This week was my first week teaching in Austria! I am working in two schools, and so will do alternate weeks in each. On Monday, I started at the first one, which is a little outside of Linz city centre. In order to get there, I have a twenty minute walk/10 minute tram journey, followed by a ten minute bus journey. It's not too bad, but the problem is, Austrian schools start at 7.45am!!!! So if I'm teaching first thing, it's a very early start for me!
On Monday I had a little bit of confusion with buses, because apparently the bus doesn't go from the logical side of the road...it goes from a lay-by on the other side of the road, does a U-turn and then heads out of the city - I mean, who wouldn't have guessed that?! Anyway, that meant I'd missed the bus, but luckily I was organised and had gone for an earlier bus, so the next one would still get me in on time. And it would have, if I hadn't then missed my stop...So I eventually arrived at the school, rather flustered, but luckily I met my contact teacher in the car park and she didn't seem to mind at all! Our stereotype of the Austrians being very punctual isn't quite as accurate as I thought - they seem to be very laid back, at least at this school!
This week has involved taking in a lot of information in a short amount of time. Luckily one of the year groups was away, which meant I had less lessons to teach and more time to try and figure out what I was supposed to do! The lesson I've been mainly doing this week has involved introducing myself and where I am from, playing a couple of games, and then discussing stereotypes of Austria and England, which is always good for getting them talking. The students seem to be interested in what I have to say, and are all really well behaved, which makes me feel a lot more comfortable.
I am mainly working with pupils between the ages of 15 and 18 in this school, and I was amazed by the level of their English - they are pretty much fluent! I particularly enjoyed working with the oldest year, as it was just a normal conversation really, and they even tried to teach me some of the Upper Austrian dialect. Each time they asked me to repeat something, they would end up bursting into hysterical laughter - I'm guessing I wasn't quite doing it right! I have to say, I am finding the dialect very hard to understand - hopefully by the end of the year I'll have made some progress.
The teachers at the school have all been so welcoming and friendly. The English teachers like to practise their English with me, and I tend to speak to all the other teachers in German - apart from one French teacher, who speaks to me in a mixture of German, French, and English song lyrics (she doesn't speak much English but has memorised song lyrics - it makes for an interesting conversation!). They've all been happy to answer my questions, show me around or help me with anything I'm worried about, especially my contact teacher, who I've been sending a lot of emails with questions about bank accounts and lessons and general life in Austria!
On Wednesday I had a day off, and I spent the day setting up an Austrian bank account (I did this completely in German, I'm very proud of myself) and I also popped in to my second school, as at this point I'd heard nothing from them, and had no idea when to come in on Monday to start work. The receptionist was very helpful and gave me a bit of information, and so I am coming in at 7.45am with the hope that I will then be given a timetable and be told what I'm doing! We shall see :)
On Saturday I had some friends from the English TA training week over. I showed one of them around Linz during the day - we visited the many churches and cathedrals that Linz has to offer and did a lot of the tourist attractions. Then, after chasing each other around Linz for about an hour because none of us could get in touch with the others, meaning things just got very confused, we had a lovely evening eating pizza and watching a film - it was needed after a long week for all of us! And then today (Sunday) we went to watch the qualifiers of a professional tennis tournament held in Linz. We cheered on our fellow Brit Johanna Konta, and watched some great tennis - we're now thinking about going back next weekend to watch the quarter final or even the final :)
It has taken me quite a while to write this, as Niki (the cat) is begging for my attention, and likes to sprawl out over the keyboard in the hope I'll stop typing and just play with her. I am loving having a cat around the house - she's great company, even is she can have some attitude on her sometimes ;)
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| "Please play with me????" |
Thanks for reading!
Laura :)
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