Second day at the Academy

Today I had my second day at the Academy. I had to give a presentation to the other teachers on American TOEFL methods and practices, which I was a bit apprehensive about, but I used some of the notes I took from when I was in DC. I introduced myself again, and then talked about some of the practices Americans use in determining how students learn. Then I spoke about different activities using original and primary sources- such as songs, newspapers, movies, etc. I gave the teachers some other websites I had heard of, and then showed them the books I received in DC. It was a little odd giving a talk on American teaching practices to a group of teachers (all of whom are at least older than me and most of them are older by a lot). I was a little nervous about coming off that I was talking down to them, but I had to keep reminding myself that the head of the department asked me to do it. They wrote stuff down that I talked about (!!!) and seemed to like some of my ideas about using primary sources from America, especially when I gave more details on how to actually do it. I also interjected a lot of my personal experiences and opinions into it, saying what I thought worked and when I had used it.
They liked the books I gave them and asked if they could hold onto them for a while, which I said was fine. Then we had a ‘beginning of the semester’ lunch with tea, sandwiches and cake. Sometimes they would ask me questions or talk to me but a lot of the time they spoke in Russian about various things. I was able to follow some of the conversation about driving and traffic, which was good. I’m not sure what else they were talking about. At one point they just turned to me and said (again) “are you married?” to which I again responded, “no”. Regardless, one woman said to me “I wish you many children!” I smiled and thanked her while internally thinking “that is so not on my agenda right now”.

I’m going back on Friday to lead my first discussion group with the actual teachers at the Academy. I’m going to basically have three groups (or this is what I’ve discerned so far). One group is going to be teachers at the Academy who want to improve their English. The other two are going to be groups of about 15 students each. They have to figure out which students are going to be in my group though, since a lot of people will want to be in my discussion club since I’m a native speaker. I think they're going to be picking the more important students, or the ones who will actually need English in their line of work. That’s why I don’t really have to do much for this first week since classes are just starting tomorrow and they want to get a lot of things organized. Next week I will at least have the teacher discussion group. I’m actually pretty excited for the discussion group- we’re going to be talking about U.S. and Azeri traditions and holidays and I’m really interested in hear what the Azeribaijanis have to say.

So after our lunch party was over, on cue everyone left. I’ve noticed this a couple times before, for example at the birthday celebration. It’s as if everyone knows that it’s time to go (even though no one says it) and all of a sudden everyone is gone and there are two people standing, including yourself. All of a sudden almost everyone was gone, and then one of the teachers said she would drive me home, so five of us piled into her car. On this car ride home I got almost all of the questions that are generally taboo in America. (By the way, I asked all the women their names and they just laughed at me and said I would never remember them since they were so difficult. They were right. I’m determined to learn but I think it’s going to have to be one name a day. So I really have no way to distinguish between any of these women at this point.) The woman driving me home asked me how old I am, and then told me about her 20 year-old daughter who’s been married for two years and already has a baby girl. I guess I’m an old hag. Then they started asking me about how many siblings I had and when I said I was an only child I think they were in a mild state of shock (sorry, Mom.) They thought my family was here in Azerbaijan with me and kept asking how I could be so far from my family. I told them it was hard but my university was pretty far away too. All of these are quite obviously big cultural differences.

They asked me a lot of other questions too- about Baku and Boston, which one I liked better. I told them that Baku is really nice and very friendly but Boston is where my family is. They accepted that. They wanted to know what I liked about Baku, how I was feeling about it, what I’ve been doing, etc. When I told them that I had spent some time in Russia they started declaring that Russians were unattractive and that Baku was far better, and of course I agreed. Then they started asking me if I thought the women in Baku were gorgeous, and I replied of course, they’re very beautiful, and then they asked my opinion of the men, I said oh yes, the men here are very attractive. Then they started in on questions about my apartment and how much it cost. I tried to avoid giving them a direct number at first and I said it was pretty average, not inexpensive but not expensive, but they kept throwing out numbers so I finally told them I pay about $400 a month. They started gasping at this and saying how expensive it was and then I quickly realized the language barrier made them think I was paying $4,000 a month. I would have gasped too. Once they understood it was 4-0-0, they calmed down and said that was very reasonable. I was nervous about this since I didn’t want them to start comparing salary and ways of life but they seemed to think 400 was normal for someone like me, so it worked out. I’m sure the salary questions would have come next but it was time for me to get out of the car. I can only imagine what questions they will come up with next.

By the way, it was a woman who drove me home, and we had a bit of a discussion about driving. She just got her license 6 months ago and she said she was still very nervous driving but it’s just so convenient to have a car. I noticed a lot of women (either 4 or 5) driving yesterday as well, maybe they drive more on the weekends when they have access to a car? The other woman in the car with us doesn’t have a license but she also wants to get hers. I thought it was very interesting. I tried to ask how old you had to be to get your license in Azerbaijan but she kept thinking I was asking her how old the car was and then I felt kind of like an idiot since she got a little defensive about the car (which was a Mercedes anyway.)

It seemed like an overall successful day. I need to get stuff coordinated with the museum but I’m still not quite sure what my actual schedule is going to look like. I’m hoping that by Friday or by Monday of next week I will know exactly when I will be at the Academy and then I can try to coordinate it with the museum. Since I seem to have some free time, I’m going to try to write an application for this internship tonight. Hopefully I get around to it.

It’s almost 5 o’clock and the sweet sound of continuous honking has started up. Ahh, city noise.