Dean Back Home

I'm a bit behind, but I arrived home in early August. My last few days in Brazil went well and nothing special happened, I suppose. I was scared of getting through immigration but I smiled nicely and the "rules" seems to have been OK for the guard.

I recall the train ride from London - York. It was calm (mid-afternoon), the sun shining as I looked at the unmistakable British countryside. Flat, yellow, green, fields, villages etc. In many ways very different to the views from the coaches whilst travelling Brazil. No less attractive, just emotionally different.

Now I sit at my fathers with a new (cute) puppy at my feet as I look at the garden outside. Hear the trees sway in the breeze and the areoplanes overhead (theres a military testing station near here). Big garden, still in bloom, bright green lawn. Unmistakably England and English and Home.

And so ends Dean in Brazil, although not the Brazilian experience, that will go with me forever in my quest to attempt to understand how this small and beautiful planet works.

Onwards now with Dean at home, which in itself sounds strange. People ask "are you back now?" I reply "well, I don't intend to live abroad in the near future", if that is what they implied I am sometimes unsure. But in my answer I am not.

Education, teaching, learning

The last few weeks have really opened my eyes to education in many ways. I have focused a lot on learning metholods and thoughts without giving such deep attention to the role of educators.

Living and working at a language school has really changed that, especially after a course on teaching methodology. It is very interesting to see education developing towards being more self-driven and more of a facilitation and coaching role. The concept of the teacher has changed a lot in the last 100 years (in Europe) but this is set to accerlate in the next few years as the so called "X-generation" give birth to off-spring who want more than individual, personalised choices.

I did not expect to see so many interesting theories within foreign languages - after all foreign languages are about following the rules and grammar of the country right? Well, no! Do you need to learn grammar at all? Are vocabulary lists useful? Should the teacher speak the language or allow students to experiment themselves (and get it wrong, at first) with the language? Is fluency or accuracy most important? The list goes on... as one by one my views of language learning and teaching are positively challenged.

I also discovered how education changes. How the poorest in Brazil recieve the poorest education and how the richest recieve personalised, high quality services. I wonder how any cycle of poverty can be broken if such systems persist, at least in Europe the divide is not so evident, but still exists.

I meet English teachers, who have taught for years, many hundreds of students, and yet have never spoke to a native English person before they met me last week!

Perhaps by accident, perhaps a part of a bigger destiny, spending three weeks here has helped me see education as part of a bigger self-image.

As I sit chatting with the manager (owner and entrepreneur) eating my best Feijoada ever, perhaps for the last time, I realise the power of education and how maybe it might how I develop next.

Learning and teaching English

The last few days

So I have now finished work. My long days (a phone call at 7am, from my boss to say good morning is no more! At first I tried to sound professional when he called by trying to sound awake, it worked for the first week but on the last day I dropped the phone on the floor and knocked over a glass of water... by then he knew I was not awake).

Working in the language school was great. I have been treated very well by the students, teachers and staff. We had three courses in 3 weeks, so many different people. They invited me to their house - Dean if ever you want to visit Rio, Sao Paulo, Sao Joa etc. let me know...)

I'll miss the 5-star teatment (better than any hotel, as here you just leave your dirty shirts and they come back ironed and hung up 8 hours later!). And the cost... in 3 weeks I spent R$3.5 (about 85 British Pence.. or under 2CHF). That was because I decided to go off site and buy something. Otherwise food (lots of it) and chocolate cakes etc. where self-service and the beer and wine on the house and still my weight is unchanged... I like Brazil!

Today, in Itajuba visiting friends and seeing the LC on a social visit. Just waiting to go for a Pizza and beers and catch up etc.

Looking forward to home, but not to getting there. I think it will be around 31-32 of door to door activity (car (20mins) bus 6am (4.5hrs), metro (20mins), bus (30mins), wait (3.5hrs) and fly (11hrs), wait (2.5hrs) connection flight, Milian, 10.30am (2.5hrs), London Tube (1hr), train (2hrs) car (1hr), plus other things that usually happen in airports, metros, train stations. Hope to get home to see my first six o'clock news on Thursday!