Travel Blog

I should be on my way to teach my first class - English as a second language - but the course was canceled due to lack of students.

The last time I taught English, students waited in line overnight to enroll. But that was in Warsaw, in the early 80s. It's a lot easier to learn a language when you're living in a country that speaks it. That's how I learned Polish - living with my wife's aunt (who, not allowed to pursue a career in theater, brought her thespian skills to the kitchen table), watching TV (loved those Russian movies with Polish subtitles), and reading. The best thing to read, speaking of movies, are screenplays. You don't get bogged down in description, and you learn everyday speech. Studying French I read Truffaut; for Polish I read Zanussi. Students of English could try Woody Allen - starting with the screenplays and then, as they progress, listening to his old stand-up routines (I actually taught these in Warsaw) and finally, when they think they've got the language licked, reading his humorous essays. Woody Allen - the complete language teacher.