My First Lasts

I’m starting to experience my first “lasts.” Last week I started teaching my last semester here. It’s my last school dance this weekend. It was my last visit to the visa office in Bielsko last Friday (well, keep your fingers crossed). The “lasts” are starting.

My last day in Poland is Wednesday, June 1. I’m ending the school year early to fly home to attend my sisters’ high school/college graduations, milestones that I wouldn’t miss for the world. (Thanks to my school directors for understanding how important it was to me to get to attend these events and letting me finish the school year early. And thanks to all the teachers who are covering my classes during the crazy last days of school when teenagers have “it’s-almost-summer-vacation-why-should-we-have-to-learn-anything” syndrome.)

This morning I finished writing my master semester calendar and the winter/spring syllabi for all of my classes. And, wow, June 1 is approaching fast.

If you know me well, you know that I’m a “research reader.” I like to read to prepare myself for change, and on the plane back to Cieszyn from Christmas I started my “re-entry” reading.

I loved Craig Storti’s works on living abroad (I read them before arriving in August 2009) and so I bought his book about re-entry – “The Art of Coming Home” – over Christmas break.

Here’s his advice that I’m trying to follow when planning my last months here:

“Try to orchestrate a smooth departure. ‘Goodbyes are important,’ Victor Hunter has written. ‘Without a meaningful good-bye, an effective closure, there cannot be a creative hello, a hopeful commencement’ (1986, 179). Start planning your leave-taking many months ahead. Make a list of the people you want to be sure to say good-bye to and arrange for that to happen in due course. Decide what places you want to visit before you leave and make those arrangements, and buy those items you’ve always wanted but put off getting. In general identify personal and professional loose ends and tie them up. Coming home is burdensome enough; don’t make it worse by leaving badly” (37).

Now I know “orchestrate” is a bit of an unrealistic goal. Will my departure feel “smooth?” Probably not. I can’t plan a “perfect exit,” but I can think about what’s important to me before I leave. I’ve rushed (or had to rush) transitions in the past, and I don’t want to do that this year.

Most importantly, I need adequate time to thank everyone in my life here and everyone who helped me get here. You don’t stay for a second year because of anything except the people – because you have people who support you here (Poland) and people who support you at home (Chicago).

One of my friends asked me last week if I’d thought about my “exit strategy” yet and that conversation started me thinking. Perhaps it's a little premature to think about the end of my service here - I know it's only mid-January. But time flies here and I don't want June to sneak up on me. Here are my initial thoughts:

(Thanks for listening, readers. It’s helpful for me to begin to process this information and the reality that it’s my last semester here.)

Proposed Exit Strategy:

Here are the facts:

I teach all of my students, in Cieszyn and Český Těšín, from preschoolers to teenagers to grandmothers, once a week. With all the spring holidays in April and May (and a winter break at the end of January too), I have only 14 lessons left with my students before June 1. Only 14!

Every week I teach 14 groups of students at the high school/junior high, 3 extra Matura preparation classes, 2 preschool/kindergarten classes, 1 elementary school student, 1 German teacher, 2 business English classes, and 5 adult conversation classes.

It’s a lot of students to say goodbye to and I’ve decided to start saying goodbye at the end of April to give myself 3 weeks to say goodbye (the 1^st week of May is a holiday). I’ll teach all of my school classes (preschool – high school) until June 1, of course, and say goodbye to those students last, but I’m planning to start saying goodbye to my extra, outside of school lessons at the end of April. I know that saying goodbye to everyone my last week (or even my last two weeks) would feel incredibly overwhelming and I want to have time to thank every one of my students. I’ve decided that 3 weeks is the magic number and when I need to start saying goodbye to my students.

And I don’t only want to thank my students. I want to thank all the people who have supported me over the past two years...

1. The directors at my 3 schools and all of the amazing school office assistants

2. The other teachers at my schools (especially the other English teachers)

3. My friends here in Poland and the Czech Republic

4. Members of the ELCA’s Global Mission staff

5. My congregation, St. Luke’s

6. My family and friends in Chicago / the U.S.

I also want to / need to...

1. Submit my second semester grades for my students and submit end of the year paperwork.

2. Organize the teaching materials and resources I’ve gathered together over the past two years for the next teacher, including a packet of practice Matura exams for the person who teaches the seniors next year.

3. Write a “Cieszyn Guidebook” for the next person to teach here. It’ll include maps of the town, a list of stores, important telephone numbers, how to get to and from the nearest airports, useful websites, and a mini-guide that explains all the quirks of my apartment and its appliances.

4. Leave my apartment sparkling clean for the next volunteer.

5. Either close or transfer (to another American teacher) my bank/cell phone/Internet accounts and contracts.

And items on my personal “To Do” list:

1. Say goodbye to my Cieszyn favorites. My favorite hikes/trails, favorite tea spots, people at my favorite vegetable and fruit stands, etc.

2. Act like a tourist (ignore everyone’s stares) and photograph all of the images that were my “life landscapes” for two years. The Market Square, the Post Office, the bakery. The walk to my schools, the bus station, etc.

3. And do a few other “silly” items including...finally learning how to tie a scarf the way they do here, learn how to make Polish Easter eggs, eat one more slice of my favorite Polish cheesecake, go to the market the minute it opens on my last Saturday morning here (my favorite time to go), etc.

