I am now an English teacher.

I never figured I would be teaching an English class. I never figured I would be teaching any kind of class. That would require getting in front of a class several times a week and speaking semi-extemporaneously for an hour at a time. Terrifying!

Well, I've been doing it for two weeks now. And I think I'm actually getting used to it.


My job is to stand in front of a class of about seven students and talk with them, and try to get them to talk. In English. The actual class size varies dramatically. I've had as many as 13 students, and as few as two. And it's hard to get them to talk! Most of the time it's like talking to a bunch of brick walls. I can ask a simple yes or no question, and get complete silence.

I'm trying to figure out how to deal with this. I figure one way is to point to people who haven't talked in a while and direct questions to them in particular. This tends to lead to long, uncomfortable silences -- but at least this way someone else is motivated to say something.


Above all, I've discovered that stage fright wears off remarkably fast. Who would have guessed?