On the ups and downs of teaching adults

I was dreading my intensive course. Ever since November I was told I would be having another intensive, most likely the same group that showed a mild distaste for the Cambridge methods. I wasn't overly thrilled by the prospect.

Fortunately it has transpired that I wouldn't be given the public humiliation of teaching students that neither like me or respect me. I was given a higher level, and that was that.

Something else that wasn't filling me with joy was the late nights, 8 'til 10pm on Mondays and Fridays, meaning later nights and correspondingly later mornings. When the day came I was mildly nervous. A room full of adults waiting for me. In retrospective terms my nervousness is incomparable to the first few months of teaching. The downfall of any teacher is a loss of confidence, as soon as you show it you are a goner. I'm not a goner so I do no such thing.

Midway through my first lesson with the new group I realise that my assumption that they would all be working professionals, and they'd be interested in learning more business type English was spot on. I teach an Accenture high flying, over worked mid twenty girl, a chemical analyst for a pharmaceutical firm, a marketing manager for a pharmaceutical, a marketing dirctor of a company that supplies the pharmaceuticals and a business woman who didn't speak a great deal about her role. Either way, they were happy and so was I.

I quite like being around people that want to learn. It makes a change from dealing with ungrateful teenagers, not that they all are, that on the whole waste their parents money and make me feel as if I am wasting my time and more importantly, my energy. * Note that there are exceptions to this in different degrees, however 40 to 50% couldn't give a fogo.

I like the class, though notice immediately the striking disparity between the levels of some of the students. I hope that this will not cause problems. I feel among the impatient to press on, a symptom of a desire to learn, means there may be some kind of intolerance of slower learners. The reason I know this is a distinct possibility is because, in my own tediously slow lessons, I am the student wishing to press on.

I wish myself luck.