Of course, there’s also the “re-entry” part I need to think about. What happens after I depart when I get back to Chicago? What am I “re-entering” in June? But for right now - at least today - I’m happy to focus on first and foremost working toward a meaningful goodbye.

Thanks for listening, readers!

Little Peter Pans

Happy 2011! Yikes! I haven’t posted since Thanksgiving. Here are my Poland December highlights (Chicago December highlights to follow in a later post):

Preschool/Kindergarten English Lessons

You might remember me saying that this year I’m teaching one preschool class and one kindergarten class in the Czech Republic on Mondays. Here’s an update about our lessons. (Sorry, I can't post any photographs. Teachers aren’t allowed to photograph the students at this school.)

3-year-olds: Their curiosity and desire to learn new English words is wonderfully insatiable. I teach them 3-4 new words every week, but they’re always asking me how to say different words in English that I haven’t taught them yet. For example, during one lesson in December when we learned “red,” “blue,” “yellow,” and “green,” one of my students pointed to a purple pillow and asked me, “What color is it [in English]?” I said, “purple” and he said “No!” and laughed and laughed and laughed. He didn’t believe me! He thought I was saying a pretend word. When his mom picked him up, he told her that, “Sarah is very, very silly and makes me laugh.” Luckily, 99.9% of the time, they believe me when I teach them a new word.

Also, now that it’s freezing outside and almost always snowing, my 3-year-olds arrive to our lesson all bundled up like the little brother in “A Christmas Story”. I call them my little “Peter Pans” because they only wear tights (no pants/trousers) under their snow pants (both the girls and the boys) and run around in the lesson only wearing their tights and t-shirts.

5/6-year-olds: I’m always laughing during our lessons because they are the most angelic, mischievous kindergarteners I’ve ever met. What’s amazing is that we’ve settled into a great routine and I never feel like we have difficulties communicating. Sometimes I say they communicate with “caveman sounds” – little grunts or noises that mean, “Sarah, my green colored pencil needs to be sharpened,” or “Where did the cat puppet go?” We have a “Hello” song we sing at the beginning of the lesson and a “Goodbye” song for the end. Whenever I try to start singing the “Goodbye” song, they say, “No! No goodbye!” And they give the best hugs when their moms and dads pick them up. And they also frequently convince me to give them two “reward stickers” at the end of the lesson instead of one.

Our favorite word-learning games:

1. We have picture flashcards for all our new words because, of course, they can’t read! They love it when – after we’ve practiced the new words for one or two lessons – I point to a flashcard and confidently say the wrong word. (For example, I point to “Daddy” but say “Sister”.) They love correcting me.

2. One day, I hid our 6 new flashcards around the classroom and sang a silly little “let’s all look for (fill in one of the new vocabulary words)” song. Now it’s a staple activity and sometimes they’ll start singing the song to tell me that they want to play the game. We hide all of the flashcards in the room and then I say what word to look for. Sometimes I let them hide the flashcards although I learned the hard way that you MUST pay very close attention if you let them hide the cards. Turn your back for one minute and you’re in trouble. Try convincing a mischievous 5-year-old to tell you where he hid his card after you and the other students have searched unsuccessfully for 3 minutes.

Mini-Lawrence Reunion

It was a Lawrence Class of 2009 mini-reunion when Vanessa visited for a weekend! She’s teaching English in Austria this year and traveled up to Cieszyn the first weekend of December. On Saturday, we traveled to the picturesque village of Štramberk in the Czech Republic and on Sunday we went to Krakow for the Christmas market and nativity scene competition. Here's a photograph of Štramberk and I love this photograph of Vanessa because not only is she wearing her Green Bay Packer hat, but she’s also sitting on my favorite train that I call “Mister Rogers’ trolley” because it only has one car and it’s red.

What I loved best about her visit was the opportunity to talk with someone who’s also teaching English in Central Europe and all the time we had to share our experiences with someone who is in the same (or at least a very similar) boat. I loved talking with Vanessa about European school systems, Central Europe’s obsession with asking customers to pay for everything with exact change, and how we’ve suddenly found ourselves covering every slice of bread we eat with butter because that’s how they eat it here. It was especially fun to talk to someone who’s also experiencing the “they-brought-me-here-to-teach-English-but-by-the-time-I-leave-I-probably-won’t-be-able-to-speak-a-single-word-of-it” phenomenon. Despite the fact that I spend the majority of my waking hours teaching and therefore speaking English, it sometimes amazes me how quickly I feel I’m losing some of my vocabulary, particularly slang and idioms. (Lately my favorite activity is – sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally – inventing my own idioms when I can’t remember the correct ones. Since last winter I’ve subscribed to a website for English language learners that e-mails me 3 English idioms a day in the hope that this will help keep them fresh in my mind. And it has helped...a little.) Vanessa and I frequently asked each other questions like, “What’s the word that means...,” “What’s it called when...,” and “What’s the idiom that starts...” Our Austrian and Polish students would have laughed out loud if they had heard our conversations – we didn’t always sound like native speakers; frequently we sounded much more like our students!

Christmas Parties at School

At the end of December, when other teachers at my school are expected to administer final exams, I’m expected to throw American Christmas parties during my lessons. It’s a pretty awesome job requirement.

