Variety is the spice of life
We know our bespoke, learner-led sessions are one of our students’ favourite things about The Yorschool Way. But just how tailored can a lesson be? Today on the blog, our founder Rita Bose takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the world via a week in Yorschool sessions, and explains how we work to create highly personalised lessons for each student.
During lockdown variety is one ingredient which we’ve all been lacking, but I’m very blessed to be able to say that all of my lovely students have provided just that!
Let’s talk you through a typical week back in March 2021…
I began a grey day in March with a wonderfully talented Brazilian musician. Fernando is a guitar player, composer, singer and an extraordinary percussionist. As a beginner in English, our conversation is somewhat limited, but this never stops us from endless smiles and laughter. During this particular lesson we actually co-wrote part of a song, which was a new experience for me! Fernando then spoilt me by playing me a recently written song.
Switching from London to southern Germany, I then taught Norbert, who is (he won’t mind me saying) in his 70s and happens to love English rock music from the 70s, such as The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. Norbert is a beginner in English, but he and his wife are planning a road tour through South Africa next spring and he’d like to be able to at least order their food and drinks without any unpleasant surprises! I always make sure that I plan my lessons based around specialities from Cape Town, looking at real menus and day trips, such as to Robben Island. Luckily, I’ve been there myself and I too am a fan of 1970s rock music, so we have plenty of mutual topics to discuss. We do this in (a slightly simplified) English, but that doesn’t matter at all, as Norbert is speaking more and more English each lesson…and we’re laughing more and more.
Then it was back to England, Easingwold, in fact, just down the road from York. Mark is motorbike enthusiast and loves riding over to Germany with a group of mates to enjoy places like the Black Forest and Bavaria. He wants to learn enough German to be able to challenge that preconception that ‘English people don’t bother to learn languages!’ Mark loves practising ordering beers and food in German, as well how to make conversation with potential fellow bikers they might encounter in Germany.
From there it was over to snowy Moscow, where a very charming Russian student was stranded, unable to travel back to his UK boarding school, due to Covid restrictions. Ural is keen to get his German up to scratch, to prepare himself for studying at the University of Vienna after his A Levels. Ural kept me up to date with the weather conditions in Russia, which made me feel better when temperatures were still above freezing here!
Popping over to Paris to chat to the very lively, enthusiastic and highly intelligent Loïc. Loïc is a 15-year-old exceptional canoeist, who also loves talking politics, the British Royal Family and history. He is always the first one to tell me the latest about Boris Johnson and the Royal Family gossip! Loïc loves speaking English at length, as he is so restricted in his normal lessons, particularly over the last year, when most of his own school lessons have been online. We often follow his French curriculum and also discuss varied topics, from Edgar Allen Poe’s work to the US Presidential Election.
Back in Germany, in Hamburg this time with the lovely Nina. She’s an extremely bright and motivated student currently studying for her Abitur (A Levels) and is therefore striving to achieve the best possible oral grades in English. I love our lessons, as I never know what we’re going to discuss from one week to the next. A day or so before our weekly lesson, Nina texts me to let me know which direction her teacher has gone in this week and then I prepare some suitable material accordingly. Our topics have included: The African Slave Trade Triangle, George Orwell novels, the US Inauguration ceremony, the Angie Thomas novel, The Hate U Give and more recently, Nina has asked if we can prepare her for the IELTS exam, which she needs for her university course.
Let’s end our journey for now by going to the beautiful south coast of England, to Brighton. Two good friends, Tom and Paul decided to use the whole of the lockdown period to learn some German. They are planning to move to Berlin as soon as they can, as they both love techno music, a few beers and a lot of parties…and so Berlin is their chosen place! They’ve been a few times, but without speaking the language and so when they next go, they’ll be well-equipped with the language to make new friends in the pub, order food and drink, read German adverts about apartments for rent, seek medical help, buy furniture from the wonderful markets there and of course, buy tickets for gigs!
Are you interested in taking our student-led classes for whirl? Get in touch with us to schedule a free, 30 minute consultation.
