Lessons

I had four lessons with this 12 year-old boy Nikodim, and then his Mom cancelled them because it was "too hard for him."  That little stinker.  It wasn't too hard for him!  He surprised me with his speaking ability for his age. He just didn't ever want to do any real work.  He never tried to learn the new words I attempted to teach him, even though they were mostly fun words.  I even designed an entire lesson around a Top Gear video for him, but he just didn't want to study.  He forgot to bring his books with him to the last lesson we had.  So, for an hour and a half we talked.  I tried to get him to formulate the present perfect tense, but he wasn't having any of that.  I found out that he's a Mac person, and that he is particularly biased toward the Mariinsky theater over the Bolshoi.  I asked him why, and he got all secretive and told me he'd tell me next lesson.  Now I'll never know!  He told me that October 10 was the "Day of Secrets" in Russia.  I asked him what happens on that day and he said he didn't know.
I have a new student today, in about an hour.  All I know is that her name is Maria and she's about an intermediate level.  And she wants to have three lessons a week, an hour and a half each.  I don't have any materials for her, so how am I going to entertain her for so long?  I hope she mostly just wants to talk.  I love getting paid for doing next to nothing.

I think teaching has made me much better at making conversation.  It’s been weird for me, a person who prefers to remain silent and let others guide conversations, to have to lead them.  I have to listen carefully to everything my students say and think up responses and/or probing questions on the spot.  Some of you may be thinking that this is what making conversation means, how does everyone not just do this automatically?  I think I’ve always been more focused on worrying about what I’m going to say next than listening to what the other person is saying.  I thought I was just doomed to make bad conversation forever, but apparently it gets better with practice.  I learned the theory of good conversation in Personality Assessment last semester, but I didn’t get enough practice in that class to allow me to improve the practical aspect.  Now, it’s my job to talk and to get people to talk, and I can do it!  This is actually great practice for a clinical psych job, if I decide to do that.  Maybe I should try to get to the bottom of Mikhail’s hatred of Russia, help him be content with his own life.  Do you think he’ll notice if the topics of our classes are suddenly all focused on his past rather than on current events?  He could be my case study, and I could write a thesis for grad school. Teehee.