About half of my classes voted for Christmas baking parties and the other half voted for a lesson of singing Christmas carols and playing Christmas-themed language games. When I learned that my students had never eaten cupcakes before (probably one of my favorite desserts in the world), a few Christmas cookie parties turned into Christmas cupcake parties. I might never eat a yellow cupcake (I baked 12 dozen) or a sugar cookie (I baked 14 dozen) again, but the baking parties were a blast. I especially loved watching my students decorate their cookies and cupcakes. Everyone, from my 8^th grade students to my 12^th grade students, took great care in decorating their treats and created beautiful, edible works of art. And my students all agreed that cupcakes are delicious!

For my classes that didn’t want to bake and decorate, we sang their favorite carols and played silly Christmas games. Their favorite games were “Blind Drawing” and “Snowballs” (not very creative game names, I know). For “Blind Drawing,” students had to "blind draw" a Christmas scene described by another student (they hold books with paper over their heads so they can’t see what they are drawing). It’s great speaking and listening practice and the works of “art” they create are quite funny.

“Snowballs” was the last game we played, and it didn’t – I’ll admit – have an English component except for listening to the rules. Here’s how you play. You blindfold two students, give each student a cup, put a bowl of cotton balls (the “snowballs”) in-between them, and give them 1 minute to transfer as many "snowballs" as they can from the bowl to their cup. It’s a pretty impossible game because cotton balls are so lightweight that you can never tell if you actually have some on your spoon or not. It’s hilarious to watch someone very carefully transport air (they think they have a cotton ball on their spoon but they don’t) from the bowl to his or her cup. And there’s always lots of cheating because students love to secretly empty the blindfolded person’s cup during the game. We laughed so hard we cried when playing this game. My students always work so incredibly hard in my lessons so this was a fun, silly way to end a great semester.

Officially Legal!

In the fall, we had a couple very serious difficulties when trying to renew my visa for Year Two due to a slight miscommunication between the school and the visa office about the renewal process. Luckily the government granted me a “special circumstance” short-term visa to cover my first three months of teaching, but only under the condition that I would have to leave Poland for a while in December and then re-enter if I wanted to apply for January – June. My director joked that it was either Ukraine or Chicago for Christmas (the problem is that I had to leave not only Poland but the EU). Don’t worry, it’s a story with a happy ending – I had a wonderful two weeks in Chicago, and yesterday I picked up my new Poland visa/residence card and now I’m legal until the end of the school year! I left Poland on December 18 for Chicago...and here's where the next post will pick up!

A Week of Thanksgiving(s)

STOP 1: Bratislava ELCA Thanksgiving

Last weekend, Linnae and I traveled to Bratislava for the annual Poland/Slovakia Teachers’ Thanksgiving. I enjoyed meeting all of the new teachers in Bratislava this year, and visiting again with returning teachers. We ate a fantastic meal (3 whole turkeys!), had a turkey coloring contest, and played a fun gift game.

That night we walked around the Bratislava Christmas Market. The next morning, we had an English worship service and Linnae and I played clarinet duets during communion and also played on a couple hymns. It was a wonderful weekend.

STOP 2: Adult conversation classes and friends

I couldn’t host a dinner for all of my adult students or friends, but thanks to my mom who keeps me well-stocked in canned pumpkin (her pumpkin bread is my favorite bread in the world), I baked two pumpkin sheet cakes (with my favorite cream cheese frosting) and shared the cake with all of my evening students and some friends throughout the week. They all have a very special place in my heart and it was fun to share a “slice” of Thanksgiving with them.

STOP 3: Thanksgiving Day with students

On Thursday, I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at my flat for my oldest high school students. My students were the inspiration for the meal after they asked me if I planned to have a “barbecue” for America’s “Independence Day” and then asked if they could celebrate with me. I couldn’t resist a cultural lesson in the form of a Thanksgiving meal! (And the opportunity to clarify the differences between the 4^th of July and Thanksgiving.) Our school doesn’t have a kitchen, so we squeezed into my apartment and successfully cooked a Thanksgiving feast! (I’m terrible at remembering to take pictures but luckily a few students took photographs and kindly shared them with me. Thanks, students!)

The Menu:

• 10 pounds of turkey breast

• Gravy

• Stuffing

• Mashed potatoes

• Sweet potatoes with marshmallows

• Scalloped cheesy potatoes

• Cranberries

• Green bean casserole

• Corn

• Bread and rolls

• Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting

• Apple crisp

I couldn’t have hosted this meal without the help of a few people. First, I have to thank my grandparents who sent a gigantic box of Thanksgiving essentials with everything ranging from stuffing to a fantastic paper turkey centerpiece (our Thanksgiving “mascot”). Grandma also sent a couple dozen home-baked chocolate chip cookies that mysteriously didn’t last until Thanksgiving... (don’t look at me). I also have to thank one of my friends who helped me with my “turkey search.” It wasn’t looking promising for a while until she directed me to the one butcher in Cieszyn who sold turkey breasts (well, specifically, the butcher who only had two 5-pound turkey breasts, and therefore, after I bought them, no longer had any turkey breasts.) For a few days, I had seriously considered serving hamburgers instead. And my students probably wouldn’t have batted an eye because they think hamburgers are our “national dish.” :)

My students’ reactions to the food at our feast:

• 7 of them had never eaten turkey before. No one had eaten anything pumpkin before. (Did you know that in the United States Illinois grows the most pumpkins?)

