Takin' It To The Streets

It's a long time coming, but come Monday, I will be an officially certified English as a Foreign Language Professor. Which signifies the initiation of several things...

With an EFL certificate begins a new found poverty. At the moment I am raking in figures in the double digits, almost paying off a half portion of my room, but conservatively limiting me to a 2 inch parameter around my bed. From which comes the theme for October, Takin it to the streets. But this prospect does not concern me as much today, due to the discovery that a local bar serves the famous Doner Kebaps all day, drinks and tapas in the evening, and breakfast the following morning. If one doesn't sleep, the absence of a bed is...trivial.

An EFL certificate also ensures the unavoidable acquisition of English as a Sense of Humor. Whether we're in class or at a city-wide fiesta, we English teachers inevitably find ourselves congratulating one another on excellent usage of present Perfect tense or challenging one another's usage of Future Continuous. To extend this unfortunate hobby into the realm of the hilarious can only mean one thing...EFL certification. I attribute it to delirium resulting from being overly infused with English grammar...but then again, I'm quite proud of that gerund which I just formulated.

Aside from the certificate, I have begun to glean some teaching experience. So far I can summarize my attempts as artful practices of aversion. While I thought that teaching my native tongue would be the easiest thing to start off with, I am finding in fact that Mama was right...those who can do can't teach. But, I will not be intimidated by my surprising lack of grammar knowledge and explanatory skills...instead I have discovered the universally useful line of "We'll look at that in the next class."

As this next week begins, I will make an effort not to take it to the streets, since I happen to like my living situation, and look for yet more employment.

All of this and I have forgotten that I still have yet to take my test for certification...but nothing...a mere formality.