ohb

"...the room just filled up with mosquitos, they heard that my body was free.

I've been listening to Leonard Cohen a lot lately and Mary, I can now totally understand your anger when Ais, lost your c.d.....
Well, another mixed day down in irkutsk, I had to go into work today, supposedly to sign a contract, but I didn't. ABC is a bit of a strange one, if it were a film I think David Lynch would direct it. Sometimes it seems relatively transparent and you think you know more or less where you stand, other times it's like a toddler learning to walk and more often than not falling on its ass. The school was started by my boss Serge twelve years ago. He's sound, though a bit complicated, and not too hard on the eyes either but that doesn't enter into this. Anyway he apparently spent some time in the States, came back and started this school. Though from what i've heard he's an ardent communist, his sister is apparently head of the communist party in Moscow, private language school and communist ideals don't really seem to sit too well in my view though. As far as I can gather it was a pretty small operation until fairly recently. I think they started the camp about five years ago and that had become the primary focus, though at the moment the attention has flitted back to the school again. Anyway Igor is now 'head teacher' of sorts. I encountered him first at the camp, there is a bit of a pattern of employing people based on their looks, though native speakers apparently by-pass this, hence my position. The 'face test' is yet another story.
So Igor me last night, he is not the Igor of flowers fame, though I nearly had a minor heart attack last night when I answered my phone to hear the words, 'hi Orlagh, it's Igor" but he is now trying to reorganise operations in the school. This really needs to be done, but to be honest I don't know if he's the right person. He reminds me a lot of myself, he has some good suggestions and ideas, but either forgets about them again or is too busy thinking of the next one to actually implement or affect the changes in any way. So the latest idea is to distribute the groups amongst three different teachers, one of whom (Russian) will teach grammar primarily, one of whom (Russian) will teach them using videos and dvds, and the third (native speaker) will be responsible for speaking and conversational abilities. Actually writing that, it sounds good in theory, but I don't know if it was just a natural reaction to change or what, but I felt compelled to reject it today. I suppose in a way, I felt that I was being disregarded as a teacher and the fact that I was a native speaker now somehow embodies my teaching abilities. I don't know maybe it'll work out. So anyway Igor was like will you sign the contract, its in Russian, he knew that I wouldn't sign anything I hadn't read first. I really like Igor, he is good craic and more importantly he likes to argue and we've had a few decent arguments, mostly about teaching methods. I understand totally where he's coming from but I usually feel the need to play Devil's Advocate, or just argue with him for the sake of it. But I definitely do have a problem with some of his teaching methods but within the Russian context they do make sense. For instance, he maintains that elementary learners should always have a Russian teacher in order to grasp the basics before they are exposed to native speakers. I understand this and can see the benefits, but it does totally go against the idea of the communicative approach and the idea of immersion in a language. But it means they get results and Natasha 'queen of elementary' and Igor's ex takes care of them, literally, ejecting the students she feels aren't up to scratch. There are many tales of Natasha, they will come in time, suffice to say, she knows what she wants and will step on anyone to get it, she can be nice when she feels like it or when there's something in it for her.

posted by orlagh @ 2:37 am