• They loved the gravy and ate all of it. They put it on the turkey and mashed potatoes (because I told them that’s how we typically eat it) but then one of them put it on bread and they fell in love with that. 13 students consumed about 4 cups of gravy, no joke. Quite a few said it was their favorite dish. (Is gravy a dish? I didn’t argue.)

• They thought the green bean casserole was the strangest dish they’d ever eaten. And they didn’t understand why we eat green beans in November when they’re not in season.

• They renamed the sweet potatoes with marshmallows “pasta do zębów” (Polish for “toothpaste”). Granted, it doesn't help that you have only two options when buying marshmallows in Poland: pink and white marshmallows, or blue and white marshmallows. I opted for the blue and white, and when melted, they did look like toothpaste. Did you know that when you mix blue marshmallows with orange sweet potatoes they turn bright green? Yum yum. :)

• 
  

• 

• Potatoes are a staple in the Polish diet, and I had to laugh a little bit when I realized that different kinds/preparations of potatoes are essential for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. (I’ve probably been served my weight in potatoes over the past year and tend to avoid them when I’m cooking for myself.)

• They thought it was very strange that we serve sweet dishes (like cranberries and sweet potatoes) with salty dishes (like mashed potatoes and stuffing). When I put the cranberries and sweet potatoes on the table, a few students said, “We don’t need dessert now.” I said, “It’s not dessert!” Here you never eat fruit or anything sweet with a main meal (although they frequently serve a fruit drink called “kompot” with dinner). You wait until dessert for anything sweet.

In-between the meal and dessert, we talked about Thanksgiving and then I taught them American card games. They especially loved “Spoons” (played with crayons instead of spoons) and we played for almost an hour. I promised my students that I’d post this (not-very-attractive) picture that a student took at the moment I realized I’d lost the game of “Spoons.”

I enjoyed sharing this American tradition with my students. Sometimes it’s fun to accentuate and point out the differences between Polish and American culture and learn about each country’s unique traditions. And the message of Thanksgiving is universal: take time to give thanks! (And here is one of my favorite photographs from the evening - the coat pile - because I only have 7 hangers. It was also funny to have dozens of shoes and backpacks in my tiny entryway.)

STOP 4: “Black Friday” with friends

My last Thanksgiving was Friday with Linnae and my two friends Bozena and Rafal. I couldn’t pick a favorite from my three Thanksgiving meals this week, but this meal with good friends was very special. I’m very grateful for their friendship. It feels like forever ago (although it was only 14 months ago) that we first met and it’s difficult to imagine that I haven’t known them my entire life. They were my first new friends in Cieszyn last autumn and they were there for me when I was the “pilgrim.” I’m very thankful for them, and it felt very appropriate celebrating our friendship with a Thanksgiving meal.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone!

“Lord God, we bless You and are filled with gratitude for the numerous gifts, the countless blessings, that come to us from You.

Your blessings come in times of joy, in times of victory, in success and honor. And they come as well in times of pain and sorrow, in sickness and defeat.

Your blessings, however, come always as life.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, who in the richness of Your divine love, blesses us with good things. Amen.” (Edward Hays, Prayers for the Domestic Church)

Homesick

Below you’ll find a post that isn’t necessarily well-polished, perhaps isn’t easy to understand, and isn’t especially well-written because I couldn’t always find the “correct” words. But I wanted to post “in the moment” so here it is.

I’m feeling very homesick this evening. The onset (and intensity) surprised me. I met with my friend Kasia for tea this afternoon and she asked me if I was still planning to return to Chicago after this school year. (People around me know that my plans sometimes change quickly and unexpectedly.) I told her yes, and, naturally, any time I tell people I’m leaving after this year, they ask why. Sometimes it’s difficult to explain why because a great percentage of my justification is a “gut reaction” (granted, a "gut reaction" that followed a lot of prayer, contemplation, and reflection) that it’s the appropriate time for me to leave.

But then Kasia asked me what I miss about the States. People don’t ask me this very often. And saying aloud – “I miss being with my family and friends the most” – in response to her question caused me to intensely miss my family and friends. I wouldn’t say I’m typically in a state of full-blown denial about missing people, but my work here is purposeful, fulfilling, challenging, and joyful, and thanks especially to Skype and the Internet, I do get to talk and write to people back home quite frequently. Life here is busy (and that’s great!) and I also know that the busyness of life here helps keep the homesickness at bay.

But seeing people I love only once every five months (and I’m extremely lucky that for me it’s once every five months, not longer) is painful. It’s the times when I pause and think of what I’ve missed – birthdays, family dinners, and lots of everyday events that are mundane but beautiful and the “meat” of life and relationships – that the homesickness suddenly hits me. Time at home, in the States, doesn’t stop because I’m in Poland.

But that word – “home” – is a little confusing lately. The first image that pops into my head when I hear the word "home" is me eating dinner and talking with my parents and sisters at our dining room table. But when I studied at university, I also felt it was “home.” London was “home” when I studied there. Sometimes this year I get a little confused about the word “home.” It feels a little funny to say, “I’m going home for Christmas” (home = Park Ridge) when I also say, “Oh, it’s great to come home” (home = Cieszyn) after a weekend in Slovakia. I felt at home a few weekends ago when I visited a Polish friend’s parents’ house and spent the weekend with them. I felt at home when visiting an American friend’s house this summer. I won’t get into a deep intellectual discussion about how to define “home,” but I know that for me, it’s the people, not the place.

