Jenny's LCN639 Blog

After I initially posted my Celta experience last week I automatically felt disappointed with what I had written. While the post might've captured the craziness of the 4 weeks, I didn't feel like I provided enough information about my experience even though that was my goal. However, self reflection is an important part of life, and an even more important part of being a good teacher. If you don't reflect on the mistakes that you have made, how can you improve? Also, it's incredibly cathartic to reflect about good things, and the things that you think you did well while teaching. Don't constantly beat yourself up! WEEK 1: The first day was kind of a shock to me. My course began on the 7th of January and I was still in Christmas holiday mode. In fact, I didn't finish the exercises and readings that were suggested by the school, and I didn't have any of the textbooks! I don't recommend adopting such a blasé attitude, it came back to bite me later. M...

In late 2017 I was stuck at Park Road station at 9:30PM, having just missed the train. I had half an hour to kill, it was raining miserably, and I only had my Korean textbook and my ancient smartphone for entertainment. I was on my way home after a nighttime Korean class, so perhaps I should have wasted my time by reviewing a grammar point, but I had a spark of inspiration. Just like my Korean teacher Kim Seonsaeng-nim, I wanted to teach a language. The choice was between the only languages I know, English and Latin, and well, one of those languages is considered to be dead! The rabbit-hole on the internet that I ended up pursuing sitting on that cold train station bench led me to the Masters course that I'm currently completing in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), and I decided to apply right then and there on my tiny and sluggish phone. However,  the course is all theory and no practice, and therefore does not qualify me to teach English at the end. ...

My Experience: As an aspiring language teacher, I hold the philosophy that I also need to experience learning a new language in order to truly understand and sympathise with my students. Therefore, a few years ago, I decided to enrol in a year-long Korean class for total beginners. I chose Korean specifically after discovering and nurturing an interest in Korean Pop Music (K-Pop), and also because I enjoy cooking Korean food! Unfortunately, my university studies ate up too much of my time to continue formal language learning classes, but I did not stop engaging with Korean. I turned to the internet and found a wealth of free resources and supportive online communities of dedicated language learners. This reminded me of some of the crucial elements of Connected Learning: a peer-supported experience with participants contributing resources and giving feedback on platforms which are open and freely accessible (Ito et al., 2013, p. 12) . Therefore, I would like to introduc...