Church and Class

Written on 9/14/09

So this Sunday I went to church and I was so happy. If you remember, 2 weekends ago I met an America family that lives in the town where I’m training. They invited me their house for lunch and I met their 3 children. We had tortillas…YUM!!!! During our conversation it came out that they are Christians and so they invited me to church with them. The name of the Church is the International Christian Fellowship in Almaty. I had a great time. And to my surprised when I walked in, I saw 5 other Kaz 21 Trainees at church! I was so excited to know that there are other believers in my group. The service was good (although it didn’t top my pastor AR Bernard @ Christian Cultural Center). Everyone we met was very nice and welcoming. I will definitely visit again. After church the family took me a to delicious Chinese restaurant in Almaty. Then I went home to get ready for the upcoming week, which consisted of my 1st English class and English Club.

So English club was on Tuesday and it was 2 hours long. Our language group, which consists of 5 of us, ran the club. It turned out really well!! There were about 30 students so we split the class into 2 separate rooms with 3 of us in one room and 2 in the other. After the 1st hour we switched rooms. The students seemed to really enjoy our English activities. I’m so excited that it went well, and it gave me confidence for the next day, which was my first English class. 

I teach at the local college in my village (I will also be teaching at a college when I move to my permanent site) 

Sidebar: Colleges in Kazakhstan are very different from the US. In Kazakhstan you have colleges and Universities. Universities in Kazakhstan are the same as college/university in the US. However, college in Kazakhstan is sort of like a community college/training school in the US. Students can attend college in the 11th and 12th grad and then go onto University. But students can also do 11th – 12th grade in high school and then go to University. I tried asking about which track is more beneficial, but the answer I received was a bit confusing. It seems that if a student doesn’t want to take the entrance exams for University they will go through the college track in order to make themselves look better. But at the same time, you can just finish high school, take the exam, and not have to do any extra work. I’m still a little confused…but anyway…that’s the education system in a nutshell. 

I had to teach for 1.5 hours. The first 45 minutes was team-teaching with a local English teacher, and the other half was me solo teaching. Needless to say that I was very nervous. The students that I taught were first year English majors at the college. They aspire to be English teachers or translators. Most of them have never had an English class before. 

I met with the local teacher I would be teaching with a few days before my lesson to get an idea of where I should start and what I should cover, but a left a little confused. Anyway, I spoke with him again and it ended up working out. It was a really good class and the students seemed to enjoy it. I also got really good feedback during my review! Yay! Lets hope next week goes well. I’ll have to teach for 3 hours! Wish me luck!

Be Blessed