This evening I’m preparing for a few upcoming Thanksgiving celebrations with friends and students, and I can’t help, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, but feel grateful to feel homesick. Because isn’t it kind of awesome to feel homesick? To have a "home" to miss? To miss home (people in the States) while feeling at home (with people in Poland)?

And I’m filled with gratitude for my family and friends who supported me when I decided to go to Poland to teach. Relatives and friends who excitedly pulled out maps to locate Cieszyn when I first told them the news 17 months ago. Perhaps it’s easy to take them for granted. But I know I’m lucky.

And I'm grateful to everyone who Skypes with me, e-mails me, writes to me. I can't thank you enough for all the times you've offered advice, listened, made me laugh, made me feel a part of your life even though I'm thousands of miles away. Thanks for sending me links to hilarious videos or intellectually-stimulating articles. For grappling with difficult time zone differences. For supporting my work here, praying for me. For helping me feel that I don’t have to fear the end of this journey, that when I leave one home in June 2011, I’m returning to another. And then I know I’ll feel homesick for Poland, yet feel at home back in the States.

All my love and gratitude to the people who are my home. You all rock. I miss you, I love you.

Sarah

P.S. Tune in again this weekend for a Thanksgiving festivities post!

What's New?

Here’s what’s new in Year Two!

A new partner in crime, Linnae!

She’s a recent graduate from St. Olaf and also a clarinetist. Our regional supervisor says he’s expecting great clarinet duets at the Thanksgiving worship service during our Poland/Slovakia teacher gathering in November. It’s a blessing to have a colleague to talk to and brainstorm with. We’re also better able to serve our school and the community because we can “divide and conquer” (or perhaps “divide and serve” is a more appropriate phrase) and because two brains are frequently better than one! Here’s a photograph from our first day of school in September.

Teaching the seniors!

My newest challenge at school this year is that I’m teaching all of the high school seniors! Last year I only taught 7^th – 9^th graders and one class of sophomores. It’s amazing how drastically their language skills improve between sophomore and senior year. During our English conversation lessons, I’m responsible for preparing them for the speaking section of their English Matura exam. The Matura is the high school “exit exam” in Poland, and students are required to take Polish, mathematics, a foreign language (English, for the majority of students, although sometimes German or French), and then a couple other subjects of their choice (biology, history, etc.). The Matura is administered in May and students have to submit their test scores when they apply to university. I’m enjoying the challenge of learning about the exam with the help of a couple Polish English teachers at my school.

I’ve also asked (well, required) every senior to meet with me for 20-30 minutes outside of class sometime in September or October to have an informal conversation. I only have them once a week for 45 minutes and meeting with students individually outside of class helps me get to know them better. It’s also an opportunity to share a little bit about myself with the students. They arrive quite hesitant (and typically they ask nervously “what are we supposed to do?”) but then they’re shocked when the 30 minutes are over. We’ve talked about everything from sleep deprivation (an ailment of teenagers around the world), football matches, American films, to traveling, you name it. I try to avoid the “what are your future plans” question that I remember dreading senior year unless the topic arises naturally (of course, the askers always had good intentions, but, nevertheless, sometimes it’s a stressful question). I’m loving the process of getting to know my new students, and I feel honored that I get to participate in their senior year.

During these informal conversations, many students asked me if I could offer additional Matura preparation lessons during the week in addition to our weekly conversation classes. One of the great advantages of having two American teachers at our school instead of one is that Linnae and I don’t have full schedules, and we’re able to provide extra tutoring and assistance during our free lessons. As of last week, I now offer three extra Matura preparation lessons per week where students can stop by for extra speaking practice.

“English lunch”

This year, I’d planned on starting weekly “English breakfast” meetings, where I’d meet with students in the morning before school for informal conversations in English and a breakfast snack. Well, the school schedule’s a little different this year and almost all of my students start class at 8 a.m. (last year, many students started at 8:50 a.m. or sometimes even 9:45 a.m.). Scheduling “English breakfast” at 7:15 a.m. with teenagers who desperately need sleep isn’t a great plan. Hence, hello “English lunch”! Three days a week I invite students to eat lunch with me. We sit in the English library and talk about anything and everything. I’m always excited for 1:05 p.m. (lunch time at school) when students burst into my classroom, eager to share school news (they are the best source of information – they know everything that’s happening at school) or something new that’s happening in their lives. It’s a great way to get to know my students better and provide them with an opportunity to practice their speaking skills in an informal, relaxed environment.

A new (and adorable) demographic

A bilingual school in the Czech Republic (that serves both Czech and Polish students) asked for my help this year with their preschool and kindergarten English classes (I call the classes “English play dates”). My students here now range in age from 3 years old to 78 years old! I teach there two hours a week - one class of 3-4 year olds and one class of 5-6 year olds. Let me tell you, they are wonderful! I’m very grateful for my summer Polish classes because I understand at least a little of what the children say. (Have you ever had an adorable child eagerly try to tell you something in a language you don’t speak very well? It’s the best motivation for continuing to learn new Polish words.) I don’t have permission yet to post the children's photographs here, but I’m working on it! For now, here are two photographs of the classroom, including “Cookie the Cat,” the English speaking puppet who helps me with my lessons.

