The last week has been rather challenging in some ways. I wouldn't say I'm exactly homesick but I'm not all that happy here, either. Just two more months to go, though, so I'm sure I'll manage!
Our internet connection has been giving us some trouble yet again. I phoned both Mweb and Telkom (service provider as well as the telephone company that handles the actual line-related things) but got nowhere in doing so. My uncle phoned them once and... yes, they managed to fix it. (I still think they don't take females inquiring about IT related business serious. Oh well.)
As usual I worked at Japari on Monday and Wednesday. Monday wasn't very interesting, but I did go shopping in Parkview after school. I met the lady from the second-hand book store there and she asked me about the books I bought there. It seems she likes to read fantasy, too, so we chatted for a bit. Last week I discussed the prices of books in Europe/Holland/South Africa with her. She seems like a lovely person, and it was good to just have a chat with someone random for a change.
Wednesday was funny, I sat in on some classes of a different teacher (Ingrid - teaching English and Afrikaans) and because she had to go to a meeting I took the last period. We just read from a book (the class had to follow along while I was reading) but a certain learner was being quite impossible (noisy and he kept making faces)... So when I came to this part in the story where it said "Be quiet!" said Zak. I used the opportunity to make myself very clear to this particular learner. The whole class was laughing after that, and it was very funny :D
After that I watched the Japari team play cricket (they won from Glenhazel primary school! Yay!) and sat at the Zoo Lake Sports Club restaurant for the whole afternoon (because cricket matches take ages, quite literally). I had some good coffee and a toasted sandwich, though, so it wasn't too bad. I've also been reading quite a lot (because of the internet being offline) so I found quite a few new words this week.
Finally... I have been working on my SLB portfolio. This lead to a (mildly) sarcastic post over at my other blog Random Breakfast Coffee. Not to be taken too seriously, but it does reflect (pun semi-intended) my view on SLB quite accurately, I'm afraid. (Just want to add this doesn't mean I'm not trying to make an effort for SLB, quite to opposite in fact. I just needed to vent my frustration concerning the challenge that SLB poses to students...)
Words of the week:
Remittance
Crag
Taltry
Pail
Petering out
Parlance
Skeins
Sidereal
Mycelium
Gangling
Scufflings
Wencher
Cochineal
Kenned
Rife
Sidled
Girders
Frondescence
Assuager
Loquaciously
Fashed
Twanging
Coppice
simulacrum
flanges
gurruping
tangential
Posts tonen met het label south africa. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label south africa. Alle posts tonen
donderdag 14 oktober 2010
woensdag 6 oktober 2010
End of Sukkot, Simchat Torah and more
I'm really glad the holidays are finally over! We had our last '3-day-break' without electricity etc. Thursday last week was the final day of Sukkot, we had our last meal in the Sukkah and just relaxed. Friday was Simchat Torah (when you get chocolate at the synagogue - or the kids do, at least - and they dance with the Torah. A really special day.
This week (finally a normal week again) I did some research at Japari (I really started with my assignments now). I made a questionnaire for the learners about languages (covering everything from "What is your home language" to "Which language classes do you enjoy most") and another one for the teachers ("Should all children be raised (at least) bilingually?" and about the difficulties of teaching children with a different native language than English.) I also worked on parts of the general report I could already write about and caught up with my weekly journals. And I did some more teaching, I took the grade 4's for Life Orientation again (about emotions and how to deal with them, we did an 'affirmation booklet' this time (an activity I used to do in London with the groups) and they really liked it. One of the kids even talked to me after school, saying "Miss? Thank you for the fun lesson!" (It was so cute!)
Oh, and we celebrated teachers' day! A bit late, but instead of Tuesday we had cake and sausage rolls and cookies on Wednesday! (Lucky for me, because I don't work on Tuesdays...) It was lovely.
Other than work things I decided to take my aunt and two of my cousins to China Town for lunch. We had lovely noodles, spring rolls and a fortune cookie. This weekend we might be going back to Magaliesberg for another hike... I really hope we will.
