Hotovo!

Life Long Learning

On June 12th I got to celebrate with my classmates that we completed 10 gruelling months of Czech Language study. There is a sense of accomplishment when you receive a piece of paper that certifies that you have completed something. Over the past ten months I have learned so much beyond proper grammar, noun declination or verb conjugation. I have learned what it is like to be a language learner. How our students feel being immersed in a foreign language all day. What it is like to see the teacher's frustration that their students are just not understanding and all seems hopeless; or that beaming face when they see you finally have it! 

I have been learning to take one small step at a time. In learning Czech there have been many steps made. Although I am far from being fluent I have taken great strides and I am at the level where I am no longer considered a beginner. However I tell people:
"Budu se učit česky celý život!"  = "I will be learning Czech for my whole life!"
One of my co-workers jokes that Czech will be the language we speak in heaven because it has 7 cases (the perfect number) and it takes an eternity to learn!

I finished out the course with a lovely ceremony with my classmates and received a certificate to recognise my learning achievement.

This is my teacher for the past year. She is holding the gift I painted for her of my favourite statue and square in Prague 

 

What is Next?

Currently I am back in Canada for the next 6 weeks to visit with friends and family and gearing up for the next school year. Praying still for my extension request of my CoC to be granted (see previous post for explanation). I will be returning to Prague on July 28th in faith that I will get to finish out the 2019/2020 school year before returning to Canada to complete my 6 month totalization requirements.

The granting of my extension request can take anywhere from 30-90 days so now we just wait and pray.

Praying for Teachers

We are still in desperate need of 2 certified elementary teachers a PE teacher and secondary science teacher. It is not too late! If you are interested or know someone who may be interested in serving overseas be sure to contact our school at teach@cisprague.org

"Flexibility is the Best Ability"

Praying for Moving Mountains

Be prepared for a really long story: I will highlight the key points in bold.

This week I had my world flipped on its head. It was one of those moments that makes you shake your head and state repeatedly that this can't be happening. I have been puzzling how to succinctly share this story as I am still trying to process through all the feelings and implications. So here we go...

First: A quick little lesson in expatriate life, laws, benefits, taxes and social security and something we call TOTALIZATION.

So in short when you relocate to work/serve in another country your employer applies for a certificate of coverage (CoC) which is valid for up to 5 years before you need to return to your home country. You can reapply for a new certificate of coverage after a certain amount of time being spent in your home country.

Now due to an unforeseen error of mass proportions there is no record of my CoC application being submitted to Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA). Therefore I am overdue on my 5 years totalization requirement and need to return to Canada for a minimum of 6 months to comply with the totalization rules. Indeed there has been great frustration and wailing and gnashing of teeth, as we were under the impression that this had been taken care of 3 years ago. However, we are imperfect human beings who make mistakes and somewhere down the line a giant mistake was made.

I have worked through my initial shock, dismay, and anger over the past few days recognising that it doesn't matter who made the mistake, or why it was made; but rather how do we fix it and prevent it from ever happening again.

What is all means!

Right now TeachBeyond is applying for an extension to the CRA for my CoC. They are requesting that I remain in the CZ until July 2020 to finish out the school year.
Our prayer is that this extension will be granted and quickly.

This is my mountain. Both the Canadian and Czech Government will need to be in agreement to grant the extension.

To be clear this has NOTHING to do with my VISA! My VISA has already been granted for another 2 years. This all has to do with rules about taxes, and benefits and social security.

Best Case Scenario: My extension to stay until July 2020 is granted and I can finish out the 2019-2020 school year

Worst Case Scenario: My extension is denied and I will have to spend the rest of 2019 in Canada

I will still be coming back to Canada for a visit 14 June to 28 July as planned. If my extension is denied I will need to push back my return to the CZ to be in January 2020.

CISP and TeachBeyond are right now working on contingency plans for each possible scenario.

Please pray with us for the Lord's hand to move mightily. That paperwork is correctly filed quickly, and the needed extension is granted.

Prague life in Winter

Winter Break Stay-cation

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.

