Since my breaks have been short I have been doing stay-cation excursions, instead of travelling, when I haven't had classes. During Christmas break I explored the newly opened National Museum. The National Museum closed for renovations the first year I moved here and has been closed from 2011 - 2018. It was only supposed to be closed for 5 years but due to a fire there was a set back in re-opening. The exhibits it contains aren't nearly as impressive as the interior of the building itself and that is what I went to see. Since the Czech and Slovakian Republics were celebrating their 100th year as a country entry was free.
Let is Snow!
Snow is not common in Prague and we get it usually in January or February for about a week and at most it is only a couple centimetres. This winter we got a good 10 centimetres for about 2 weeks. So when one has semester break they play tourist and take pictures of the winter wonderland. Snowmen pop up all over the parks when we have a snow; so on a day of no classes and bright sunshine I went snowman hunting.
Language Learning is Humbling at Heart
Learning a new language has to be one of the hardest challenges I have faced in my life thus far. It is frustrating, exhausting, enlightening and oh so humbling. Everyday I gain more appreciation for our students who come into our school knowing very little to no English and who walk out reading novels and writing essays. In the elementary we give grades based on how students are meeting expectations. Are they exceeding, meeting, approaching expectations or do they need improvement. I assure parents who have children who are English language learners that their N for needs improvement on their report card just means they need more help and aren't quite able to achieve things on their own yet. They just need more time... they will get there! You can put in all the effort but sometimes we just need a little more time.
So now to my humbling experience in learning Czech, I am doing well at reading and writing and my listening is okay but my speaking needs a lot of work. The end of the first semester comes with a placement speaking test which assess if we are ready to move on to the next level. Since I was labelled a false beginner I was put in an A1/A2 class that zoomed through level one and was testing through level 2. I passed the written A2 test no problem but my abilities in speaking were not enough to carry me on to B1. Hearing the news that I didn't pass onto B1, and would be doing A2 again, at first was a big blow. It was disheartening and since I have failed very few things in my life it was one of those moments that made me question my own intelligence and if I have gotten anywhere in this language learning thing.
Then I was reminded of my students, the tears of frustration I had witnessed when they weren't getting it and when failure was all they could see. I remind them that they have made progress in this uphill climb and they will get there. They are learning everyday and we learn so much more from our mistakes. Taking A2 has been a blessing, the pace is now something I can handle and since not everything is new I am understanding the things I didn't understand before.
I have a great teacher who introduced me to her sister-in-law who I meet with twice a week for conversation. Her English is a little better than my Czech, but not by much so we limp through conversation with dictionaries in hand. We have many laughs at the joys of pronunciation and repeating the same word over and over until I get it right. People overhearing our conversation must puzzle at why is this girl saying "single" over and over. The word svobodná with correct diction is a mouthful not to mention when you are used to saying your "o" one way and you have to change your way of speaking just makes it all the more fun. My confidence which was completely shattered at one point is slowly being built back up. My program is called Czech step by step and it is truly one little step at a time.
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