Summer is on its way and it seems like the rains might be with us soon. (It doesn't rain here in winter, during summer it rains every day in the afternoon.)
As for language progress... Some of the learners at Japari have asked me "Are you Scottish?" and I've noticed I'm starting to differentiate between 'just now' and 'now now' in the South African way (finally! I used to say "We're going just now" when I wanted to say "We're going RIGHT NOW" but right now is "now now", haha) as well as using 'Ag man' (which is, technically, Afrikaans and not English... but still).
On to yet another week... 9 1/2 left here!
This week (finally a normal week again) I did some research at Japari (I really started with my assignments now). I made a questionnaire for the learners about languages (covering everything from "What is your home language" to "Which language classes do you enjoy most") and another one for the teachers ("Should all children be raised (at least) bilingually?" and about the difficulties of teaching children with a different native language than English.) I also worked on parts of the general report I could already write about and caught up with my weekly journals. And I did some more teaching, I took the grade 4's for Life Orientation again (about emotions and how to deal with them, we did an 'affirmation booklet' this time (an activity I used to do in London with the groups) and they really liked it. One of the kids even talked to me after school, saying "Miss? Thank you for the fun lesson!" (It was so cute!)
Oh, and we celebrated teachers' day! A bit late, but instead of Tuesday we had cake and sausage rolls and cookies on Wednesday! (Lucky for me, because I don't work on Tuesdays...) It was lovely.
Other than work things I decided to take my aunt and two of my cousins to China Town for lunch. We had lovely noodles, spring rolls and a fortune cookie. This weekend we might be going back to Magaliesberg for another hike... I really hope we will.
Summer is on its way and it seems like the rains might be with us soon. (It doesn't rain here in winter, during summer it rains every day in the afternoon.)
As for language progress... Some of the learners at Japari have asked me "Are you Scottish?" and I've noticed I'm starting to differentiate between 'just now' and 'now now' in the South African way (finally! I used to say "We're going just now" when I wanted to say "We're going RIGHT NOW" but right now is "now now", haha) as well as using 'Ag man' (which is, technically, Afrikaans and not English... but still).
On to yet another week... 9 1/2 left here!
zondag 19 september 2010
Yom Kippur and another week gone by
12 weeks left, time is starting to move faster for me now!
Saturday was Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and praying for forgiveness for the Jewish people. As I'm not Jewish myself I fasted for only part of the day (Friday night until around 11 on Saturday) but I did stay away from coffee and I didn't eat as much as I normally would during the day. My aunt and uncle went to the synagogue, I decided to have a little reading marathon myself. Books I've finished since last updating my booklist:
- The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
- The Way of Shadows (Brent Weeks)
- Specials (Scott Westerfeld)
And a compilation of 3 short 'war stories for girls' (didn't have anything to read and my cousin had this book).
The Book Thief was amazing, and I can certainly recommend this to anyone. In fact, I'm hoping they'll make a movie out of it, because I'd love to see it.
I'm now reading the second book in the Night Angel trilogy (Brent Weeks) and "The Lightning Thief" (I have to confess I have this exciting affair with young adult novels - easy to read, lots of adventure... I love it!).
On Saturday night we visited my uncle's parents to break the fast. We had a wonderful meal of fried fish, different salads (pasta, rice, cabbage) and cakes, kichel (sweet crackers they usually eat with fish - I like them plain) and lemon meringue etc. etc. Very nice!
Oh and have some pictures of our Sukkah! The festival of Sukkot (plural of Sukkah) is coming up, it's a time when the Jewish people remember the time they spent in the desert before being allowed to enter the lands of Israel. You eat in the Sukkah (a hut with palm leafs - you have to be able to see the stars through the roof, but it also has to provide shade) and invite people over for meals... It lasts a week!
My aunt painted the scene
Completed:
On Thursday I had the best experience I've had so far. I went with my aunt to collect some money at a client and we chatted to this lady for about 5 minutes. After a short while my aunt decided to introduce me, saying "Oh, this is my niece from Holland!" and you know what the lady said?
