. I am glad I took the chance on going to Prague, maybe I can go back when I go for the right reasons.
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