In the last few weeks, I was lucky enough to start a new part-time French language teaching job in a city centre school here in Dublin, which caters mainly for Polish nationals, though it is not at all uniquely confined to the Polish community in Dublin. It is known as 'Szkola Polska' and as the Association of Polish Schools in Dublin. I am teaching beginners' French to two lovely groups of Polish children of primary-school-going age; all very friendly, enthusiastic, polite and participative. In short, adorable.
I am also teaching Junior Cert French there to two lovely Polish teenage girls and beginners' French to an adult young couple.
The school is housed in a renovated building across from the Rotunda Hospital in the city centre, a building which also houses a Medical Centre, again, mainly frequented by the Polish community but clearly hoping to extend its clientele, just as the school aims to extend its students to include non-Polish people also.
My Polish colleagues are very warm, friendly, gentle people. I have taken this opportunity to begin teaching myself the Polish language and, having listened to some tapes, I can now say some basic phrases in Polish, useful for greeting Poles, etc.
I continue to give grinds in French also. And to apply for teaching and third-level lecturing jobs in French and Translation Studies, especially in the UK universities.
I'm hoping, finally, that if the Polish school continues to grow, it will offer other languages such as Spanish, English as a Foreign Language, etc.
Glad to hear you keeping involved with the teaching Kieran, :-)
ReplyDeleteits anthony by the way...lol
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you, Anthony, and I hope all is very well with your good self! I was just thinking of you again the other day and am sorry to have left it so long... Life has been extremely pressurised and stressful lately, with the job hunt, money and accommodation and health worries, one thing after another, but I am now in a nice new studio apartment which takes rent subsidy, and have some part-time teaching hours as you see. Thanks for reading my blog! Please give me feedback anytime esp. when I get back to less personal and more academically-inclined subjects of discussion.
ReplyDeleteHow is everything with you? Are you working or studying - or both?
Please let me know.
The Polska Szkola or Polish School, in Dublin, at which I am teaching, is now also teaching English as a Foreign Language, and I am currently giving classes in Elementary and Intermediate English to a number of Polish nationals, in addition to teaching French there. My fifteen year old Polish student of French recently sat her Junior Certificate in French, and found the exam paper extremely fair and manageable. She thus feels that she has done very well at it, and that the classes at the Polska Szkola which I had with her, on a one-to-one basis, were of significant assistance to her in improving her French language proficiency. She plans to continue studying French for her Leaving Certificate and on coming to the Polish school for further French tuition with me from this coming September onwards.
ReplyDelete