"Oh really? Your English is amazing! I didn't hear any accent!" (I know that 'no accent' doesn't exist, but still!). I've heard all sorts of things "You're German aren't you?" (At Japari) and even "Are you Scottish?" (well... no!) but this is the first time that I've heard the 'no accent' comment so I'm insanely happy with that!
That said... I think that while I'm finally starting to get the hang of this bat/bet problem and my th's are starting to feel more natural to me... I still have a long way to go. The 'oo' in 'book' is still hard to get right...
When we're on language related things, could you explain "He had his daughter kidnapped." in two ways? I said this, meaning that 'He' had it happen to him (someone else kidnapped his daughter) my aunt keeps telling me I can't say it like that, because it would mean (and could ONLY mean) that he arranged to have his daughter kidnapped, himself. In my opinion this sentence isn't different from "He had his car stolen" (i.e. it happened to him) but... well, just double checking. I'd say in the kidnapping one it's pretty ambiguous who arranged what, if anything.
Back to South African life...
Summer is still a while away, but the weather has been improving. Yesterday I took a dive and did 21 lengths in our pool. The water is still a bit chilly, but once you're in it it's wonderful! I just need to swim more often, because after 21 lengths I had some trouble lifting myself out of the water at the deep end! Haha... Well, at least it's something that's nicer here than in the Netherlands. Maybe I'll swim again today, I think I should. The South African lifestyle is kind of lazy, because you have to drive everywhere... I need the swimming!
And finally... We managed to get our internet connection sorted out! I'm online using my own laptop (Sephiroth) at the moment and it's such a wonderful feeling to know that whenever I need it, or just want it, the internet is there for me. Even at a max of 376 kb/s. (But hey, we have a pool in our garden! Bet you you can't say that! Even with your super fast internet!) So while I'm waiting for my downloads to finish (at about 10-20 kb/s) I'll just have a cup of rooibos and take a swim.
Saturday was Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and praying for forgiveness for the Jewish people. As I'm not Jewish myself I fasted for only part of the day (Friday night until around 11 on Saturday) but I did stay away from coffee and I didn't eat as much as I normally would during the day. My aunt and uncle went to the synagogue, I decided to have a little reading marathon myself. Books I've finished since last updating my booklist:
- The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
- The Way of Shadows (Brent Weeks)
- Specials (Scott Westerfeld)
And a compilation of 3 short 'war stories for girls' (didn't have anything to read and my cousin had this book).
The Book Thief was amazing, and I can certainly recommend this to anyone. In fact, I'm hoping they'll make a movie out of it, because I'd love to see it.
I'm now reading the second book in the Night Angel trilogy (Brent Weeks) and "The Lightning Thief" (I have to confess I have this exciting affair with young adult novels - easy to read, lots of adventure... I love it!).
On Saturday night we visited my uncle's parents to break the fast. We had a wonderful meal of fried fish, different salads (pasta, rice, cabbage) and cakes, kichel (sweet crackers they usually eat with fish - I like them plain) and lemon meringue etc. etc. Very nice!
Oh and have some pictures of our Sukkah! The festival of Sukkot (plural of Sukkah) is coming up, it's a time when the Jewish people remember the time they spent in the desert before being allowed to enter the lands of Israel. You eat in the Sukkah (a hut with palm leafs - you have to be able to see the stars through the roof, but it also has to provide shade) and invite people over for meals... It lasts a week!
My aunt painted the scene
Completed:
On Thursday I had the best experience I've had so far. I went with my aunt to collect some money at a client and we chatted to this lady for about 5 minutes. After a short while my aunt decided to introduce me, saying "Oh, this is my niece from Holland!" and you know what the lady said?
"Oh really? Your English is amazing! I didn't hear any accent!" (I know that 'no accent' doesn't exist, but still!). I've heard all sorts of things "You're German aren't you?" (At Japari) and even "Are you Scottish?" (well... no!) but this is the first time that I've heard the 'no accent' comment so I'm insanely happy with that!
