Club de Conversacion

I am leaving Colombia in two weeks and I have yet to write anything about the real reason I came down here: to teach English. So now is about time. It ended up being a pretty sweet gig -I got to meet some really great, dedicated, super intelligent students and hang out with some sweet professors. The plan was for me to do a conversation club meeting 8 times a week so that students could go to the one that fit into their busy schedules, and then also do classroom visits to add a cultural, native speaker component to the classes.

A few teachers have invited me to their classrooms to help with oral exams or play games or teach idioms, but really most of my time has been spent on the conversation club and planning field trips for the students to practice English outside of the classroom.

I have a group of faithful students who are super dedicated to the language (and some who have never taken a class but rather have learned everything they know from TV and music, which is just so impressive!) and then other students who come and go. Sometimes it is frustrating because since it is an optional activity, I find myself alone in the classroom when exam time rolls around (or like Tuesday mornings, Wilson is my only student that shows these days, so we just decided to take club over to Juan Valdez for coffee slushies.)

In the club we cover topics of all varieties: Minnesotan vocabulary (eh, don'tchya know?, hot dish), the election process (why the heck do we still use the electoral college?), oragami and the story of 1000 cranes, tourist destinations in the USA and Colombia, dying Easter eggs, skits using the words "awkward," and "sketchy," etc. It's fun because I have no supervision and we just do what we want. Plus when I have visitors (which is OFTEN man!) I just bring them in and the students are fascinated just with asking questions.

Megan with the Wednesday afternoon students and their paper cranes...

...which turned into a paper plane contest.

On Saturdays I plan outings for the students so they can maybe have a bit more fun practicing the language (although what is more fun than a paper plane contest?) I make sure that whatever we do is free so that anyone can come. People usually bring friends and are excited to speak in English, so we always have a good time. We have gone to museums, gone out to coffee, cooked, gone to the beach, and my personal favorite, tie dyed!

Touring the colonial walls around the historic center.

The Inquisition Palace

French Toast for Breakfast!

Tie Dye in the beach!

Overall, it has been a really great experience and I am going to miss my students a ton. Thanks guys for a fantastic time!