It’s fascinating to observe the differences between the 3-4 year olds and 5-6 year olds. All of the children were told (in Czech and Polish by another teacher) that I only speak a little Polish, and that I am here to practice English with them. The 5-6 year olds understood quite well, but the 3-4 year olds were quite confused. (Their strategy is to say a sentence louder and louder to me if I don’t understand everything. They haven’t quite grasped the concept of other languages yet.) I’m having a lot of fun on my “English play dates.” After I’ve volunteered for a few more weeks, I promise to devote an entire post to my littlest students.

...

And, I can’t conclude without saying what a joy it is this year to continue to teach all of the people I worked with last year in my late afternoon and evening classes – parents and grandparents of my middle school and high school students, members of my congregation, elementary school students, business men and women, and Polish English teachers. I’ve reached my “teaching quota” for the year (the highest number of classes/lessons I have time to teach and properly prepare for) and feel blessed that I’m able to continue teaching English to a wonderfully wide variety of people in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Cześć! Hello again!

It’s terrible when I haven’t blogged in a while because then I have dozens of stories to tell and I can’t decide what to say first! Sorry for the hiatus!

So in this post, I’ll tell you about my Polish language summer school program! Next post, I’ll update you about my first few weeks of teaching!

I had a fantastic experience at my intensive Polish summer school program. (Dear summer school directors: Please create a year-long Polish language program that I can enroll in because your summer program was awesome. Love, Sarah) The course greatly exceeded my expectations.

The school lasted 3 weeks in August at the university here in Cieszyn. We had 12-14 hours of programming a day, 7-days a week. My brain sometimes short-circuited around hour 9 or 10, but no one could accuse the school’s directors of wasting a minute of instruction time! Every day we had our language classes in the morning and early afternoon (8 a.m. – 1 p.m. or 2 p.m.), then lectures until dinner at 7 p.m., and then extra language activities and games until 10 p.m.

I’d heard that the school attracted students from around the world, but I never anticipated meeting and studying with people from 31 different countries! Tiny Cieszyn was a melting pot in August thanks to the summer school. I don’t know the next time I’ll eat lunch surrounded by people having conversations in over 2 dozen different languages - quite the experience!

The 250 students in the program were from Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova (I’ll admit I had to look at a map to find Moldova), Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, USA (only me!), and Vietnam. Wow!

Here’s a photograph of the auditorium where we had our lectures and meetings. They hung a flag for every country (it reminded me of the Maine East auditorium).

The majority of program participants were either undergraduate students majoring in Polish at their university in their home country or people getting their Master’s or Ph.D. in Polish, Polish literature, or Polish history and culture. Quite a few people were there because they had recently married a Polish man or woman, and then a small handful of people like me were learning the language because they work in Poland.

It was a little scary at first realizing that almost everyone had formally studied Polish for several years before the summer program (the majority of students had studied Polish for 4+ years). But for our language classes in the morning and afternoon we were divided into groups of 10-15 students by ability level.

Here are two photographs of my wonderful group. We were the “rzodkiewki” group (“the radishes”). We had three instructors: Ola, Marcin, and Ola (fondly called “little Ola” because of her height and to differentiate her from the other Ola). Our teachers were wonderful and I always enjoyed our classes – our lessons were conducted in Polish 100% of the time! I loved watching the teachers teach. It was especially fascinating to observe three different teachers because they all had unique teaching styles and preferred different language teaching methods. I learned a lot about effective language teaching from their great examples.

Sometimes for our lessons we’d leave the classroom and our teacher would get us to practice our Polish in the “real world” – at all the little shops and restaurants around Cieszyn. Here we are trying not to butcher the beautiful Polish language at a small local grocery shop.

"So," I hear you asking. "Sarah, how’s your Polish now?"

Super! For example, I can now say important phrases like:

• Mam dwadzieścia cztery lata. Jestem bardzo stara. (I am 24 years old. I am very old.)
• Amerykanie nie tylko jeść hamburgery. (Americans do not only eat hamburgers.)
• Czy to Twój torebka? To nie jest moja torebka. (Is this your handbag? It’s not my handbag. *Interesting note: When writing in Polish, you always capitalize the word “You,” but you never capitalize the word “I” unless it’s at the beginning of a sentence.)
• Nie mam pracy domowej. Mój pies zjadł moją pracę domową. (I do not have my homework. My dog ate my homework.)
• Chciałbym kupić czterdzieści kiełbasy sto ziemniaki tysiąc pierogi. (I would like to buy forty sausages, one hundred potatoes, and one thousand pierogi. *Polish also has interesting comma rules that I won’t delve into here.)
• Luke, jestem twoim ojcem. (Luke, I am your father.)
• Kocham uczyć języka polskiego! (I love learning Polish!)

But, seriously, I learned a lot and had a lot of wonderful “ah-ha” moments this summer. That’s what’s empowering about language instruction, especially when you’re living in the country. One minute, a phrase or word is empty, with no significance. And then suddenly – click! A word, once a meaningless stream of letters, now represents an object, an idea, or an emotion! And I understand! I hear it, and I understand! Or someone asks me a question, and I can respond!

Probably because I’m young, a woman, and not very intimidating looking, strangers frequently stop me and ask me questions when I’m out and about in Cieszyn. What time is it? Where is the bank? Do you know where this street is? If I wanted to go to Krakow, what bus stop do I need? Can you read this price tag for me? Last year, this was very stressful because I desperately wanted to help, but either 1) didn’t know the answer because I wasn’t well acquainted with the area yet or 2) knew the answer but didn’t know how to express it in Polish! I would apologize and tell them I only spoke a little Polish, but lately, I’ve helped quite a few people! I typically preface by saying that I live in Cieszyn but don’t speak a lot of Polish to reassure them that 1) I know what I’m talking about but 2) my grammar, vocabulary, and syntax probably isn’t 100% correct, but, again, I know what I’m talking about! It might sound a little silly, but it’s also empowering that now I know for certain when I’m saying something incorrectly! Typically I then race home and try to discover how to say it correctly so I'm better prepared for my next interaction.

