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Circle of English

Wednesday 21 November 2001 | 0 Comments

Today was “Circle of English,” so by default it was at least a decent day. We had a brief discussion of Treasure Island, and then we sang a few Christmas carols. They’re going to teach the “circle of music” folks a couple of songs, and they were fairly willing to do so when I mentioned it to them.

Most of my lessons were fairly successful (including a very amusing one with 3a, during which I introduced Mr. and Mrs. Stinky). I had two lessons with 3c: one of them was the usual Wednesday business English lesson.

One of my lessons today was with class 3b, and they are becoming, in some ways, my favorite class. There are a lot of people there (mainly girls, but a few guys) that I really like, and with whom it’s a pleasure to work. Janusz is a sweet kid who has a cute childishness about him. Aśka is, basically, a dream. She’s a pleasant person; she’s a hard worker; she’s intelligent. I really like her. Dorota Z. is quite but always attentive. I never worry about their class because I know I basically have everything under control.

Today in 3a I introduced the Stinkys, as I said, and I was surprised at how well things went. Wiola D. and Stasiek ended up with the socks, but I don’t think that’ll happen often — at least not with Wiola. She seems intent on not getting it next time.

Dziubek in Action

Monday 19 November 2001 | 0 Comments

Last night was one of those nights that can only happen here, I think. I went to Quattro around ten for a beer, expecting to see Marcin, Stasiek and the usual group. They were there and I sat with them for a while. Around 10:40 I decided I’d get something to eat, so I went up to the bar and ordered a pizza. I talked to Ania for a little while and just as it was about to stagnate, I heard someone walk up behind me — it was Andrzej Dziubek. I guess I’m easily recognizable even if you’ve never talked to me, so he said, “Hi, how are you?” I answered that I was fine. “I’m drinking, drinking, drinking,” he said. Indeed, he was quite inebriated. Then up came Stasiek’s dad^¹ (who previously had been dancing with a number of different young girls — and I do mean young. Enough so to be his daughter) and he started talking to Andrzej. And Andrzej responded, “You are my friend!” in English. Truly blasted.

Dziubek ordered a bottle of wine and eventually staggered out to the dance floor, SD (Stasiek’s Dad) in tow. When the DJ saw who was out there, it was predictable what would happen, and sure enough, the next song was De Press. So, having almost finished my pizza, I decided to go watch. After all, how many times do you get to watch an inebriated Pole dance to his own music that’s quite famous and popular in Norway? The tragically amusing thing was Dziubek’s philandering. He grabbed one girl’s ass, then slide his hand farther down her crotch. She nimbly avoided his groping hands, but continued dancing near him, and talking to him. Next he grabbed her and tried to kiss her — or rather, grabbed her and simply shoved his tongue in her mouth. She managed to escape that as well — and continued dancing there and talking. After two songs, the DJ stopped playing Dziubek’s music eventually he moved off the dance floor. Still on the periphery, though, he just walked up to a girl, grabbed her, and tried to shove his tongue in her mouth. She saw it coming though, and blocked him. She simply ignored him, though, and he just left.

1 Indeed — this was his brother-in-law. 6 February 2004

School Christmas Show Prep

Sunday 18 November 2001 | 0 Comments

Friday: woke up to snow. I was sitting here preparing the outline for class 3b, who will be having a fairly useless test Friday^¹, when suddenly it started snowing — quite heavily. The sun came out, though, and the snow was gone by mid-morning. Still, it was nice while it lasted. And there’ll be more to come, certainly.

Friday night I did nothing but work on “A Christmas Carol” for the kids — rather, the girls, since no guys ever come — of the “circle of English,” something we must rename as soon as humanly possible. The plan is this: I’ll give it to them now, a couple of chapters at a time, and then we’ll discuss it during the circle, and hopefully they’ll be able to make an even more simplified version that we can put on the bulletin board in about a month. That will be great if it works out.

Friday I also talked to Mirek Smoleń about a joint circle of English/circle of music presentation during the opłotek meeting. I’m going to be teaching the girls a few Christmas carols and they’ll be teaching them in two weeks to the kids in the circle. Then we’ll perform them for the school. Not bad, I think.

1 I thought they’d done more business English stuff than they actually had. There’s in fact only about three topics, but that’s fine, I guess — the good kids will get good grades and the bad kids will get bad grades. I hope.

Znalazłes?

Wednesday 14 November 2001 | 0 Comments

It’s amazing how much one can implicitly communicate through one’s choice of words. “Znalazłes›?” asked the woman in the big store as I was looking for szpilki. My first thought was, “Znalazłes›? Don’t you mean, ‘Czy Pan znalazł?’” The lady in the small flower shop had used the formal, polite “Pan” with me just moments before, but this woman chose the familiar form – something that would be positively rude to do to unknown Pole. Given the fact that adults use the familiar form with children, I couldn’t help but feel a little insulted at this perceived slight. Putting the foreigner in his place, so to say.

I’m curious how other Poles would interpret this.