That said... I think that while I'm finally starting to get the hang of this bat/bet problem and my th's are starting to feel more natural to me... I still have a long way to go. The 'oo' in 'book' is still hard to get right...
When we're on language related things, could you explain "He had his daughter kidnapped." in two ways? I said this, meaning that 'He' had it happen to him (someone else kidnapped his daughter) my aunt keeps telling me I can't say it like that, because it would mean (and could ONLY mean) that he arranged to have his daughter kidnapped, himself. In my opinion this sentence isn't different from "He had his car stolen" (i.e. it happened to him) but... well, just double checking. I'd say in the kidnapping one it's pretty ambiguous who arranged what, if anything.
Back to South African life...
Summer is still a while away, but the weather has been improving. Yesterday I took a dive and did 21 lengths in our pool. The water is still a bit chilly, but once you're in it it's wonderful! I just need to swim more often, because after 21 lengths I had some trouble lifting myself out of the water at the deep end! Haha... Well, at least it's something that's nicer here than in the Netherlands. Maybe I'll swim again today, I think I should. The South African lifestyle is kind of lazy, because you have to drive everywhere... I need the swimming!
And finally... We managed to get our internet connection sorted out! I'm online using my own laptop (Sephiroth) at the moment and it's such a wonderful feeling to know that whenever I need it, or just want it, the internet is there for me. Even at a max of 376 kb/s. (But hey, we have a pool in our garden! Bet you you can't say that! Even with your super fast internet!) So while I'm waiting for my downloads to finish (at about 10-20 kb/s) I'll just have a cup of rooibos and take a swim.
vrijdag 16 juli 2010
Welcome ☆
This might just be the first post of many. In this blog I will try to create a collection of posts describing my experiences in Johannesburg, South Africa. I'm hoping to add pictures and short videos to my written entries to make it a bit more interesting for my readers. As this is my 'official' blog - first and foremost written to keep my teachers happy and classmates informed of my adventures (as well as accounting for how this escapade can be useful useful in more mundane ways (such as language development and exploring a whole new accent and culture)) - it might not always be as interesting to the casual reader. (And you might see some of these posts cross-posted to my livejournal, too.)
I'm sure this blog will be like my overall experience in South Africa. Both extremely engaging at times, as well as incredibly boring at other times. To anyone interested or courageous enough to attempt to follow my journey these coming months... Good luck. I'm convinced we'll need it.
The facts:
~*~Flying~*~ to a place far away from this tiny country: July 31.
-.-Going back home-.-: December 13.
☆★Where to?★☆: Highlands North, Johannesburg, South Africa.
○~To do what exactly?~○: Helping out at a local primary school, volunteering at a library (to earn myself some free reading, obviously.) and helping my cousins out with their homework. Possibly tutoring college students, too.
※Fun facts※: My family is Jewish, so part of my social life will happen at the local synagogue - hopefully a good way to get to know some people. I'll be postcrossing from South Africa - it's a much rarer country to receive cards from than the Netherlands, so I might make some people happy with some South African postcards. I'll try to join a local writers' group/reading group.
I'm sure this blog will be like my overall experience in South Africa. Both extremely engaging at times, as well as incredibly boring at other times. To anyone interested or courageous enough to attempt to follow my journey these coming months... Good luck. I'm convinced we'll need it.
The facts:
~*~Flying~*~ to a place far away from this tiny country: July 31.
-.-Going back home-.-: December 13.
☆★Where to?★☆: Highlands North, Johannesburg, South Africa.
○~To do what exactly?~○: Helping out at a local primary school, volunteering at a library (to earn myself some free reading, obviously.) and helping my cousins out with their homework. Possibly tutoring college students, too.
※Fun facts※: My family is Jewish, so part of my social life will happen at the local synagogue - hopefully a good way to get to know some people. I'll be postcrossing from South Africa - it's a much rarer country to receive cards from than the Netherlands, so I might make some people happy with some South African postcards. I'll try to join a local writers' group/reading group.
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