For me, learning as much as I can of the language this year is important because...

1. It helps me when I teach my youngest and oldest students, where I sometimes need to speak in Polish to help them understand, or if they need to express something important to me but they don’t know how to say it in English. (Great example: This week, a little girl in kindergarten told me in Polish that she desperately needed to go to the bathroom, and I knew we needed to go quickly!)

2. It helps me feel more confident and less vulnerable. I don’t know if “vulnerable” is the correct word, but it’s the best way I can express it – that feeling of helplessness when you desperately want (or need!) to say something, or you need to understand what someone is saying, and you can’t! And although sometimes you feel like you’re learning at a snail’s pace, every time you master a new structure or understand a new phrase someone says, it’s all worth it because you feel more confident when you’re out and about in the world.

3. It’s a sign of respect. Craig Storti in his book “The Art of Crossing Cultures” expressed it best: “Perhaps the most compelling reason to learn the language of another land is the largely symbolic significance of the act of communication. Implicit in that act, after all, is the acknowledgement of the humanity and worth of the other person, especially when one is speaking in a language other than one’s own. In the end, what matters is not what we say when we speak Russian or Chinese, or how well we speak Russian or Chinese, but what the effort to speak Russian or Chinese says about us” (102).

And now, I can’t resist including a mini-grammar lesson here because to me, grammar is the most fascinating aspect of learning Polish.

Polish Grammar 101

Challenge #1: A noun’s form changes depending on its function in the sentence. There are seven cases of every noun (and therefore 14 forms of every noun – 7 singular cases and 7 plural cases) – nominative case (if the noun is the subject of the sentence), genitive (expresses possession), dative (indirect object), accusative (direct object), instrumental (expresses the means by which something is done), locative (with certain prepositions), and vocative (direct address).

What’s tricky about learning Polish is that every new vocabulary word is, in reality, 14 new vocabulary words. In English, if you learn the word “dog” you have to know the singular and the plural – “dog” and “dogs” – and you’re good to go. In Polish, you need to know all 7 cases, in singular and plural. Here’s what you have to memorize to accurately say that you truly know the word “dog” (“pies”) in Polish.

Forms of “Pies” (“Dog”)

Singular

Nominative: pies

Genitive: psa

Dative: psu

Accusative: pies

Instrumental: psem

Locative: psie

Vocative: psie

Plural

Nominative: psy

Genitive: psów

Dative: psom

Accusative: psy

Instrumental: psami

Locative: psach

Vocative: psy

To me, I’d never guess that “pies” (singular nominative) and “psów” (plural genitive) both referred to the same noun – “dog”. They look and sound very, very different. If I saw them in a text and didn’t know the word “pies,” I’d guess that they were two different nouns with different meanings, not two forms of the same word.

In Polish, creating a sentence isn’t only about knowing the vocabulary and putting vocabulary words together; it’s about understanding the precise role of each word in the sentence and changing each word’s form to reflect that role.

Challenge #2: Polish nouns also have 3 genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Nouns and their adjectives must agree in gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter), case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, vocative), and number (singular or plural). I won’t list the adjectives here, but if you’ve done the math, you’ll realize that for every adjective (example: “big”), there are 42 different forms of that one adjective, and which of the 42 forms you say depends on if the adjective is modifying a masculine, feminine, or neuter noun and that noun’s case.

To quickly illustrate the complexities of Polish grammar with gender, case, and number, I’ll give you four basic examples:

1. To jest czarny długopis. Mam czarny długopis. (This is a black pen. I have a black pen. “Pen” is a masculine noun. “Czarny długopis” is the masculine, nominative, singular form of “black pen” and it’s also the masculine, accusative, singular form.)

2. To jest czarny kot. Mam czarnego kota. (This is a black cat. I have a black cat. “Cat” is also a masculine noun, but it’s an animal and there are special exceptions for animal words. Therefore, it’s not identical to “pen.” “Czarny kot” is the masculine, nominative, singular form of “black cat” and “czarnego kota” is the masculine, accusative, singular form.)

3. To jest czarna torebka. Mam czarną torebkę. (This is a black handbag. I have a black handbag. “Handbag” is a feminine noun. “Czarna torebka” is the feminine, nominative, singular form of “black handbag” and “czarną torebkę” is the feminine, accusative, singular form.)

4. To jest czarny krzesło. Mam czarne krzesło. (This is a black chair. I have a black chair. “Chair” is a neuter noun. “Czarny krzesło” is the neuter, nominative, singular form of “black chair” and “czarne krzesło” is the neuter, accusative, singular form.)

It’s like a language puzzle!

When we weren’t memorizing forms, we had a lot of fun activities in the evenings.

We watched a cycling race (the Tour de Pologne) that went through Cieszyn.

One night, my classmate 薛潇迪 (Stella) from Beijing treated my classmate Irmgard and me to a wonderful, home cooked Chinese meal!

