(no subject)
So, two days into officially working, and I can safely say this is different--and better--than ASL tutoring.
See, ASL had little interest, and also I wasn't getting paid. Ha. But seriously, our study groups had maaaaaybe one or two people at any given time, and often nobody showed up at all.
ESL, though ... I introduced myself to the classes yesterday and today and gave them my hours, and I've already had 6 or 7 people come to me today (only 1 yesterday). They seem to really WANT to learn, which I can understand; America is English-speaking, so not being able to speak and understand the most common language has to be frustrating. But they want my help, and I know I'll have people every day.
The only downside is I don't have an official break time, so I have to sneak food when nobody's in the lab (it's a no-food zone) or go stand in the hall and scarf down a granola bar. Otherwise I'll have to set aside enough time to legitimately eat, but I'd feel so bad if that was when someone needed help. A lot of the ESL students are in classes almost solidly from 9am-5pm, with short breaks in the middle, maybe an hour here or there at most. They've got reading classes, writing classes, listening classes, pronunciation classes ... and you know that if I scheduled an official break, that's when I'd be needed.
Oh, well. Six hours without a real meal isn't going to kill me. Heck, I'm already trying to cut back on the soda, too, so this might be somewhat healthy for me if I'm not picking at junk all day. I've been drinking lots of water, which is killing me in a few ways: I'm tired because my body's not used to running without so much caffeine and sugar, and OMG BATHROOM BREAKS.
I have to turn in my first time sheet tomorrow. Haha, three days of paycheck. But I'm making $13.47/hr, at 6 hours a day ... so yeah. It'll be a nice chunk of change for what really isn't hard work. I mean, yeah, it makes me feel kind of dumb when I can't explain how to turn a noun into a verb into an adjective into an adverb, but I'll get better at it.
And oh, man, yesterday was funny. This chick comes in, right, muttering into her hand. She's glaring at me, and she's obviously pissed. She keeps saying "filthy little tramp" and naming names, and something about "cheap motel rooms." And how she's better than that--her life doesn't begin and end in those cheap motel rooms. I gathered enough to finally realise her husband's been cheating on her with at least 15 different girls, and I think one of those incidents happened at a baby shower or wedding shower (she said she was "victimised" at one or the other--she couldn't remember, either). Keep in mind, this whole time she's glaring at me like I fucked her husband. Um, what? And then she got tired of staring at me and started glaring at this dude sitting next to her with his earbuds in. He looked SO UNCOMFORTABLE as she went on about those tramps.
She came back today, but she didn't say anything. It was almost a pity; she was interesting, if creepy and weird and uncomfortable.
Anyway, yeah. My life is kind of not awful. I'm so lucky I got a job!
Oh, and also, I don't speak Finnish (yet), but one of my dearest friends ever is doing a webcomic, and she's promised eventually to do it up in English because I'm too stupid to understand it as is. ;) Her husband is the artist, she's the writer. Go give her page views!
See, ASL had little interest, and also I wasn't getting paid. Ha. But seriously, our study groups had maaaaaybe one or two people at any given time, and often nobody showed up at all.
ESL, though ... I introduced myself to the classes yesterday and today and gave them my hours, and I've already had 6 or 7 people come to me today (only 1 yesterday). They seem to really WANT to learn, which I can understand; America is English-speaking, so not being able to speak and understand the most common language has to be frustrating. But they want my help, and I know I'll have people every day.
The only downside is I don't have an official break time, so I have to sneak food when nobody's in the lab (it's a no-food zone) or go stand in the hall and scarf down a granola bar. Otherwise I'll have to set aside enough time to legitimately eat, but I'd feel so bad if that was when someone needed help. A lot of the ESL students are in classes almost solidly from 9am-5pm, with short breaks in the middle, maybe an hour here or there at most. They've got reading classes, writing classes, listening classes, pronunciation classes ... and you know that if I scheduled an official break, that's when I'd be needed.
Oh, well. Six hours without a real meal isn't going to kill me. Heck, I'm already trying to cut back on the soda, too, so this might be somewhat healthy for me if I'm not picking at junk all day. I've been drinking lots of water, which is killing me in a few ways: I'm tired because my body's not used to running without so much caffeine and sugar, and OMG BATHROOM BREAKS.
I have to turn in my first time sheet tomorrow. Haha, three days of paycheck. But I'm making $13.47/hr, at 6 hours a day ... so yeah. It'll be a nice chunk of change for what really isn't hard work. I mean, yeah, it makes me feel kind of dumb when I can't explain how to turn a noun into a verb into an adjective into an adverb, but I'll get better at it.
And oh, man, yesterday was funny. This chick comes in, right, muttering into her hand. She's glaring at me, and she's obviously pissed. She keeps saying "filthy little tramp" and naming names, and something about "cheap motel rooms." And how she's better than that--her life doesn't begin and end in those cheap motel rooms. I gathered enough to finally realise her husband's been cheating on her with at least 15 different girls, and I think one of those incidents happened at a baby shower or wedding shower (she said she was "victimised" at one or the other--she couldn't remember, either). Keep in mind, this whole time she's glaring at me like I fucked her husband. Um, what? And then she got tired of staring at me and started glaring at this dude sitting next to her with his earbuds in. He looked SO UNCOMFORTABLE as she went on about those tramps.
She came back today, but she didn't say anything. It was almost a pity; she was interesting, if creepy and weird and uncomfortable.
Anyway, yeah. My life is kind of not awful. I'm so lucky I got a job!
Oh, and also, I don't speak Finnish (yet), but one of my dearest friends ever is doing a webcomic, and she's promised eventually to do it up in English because I'm too stupid to understand it as is. ;) Her husband is the artist, she's the writer. Go give her page views!