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I watched two videos last night, and both were not very uplifting. Today I posted some amazing news about Ryk Neethling shining in Australia, winning 5 events, and no matter what I did they posted with the text all over the place. A mess. So I have just deleted them.

I had a terrible sleep last night, just very poor quality. There were few highlights today, including inside my inbox. One positive is that I got my first boxload of books over to Corneli's apartment, so that is the first step done.

Corneli is not feeling completely healthy, so the news from the dentist today is not helping her feel any better. At least she knows what the deal is. To repair the crown she got in the UK, is going to cost her R2778.00. Apparently a gold crown is cheaper than a porcelain crown. It all just sounds like nonsense to me, so I hope she finds another place that makes more sense. But she is not feeling as positive as I'm sure she'd like, and I can understand why.

In my last class of the day I taught two adults, and one of them was yawning and basically...resistant...and at the end of the class he asked which teacher would be teaching the class next month. I told him it would be me, and asked whether he was happy with the class. "So so," he said.
It actually made me really angry. I've put in more than a reasonable effort, and I don't really appreciate his attitude when he does as little as he does. I think he feels bad because there are only two students, and tonight he really lost a lot of face to the younger guy. He just didn't know what was happening and the other guy did, and we were doing a simple exercise using opposites in terms of the words: too and enough.
For example: He was too lazy to mow the lawn.
He was not energetic enough to mow the lawn.

He just didn't get it. He seems to have this snooty attitude that we must study world news, but he can't even master the basics. It's either too hard, too easy, or not relevent enough to his personal life. He thinks his English is really good, and to his credit his vocabulary is OK (although he couldn't think what the opposite of lazy was), but he can't make simple sentences. And his English lacks logic. So I think he felt more uncomfortable tonight than usual. I think I am more agitated than usual because I am just so damn tired.

Neverthless I changed my basic approach to suit him, and now that doesn't seem to suit him either. I first taught according to my own interests (the philosophy is that what interests you, and what you're passionate about, you can engender in your students). I gave a few Powerpoint presentations(two of which he missed), about Korea and South Africa.
I spoke about the Bushmen, and wanted to make broad comparisons between modern life which we regard as normal, and simple, natural living. He didn't like that. The other guy seemed amused and then gradually he seemed to start warming to it.
I asked him what he did want to talk about and he said he wanted to talk about relationships, since one of his relatives recently died. So we did that.

I am not all that enthusiastic to commit myself to the lesson now, because you get a sort of sit-back-and-watch-the-tv-teacher-and-learn-english-magically-and-if-you-don't-then-criticise setup. From him anyway. I just get a sense that he's all about being fussy, please me, serve me, give me. At least the other student is on board, and usually responds quite well, quite positively to the lessons. He has a sense of humor, he laughs. Mr Gold Rimmed Glasses wants to learn English but he doesn't want to know his mistakes, even though he did ask me to correct them for him.

I have allowed this guy to talk and talk and I find I start to think about other things because I start to not know what he is actually saying. He sorts of skims over words, like a stone skimming over water, rather than actually saying them.

Example: You have to wash dishes carefully otherwise you might leave some dirt on them.
His version: You've to wash deesh fully othwise you ite leaf dirt tem.
I'm just illustrating the degree of difficulty for me in terms of allowing a long conversation, and then knowing how to respond when you're getting lost trying to attempt to just get what was actually said. So there it is. This is where I am having some difficulty.

Maybe he feels good about himself, and maybe it's important that he just feels confident hearing the sound of his own voice. Maybe that's the gift I am here to give him.
I'd like to be more interactive than that, otherwise I am just being manipulative. But letting him think his English is good, instead of helping him isn't really how I do English. But maybe I still need to do that more than I have.
When he talks it's like when someone is speaking and it sounds like another language, and then you realise later that it is actually English. So maybe I can listen more closely to him. For the most part, if he talks in short paragraphs, I understand him very well. That's why he's in the advanced class. But there are some areas where he is running before he has learnt to walk.

He is involved in Import/Export and we have looked at that quite closely. It is hard to get someone going when you start off asking, "So how was your weekend?" and the answer is, "Nothing special."
"Did you do your homework? Did you write about what happened during the weekend?"
"No."
He was very talkative when we spoke about our time in the military. We had three or for lessons just devoted to chatting, and there was a great feeling afterwards. Perhaps I need to look harder at another area that can provide that sort of feedback. Maybe a topic like My Wedding Day, or The Day My Son Was Born.

I had an idea to discuss Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People with them, since they are both businessmen. It may have the added bonus of making all of us, and some more than others, more effective for the class. And for something more fun, later in the month, I might also take my Korea Lonely Planet along and ask them about Places of Interest, in particular, good places to go skiing in Korea.

I'd also like to confront the student, in a subtle way. To basically ask him what he would like to do from now on, and then respond in a way to kind of let him know that so far he hasn't been happy with anything, hasn't really contributed, and the other guy has been, and this kind of fussyness is becoming a bit of a nuisance, a bit of a burden. Can he try to have a positive impact, can he do something to help, make some suggestions, speak when he has something to say.

I think part of the problem is he is comparing himself to the other guy, so I need to basically let him know that he's doing well, but that I'm not really prepared to be a chameleon if he is not going to be happy with anything I do, especially if the other guy seems to be doing okay. He must try to go with the flow a bit more. I probably need to talk to him without the other student being present, and also emphasise that he's doing well.

Being told by an adult student (and if I may say so, a so-so student) in your class that what you're doing is just so-so, at the end of a so-so day it's just so so and so, you know.