My school director invited me to dinner with her and her family in August and I had the opportunity to practice my Polish. Her grandmother and daughter were especially kind and helpful. It’s amazing how well you can communicate with very little, especially when you have eager and patient listeners.

Thanks to everyone for supporting me and my second year here. Your amazing generosity helped me attend this wonderful language program. It was an empowering experience, and I’m excited to keep you updated about my language learning progress this year!

A Strange Thing Called Time

Today I taught my last class of the 2009-2010 school year and said “happy summer” or “goodbye” (to graduating students) to the angelic, devilish teenagers I now call “my kids.” I felt sad saying goodbye, aware that it’s (for non-graduating students) only “goodbye” for the summer because I’m back next year, but heartbreakingly sad nevertheless.

It’s the first year I was the teacher, not the student, after almost two decades of sitting in a student desk. I don’t remember ever rejoicing on the last day of school. School is one of my “homes.” And for the past 17 or 18 years of my life – and this year is no exception – I’ve measured time by the school calendar. We might celebrate New Year’s in the winter, but August and September, with bouquets of newly sharpened pencils, are my new year.

And I couldn’t help but feel emotional when I thanked my students for the past year. They braved lessons with a “1^st year baby teacher” who was sometimes bewildered by Polish school culture. They were patient with me. They were kind to me. They challenged me. They greeted me in the hallways with a smile. They answered my questions. We laughed until we cried. Sometimes after a difficult lesson only I cried. They were so honest and open with me about their lives, their dreams, and their emotions. They amazed me with their willingness to try speaking in a new language and experiment with the sometimes crazy “out of the box” lessons I threw at them. They tried to get away with murder. Their goal was always to convince me to abandon their English education and instead play baseball with them every lesson. They were clever, creative, mischievous, rebellious, loving, and wonderful. They were my motivation for walking to school during an October blizzard, a May flood, and on any day when I felt overwhelmed by all of the “newness” here. They’re my kids. I’ll miss them this summer. They’re why I’m teaching here again next year.

I’ve also said goodbye this month to people I won’t see again next year, including other Central Europe ELCA teachers.

For the June 4-6 weekend, ELCA teachers from 3 schools in Slovakia visited Cieszyn. They were part of my eclectic and supportive “home away from home” family this year. They’re the people I could tell teaching or culture shock anecdotes to and know that they understood. We didn’t get together frequently, but it was always a joy when we did and there was a tangible excitement in the room whenever we had the opportunity to gather.

Here’s a photograph of our June get-together in Cieszyn. We’re waving because we’re mimicking a Polish folk dance movement, but I’ve renamed this photograph “God’s work, our hands.”

Our June gathering was an opportunity to celebrate the year and say goodbye. Only one Slovakia teacher from the weekend is teaching here again next year. On Sunday, we had brunch and a little worship/sending service where we sang hymns and people shared stories, read prayers, and reflected on the year.

I read (well, tried to read, I cried during the 1^st sentence and had to ask someone for help), a beautiful reflection on time I recently discovered. It’s a speech for the New Year by Pope Benedict XVI, but for me, it’s also a speech for this School Year, and the next. His words deeply resonated with what I’ve experienced my first year in Poland and the mix of emotions tumbling around in my heart this week. Here it is:

“The year is ending. This means, as always, that we spend a few minutes in reflection. For a moment we become conscious of the strange thing called "time," which otherwise we simply use without thinking about it. We feel both the melancholy and the consolation of our own transiency. Much that caused us distress, much that weighed us down and seemed to make progress impossible, has now passed and become quite unimportant. As we look back, difficult days are transfigured in memory, and the now almost forgotten distress leaves us more peaceful and confident, more composed in the face of present threats, for these too will pass. The consolation of transiency: Nothing lasts, no matter how important it claims to be.

But this consoling thought, which gives patience its character of promise, also has its discouraging and saddening aspect. Nothing lasts, and therefore along with the old year not only difficulties but much that is beautiful has passed away. We cannot say to any moment: "Stay a while! You are so lovely!" Anything that is within time comes and then passes away.

Our feelings toward a new year show the same ambivalence as our feelings toward the old year. A new beginning is something precious; it brings hope and possibilities as yet undisclosed. "Every beginning has a magic about it that protects us and helps us live" (Herman Hesse) ... What can we say at this moment of transition? First of all, we can do the very human thing the moment urges upon us: we can use the time of reflection in order to stand aside and widen our vision, thus gaining inner freedom and a patient readiness to move on again.”

To conclude our sending service, Dee, one of the Slovakia teachers, sang a Polish song about time and how we may never meet again in this place, in this way. This summer all the teachers at our gathering will scatter around the globe. It’s a song that’s heartbreakingly true. “Together again we will not.” Not in this place, in this way.

Jak szybko mijaja chwile

Jak szybko plyne czas

Za rok, za dzien, za chwile

Razem nie bedzie nas

How quickly moments passed

How fast swim times

Per year, per day, for the moment

Together again we will not

The sadness I’ve felt frequently this month is a little puzzling, despite all my attempts to dissect it, understand it. But I’m thankful for the sadness, that I’m sad for this challenging, enlightening, awakening, terrifying, invigorating, opening, overwhelmingly beautiful year to conclude.

How quickly moments passed.

Stay a while! You are so lovely!

“For all that has been, thanks! For all that will be, yes!” Dag Hammarskjold.

See you on Sunday, Chicago!