Traveler

I've done one verbal exam before. It was easy though, not very stringent. I mainly stuck with preterite tense verb forms and talked about common things. (The exam was just talking about things you did that week.) If you have some leeway about how to do this exam (for example, is it just you talking about anything?) then just play to your strengths and avoid the weaknesses.

You could carry around a little dictionary, bookmarked in the R section. Or have a dictionary app on your phone and access it when you need to. Perhaps look up poems or other works using the letter R using alliteration, or practice writing such things yourself and reading them aloud. I think you could have a lot of fun with this.

Hmm...the premise sounds really nice and interesting, but I wonder if it would be a lot more complicated in practice. How exactly would you get paid and at what rate, for instance? Would you do it through a company that basically sets it all up between tutors and clients, or would you be trying to freelance it? If there were a reliable company to facilitate it, with a good track record of ensuring payments and being reasonable to their tutors, it would be a very tempting opportunity, for sure.

Yeah, that's the main draw of doing it for a company. They set up things for you. Regardless, time zone differences will always suck. I just went abroad to teach and it was a normal job - and I really enjoyed it. Being a freelancer, you have to do all the legwork. And that will many at least several unpaid hours. And you have to figure out how to find customers. And then hope you don't get ripped off. Not saying it can't be done. It really can. But it might not be for newbies.

Wow, how did I not know about this one? I've been needing to use flashcards lately. There's a project I want to work on regarding vocabulary. Thanks for sharing. I will definitely check it out!

I don't know any idioms from any language I've studied. I know I should, but it is so much more tempting to focus on vocabulary or grammar instead. I think it wouldn't be needed though until you live in a country where the language is used. Then you could pick up idioms more naturally.

I've read that near-fluency in a language can be accomplished by learning ¨only¨ 2000 or so words. That is, focus on the words with the highest frequency of use, and you can achieve 80-90% fluency. I want to start doing this with Spanish, but I think there is a problem. How would I do this since Spanish has so many verb conjugations? Obviously, I would at least need the infinitive form of verbs. And gerund forms would be helpful. And then preterite, present, and future tenses. But that would quickly rack up word counts and I could see that 2000 words becoming 10,000+ words - most of them different forms of verbs. Should I focus on just the most frequent conjugations? But then, it would seem strange to learn some conjugations of verbs I know, but leave gaps, even if much less frequently used. Any ideas how I can do this without being overwhelmed?

That was very interesting. I wasn't aware of any of those in particular, but I did know before that some ¨text speak¨ was in use before modern cell phones. It's amazing how words can remain in a language but totally change meaning over decades and centuries.

I've tried this before but I didn't ask for payment because I'm not a professional. Instead I just tried to work out an agreement wherein I would be taught the native language of whomever I was teaching. Unfortunately, it's not that easy to do since there are scheduling conflicts left and right and the motivation is lacking if no money is being exchanged since you aren't pressured to take full advantage. It was very fun to make foreign friends though.

It could be useful just to gain experience. (And no one will argue with free!) But you bring up a good point about scheduling. One would have to be very careful because of time zone differences. Asia is 11-14 hours different from the Western hemisphere, so it's difficult. I've read plenty of people trying to do this kind of job but having to wake up at crazy hours to get on Skype and teach.

Because not everyone is creative? (I know it's not PC.)

Most students lack interest. Can't blame them for that. If school and classes were about only learning what you cared about, it wouldn't be a problem. But that isn't the paradigm of education in our age.

When it has come to having students do things that require creativity, I tried to avoid ¨perfection¨ and just hit as close as possible to their interest. Something like creative writing could be broken up into smaller, more manageable pieces.

Haha, that's an interesting thing. I haven't done that. But I have accidentally mixed languages when speaking. For example, when I was trying to learn some Tagalog I would often accidentally mix in some Spanish. (A lot of the vocabulary in Tagalog originates from Spanish, so I think that ¨triggered¨ switching.)

...sobre que esta pasando en el mundo?

Yo pienso que muchos eventos son malo. Por ejemplo, el enfermadad de ebola en Africa.

I've heard of this, but never tried it myself. I have heard of two types.

First, you can apply at some companies and teach clients they find for you. You get paid hourly typically.

Second, you can be an independent teacher online. But you'll have to be good at finding customers. And then you'll have to find ones who will pay you. But I think most wouldn't rip you off. For this, it can help to use online translators so you can post on foreign language parts of the internet. And it also helps to get some qualifications that you can advertise to students.

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a very entertaining game that many students would like. I will have to try this in my next EFL job.

I taught English in China for a year. I really enjoyed it for the most part. The stress was minor compared to any job I've had in the U.S. And what little stress there was came from a bad apple of a coworker. I have a degree in English and Education, some work experience, and now this one year of teaching abroad experience. I am also planning to get TEFL certified at some point and then head out into the world again. Good luck! It will be a lot of fun.

I use Google translate fairly often, especially when I'm looking up vocabulary quickly. I don't even bother with translations for most sentences unless I have a good idea of what the sentence means already. I think it will be a long time before translators become extremely accurate.

I wish we were getting better words added to English. I really don't like social media vocabulary, texting ¨words,¨ etc. In my opinion, we are getting too many of these types of words. Sometimes it feels like it is dumbing down English.

I came to like the Chinese accent. It's kind of soothing, especially the female Chinese accent. Other than that one, I don't really love any accent too much but most are neutral to me. I like a few. And a few sound awful.

I would say Chinese, I just cant seem to understand it, from any logical point of view, I do not know why, but maybe I should try harder.

I have the same trouble. I can say some things in Chinese, but listening and differentiating the tones are just so difficult. When I was living in China I got up to a very basic level of Mandarin, just enough to get around town and order in restaurants, shops, etc. But I couldn't even really have a basic conversation. There are cognates with English, but most aren't useful for everyday conversations. But at least CHinese pronouns are very easy!

At least the grammar is relatively easy, right? But I understand learners of English get frustrated with pronunciation (though, rough, dough, through, etc.) And prepositions can be strange, depending on your native language. It always depends on your interest level and native language though.

I think it's a good thing. I tried learning Chinese when I lived in China. I at least got down plenty of basics, so I could get around my city in a taxi, and do fine in a shop or restaurant. I'm focusing on Spanish more right now, and I want to travel some within Latin America. But I'm also from the U.S. and Spanish is very useful here without leaving home too.

I wouldn't correct it directly unless it was my student. If it was a friend or someone else I was having a conversation with, I would just pronounce things correctly when I was saying things.

I taught English in China for a year. Some of my students were little kids, around 5 years old. I didn't really prefer teaching that level. It was not difficult, but the students have no interest. So you have to disguise learning in games. It was mostly a bunch of jumping around there. Not the best way to do it. Now if the beginners are adults, that would be much better in my opinion.

How about trying to have intermediate conversations while integrating some imagery? Maybe not PowerPoints (I hate those) but something. I have taught a little intermediate level. It can be tricky because there is a range of each level. But I think it is a good time to start teaching cultural things too.

I didn't start until around 16 or 17. That was for high school. I didn't take to it well and had no interest at the time. I took more classes, then three more classes in university. I really wish I had learned a language from a young age.

Hands down, this one: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taa_language

Read the Grammar and Phonology description and you will know why.

Holy cow, Batman! Yeah, maybe that one is the hardest one. We often don't think of ¨strange¨ languages like that. Probably would make Mandarin look like a walk in the park.