My new job!

Finally, after half a year of waiting, I've finally started working in my friend Manu's academy, Academia Indalestudios.

Now, you're going to ask, what on earth is an Academy?...and no, "sports and outdoors" is not the correct answer. Here in Spain, everybody is crazy for a little thing called clases particulares which is basically tutoring for the classes you're taking at school. They range from regular old math, science, and reading classes for little ones, all the way up to extremely complicated engineering classes for university students. There are private tutors that go from house to house to tutor (as I did last year) or there are academies. Obviously all academies don't offer the possibilities for all these complicated classes, but if  a class exists, it's got a corresponding clase particular.

In any case, these academies also do other things. Depending on the academy, you might find computer skills, photography, or even cooking classes.

Now to explain the other part. The other thing that people in Spain are crazy for is getting títulos. Within the European Union, they've intended to make education uniform so that if, for example, you get your degree in Spain you can go work in Germany and it'll have the same value. As a result, they've had to put in place certain requirements. In terms of defining language proficiency, which is obviously an important aspect of finding a job in a foreign country, they've created a ranking system. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), which I have previously explained in the explanation of my Spanish class, goes:

A1 Breakthrough or beginner

A2 Waystage or elementary

B1 Threshold or intermediate

B2 Vantage or upper intermediate

C1 Effective Operational Proficiency or advanced

C2 Mastery or proficiency

As these titles, especially those for English, are important for finding jobs, everybody is trying to pass the exams. Cambridge University is the entity that administers the most widely accepted English proficiency exam. Indalestudios as well as many other academies offer prep classes for these exams. I have been contracted to teach the prep classes for the speaking and listening sections of the B1 and B2 exams.

I teach 3 afternoons a week, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for an hour and a half each day. After a year and a half of being super unstimulated by my "teaching" (aka not really teaching anything except to the 1st and 2nd graders) activities at school, my excitement about teaching has been revived! I've rediscovered that it's actually fun to teach when your students are motivated and want to learn. Plus, it helps that they're all my age or older and have at least some previous knowledge of English.

My B2 class is definitely my favorite as it's mostly made up of people that I knew previously...they work in the academy. They all have pretty good levels of English and we're able to discuss some complicated issues. This past Thursday, the theme of the class was consumerism and after doing some related listening exercises, they were able to discuss and debate some fairly complex stuff. I was really surprised by how well it went. I still need to get a couple of them to stop being so shy, but overall it's really enjoyable! It is, however, quite a bit more work than I anticipated to find good quality material to work with and to structure the class well. I think after a few more weeks, I'll get the hang of it and things will get easier.