From November to the New Year

Zooming to the End of the Year

November was a blur. There was much to learn, tests to conquer and there was some wailing and gnashing of teeth, as language learning continued at full steam. When people ask how Czech classes are going, I answer in all honesty they are going. One day at a time, one step at a time. I am discouraged often and wonder if I am getting anywhere. I sometimes feel like a baby elephant trying to run on ice, clumsy and out of my element and making enormous crashes. My Czech friends assure me I have made great progress though I can only see the big mountain  rising before me and rarely look behind to see how much I have already scaled.

Through it all I can relate to my students with more of a sense of empathy than I ever could before. Now I can understand why they would nod and smile and say yes when I asked if they understood, (even if they didn't) because if we nod and smile the teacher will leave us alone! My confidence in speaking is growing ever so slowly but I am bumbling along and I am encouraged by a great band of Czech speaking colleagues who laugh along with me in my mistakes. Like when I say I am going to cook my roommate for dinner (rather than saying I am going to cook dinner for my roommate). I think my biggest misspeak so far was when we were sharing what we like to do for hobbies and instead of saying I like to paint : "Mám ráda malovat." I said: "Mám ráda milovat." Directly translates I like to love though in Czech understanding it more has to do with love making, which is definitely not something you want to express as one of your hobbies.

Christmas break is finally here and it gives me a chance to catch up, post pictures and write letters. Newsletter should be out shortly and if you would like to receive my newsletter there is a place to sign up using the box in the left hand column of this page.

November zipped by -I got to play tourist this fall as Czech Republic is celebrating 100 years of being a country when it became Czechoslovakia in 1918. To celebrate a number of places have been open for free to the public.

For the first time I saw a memorial for Remembrance day in one of the squares. Děkujeme - We thank you.

School went right until December 21.
December 6th is Saint Mikuláš Day in the Czech Republic. So on the December 5th Czech tradition has the children visited by three characters: Saint Mikuláš (Saint Nicholas), andel (angel) and čert (devil like character from Czech fairytales). It is amusing to see how much traditional activities we do terrify children. We sit small children on Santa's lap where they scream in terror.  Here they have the kids sing songs to earn candy from the angel and not get taken away by the čert in his sack. So on December 5th my class was visited by Saint Mikuláš  and his merry band.

The good students got candy and the bad students got potatoes :)

Our last day we celebrated with treats and singing Christmas Carols in Czech.

To celebrate the start to the holidays I joined a group of friends on a road trip to Dresden in Germany to enjoy the Christmas markets. It poured the whole day so there weren't many crowds. We bundled up with our umbrellas and braved the wet cold for some good food and market fun. I didn't bring my camera this trip (because of the promise of rain) so all my pictures are thanks to my camera phone.

Celebrating Christmas

My flatmate went home for Christmas holidays but before she left we decked our halls. She had the brilliant idea that we should make an advent calendar by crocheting stockings. She bought the yarn and I got to work. Managed to get them all done by the end of the first week of December.
Since trees are quite pricey we decided to decorate our bookshelf instead with tree branches, lights and ornaments. The sentiment is there even though it is slightly nontraditional.

Living overseas you adopt people as family and so you have your overseas family. For Christmas Eve I partied it up with the Mobleys who are some of my adopted family. We feasted on finger food, exchanged white elephant gifts and  watched classic Christmas movies. Christmas day my church has a Christmas day service that I was leading worship for so we sang Christmas carols, lit the Christ candle and read through the Christmas story.

Traditional Czech Christmas Eve meal includes carp! We did not participate in this tradition this year.

Afterwards I joined another of my adopted family The Brandes for Russian Crepes called blini. Once again there are no pictures because more time was spent enjoying one another's company. For Christmas I was gifted with many small treats including a wonderful package of Tim Hortons coffee (little taste of home).

Boxing day we ventured out into tourist territory and took in the old town festivities.

For new years I plan to spend it playing games with friends and watching the city come ablaze from the safety of the Mobley's home.

Many thanks to all those who sent extra financial gifts over Christmas. I am blessed beyond measure by your generosity, love and care. School starts back on the 3rd, so the break is short but has been restful.

Looking forward to what the new year will bring!