Shhhh…. Quie(t)….
Since we haven’t had regular internet access, we haven’t really been able to share day-to-day stories about this Romanian life of ours. But here’s a funny one about David’s teaching experience.
So David had two weeks of practicum teaching. The first week was with high school students who were smart and pretty invested in learning English, even during the summer. Week two, he had rising 6th and 7th graders who weren’t so into the whole summer school thing. And there were over 30 of them! Monday was all right — David came home saying that the kids were going to be a handful but then what 6th and 7th graders aren’t. Tuesday, David came home very tired and beaten down — the kids were getting rowdy, talking over each other, texting on the cell phones and things were getting crazy. Wednesday, David decided the hammer would come down. No more funny business; this was school, afterall. So he started raising his voice. When the kids got loud, he said emphatically but not clearly, “QUIE(t), QUIE(t). . . ” The kids gave him strange surprised looks and some odd giggles, but David continued to reel the class in. “QUIE(t). . . QUIE(t)….” he continued. He was in charge and proud that he was getting things under control. The class continued with a great sentence-writing exercise where the students came up with classroom rules for the last few days of class.
After the class was over, a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), Joel who had observed his class, pulled David aside for Peace Corps feedback. Peace Corps is famous for de-briefing (we call it “pants-ing”) and feedback. Joel praised David’s style but cautioned him to enunciate when he said the word “quiet,” and to pay attention to hit the T at the end. Apparently, David, by saying “Quie” (without the T) was saying BALLs to his students. And not balls like soccer balls, but like testicles. So he was yelling “testicles,” at his class to get them to quiet down. Classic. No wonder he got crazy looks and giggles.
Gotta love the cultural exchange, huh??