CELTA is Fun

Over breakfast with Panda yesterday, talking about my first week on the CELTA course, I realised how much happier I am than I was before I started. I think it's due to quite a number of different factors.

Firstly, just a simple thing: I have a somewhat fixed daily routine. It's amazing the calming effect that has, psychologically. Also, bcause I catch the bus every day to 'work' and back, I suddenly feel apart of the city in a way I hadn't done up until now.

A second thing is the course itself. It has been really interesting, and has stimulated me to think about all sorts of issues to do with teaching English, and teaching generally. I am interested in language structure anyway, and teaching is a fun way to study it. Also, like any managed learning environment, it has a calming effect, because you know that someone somewhere has a Plan for you, and though you might not see it all right now, you know that if you complete each small challenge as it is provided to you, you are on the path to success. In the horrible unmanaged mess that is Real Life I am plagued by doubts that anything is in fact the right thing to be doing at any moment. Perhaps religious people feel like they're on a kind of study course their whole life long, with God at the helm.

A third thing is that I am spending my days with people from my own culture (more or less). Quite a number of Brits, some Americans, a Kiwi, and a Swede. I can talk and not feel like an illiterate moron; I can make cultural references and have them be understood; things just flow naturally. Someone suggested going to the pub after school Friday before I even did.

A fourth thing is that our students have been great, and that has really given me a much more positive attitude to Bogotanos/Colombians. They love to learn, they love to join in, they love to contribute, they are eager to please, they don't "take advantage" because they have a trainee teacher. I want to give them all a hug! I remember feeling the same thing when I taught that one time in Cartagena (on the coast). I am definitely looking forward to teaching Colombians for real, wherever that might end up being.

And finally I think it is great to have a 'job' which is involving in many different ways: intellectually, emotionally, physically too (moving around a classroom instead of sitting at a computer.) Certainly getting up in front of students and teaching has given me a huge buzz. Beforehand, on both occasions, I have been really nervous, and have even thought, "why am I doing this? It's just not me! I'm a hiding-behind-a-computer sort of person, not a getting-up-in-front-of-people person!" But precisely because it is quite challenging for me it has given me a huge confidence boost. Teaching is a social activity, and success (at least on the social level) in the classroom has made me feel much more of a social person all round.

I realise that a lot of these things are the "beginners buzz" -- the highly rewarding quick-learning phase at the beginning of any new activity, combined with the kick of doing something that's all new. I'm sure that long-term teachers will tell me, "don't worry, you get pretty bored of it pretty fast." But for the time being I'm the happiest I've been since I came back to Colombia in January. And that's good enough for me :).