meganisawizard

I'm currently living in Moscow, and just after moving here, I realized that there were three questions that, if you understand them, facilitate much more pleasant exchanges. 1) здез или с собой (zdez ili s suboy) = for here or to go (at fast food restaurants) 2) пакет или без пакета (packet ili bez packet) = bag or no bag (at grocery stores) 3) курешь или не курешь (kuresh ili nee kuresh) = do you smoke or don't you (at restaurants) In the first two cases, you'd just answer with the option you want. For the third question, you'd need to change the verb conjugation to first person and either say курю (kuryoo) or не курю (nee kuryoo).

Estoy de acuerdo con SirTenenbaum--si no quiere vivir en un país especifico, es mejor que aprender varías tipos de Español. Por ejemplo, mi maestra de escuela era de México, y mis profesores en colegio eran de España, Puerto Rico, y México así que cuando encuentro personas de los tres países, nos podemos comunicar. Si solo he aprendido de maestros puertorriqueños, es posible que hubiera sido difícil hablar con mexicanos o españoles. ¿Cuales tipos has aprendido?

This is very useful for me!! I teach ESL, and we are always talking about the different levels of our students based on the European Framework, and I've always wondered what level I was in Spanish. Now I have the chance to get a rough estimate. Does anyone have a sense of how accurate this test is, though?

I'm Megan, and I'm a native English teacher in Moscow who speaks decent Spanish, a bit of German, and is furiously trying to learn Russian during my short stay here.

My older students are very motivated by challenging (but not too difficult) authentic English texts. The majority of their reading practice comes from inauthentic exam practice tasks, so giving them a quick article or story makes them feel like they are using English like an Englishspeaker and not just for an exam task. I still haven't gotten great at motivating younger students--my four and five year olds are sometimes a bit wild. If anyone has any tips I'd really appreciate it!!

I'm teaching right now in Moscow, Russia. I was a teacher before in Chicago, so I had some experience teaching but none with ESL! I am very much enjoying my job, though, and I would encourage anyone considering it to definitely make the leap--at least for a year or two.