Giggly Boys

When I found out that I would be helping teach English at the almost all-boys Electronic Studies High School in Liptovsky Hradok, I was a bit nervous. I’d had some previous experience teaching at a Slovak high school before in Ilava, and it was challenging a lot of the time. Although I had a lot of enjoyable experiences helping in Ilava, I found it difficult to teach students that were close to my age, and they were many times quiet and not so interested in participating. And because of the closeness in age (in comparison to the students’ traditional teachers), teaching 550 boys is intimidating for obvious reasons, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I started.

These days I can honestly say that I really enjoy it, and that many of my favorite days here have been spent at that school helping Zuzka with all of the giggly boys. Yes, giggly. I never knew 16-19 year old boys could giggle so much! They have proven to always be entertaining, and the classroom dynamic of them, Zuzka and myself has been really fun! I think teaching these boys on my own would probably still be fun, but the combination of Zuzka and me together makes it a lot more fun! I have enjoyed all of my teaching experiences thus far (between the Liptovsky Hradok school, the Hybe school, and my private or community lessons), but the classes with the boys are usually my favorite. Last Monday at school, while the boys were silently working on a quiz, one of them suddenly burst into laughter. I looked around to see who else he was joking or making eye contact with, but everyone else was concentrating on their work. The kid just started cracking up for no reason, which made me start to laugh a bit, which made Zuzka start to laugh too. These types of things happen pretty often. Some days it’s a big challenge to keep our composure during the lessons.

One of our favorite things to do with the guys in between exercises (or at the end of the lesson, which is usually a better idea because all focus is lost after this) is to have word pronunciation showdowns. The boys get to choose really complicated Slovak words or tongue twisters and write them on the board, and then I attempt to pronounce them in front of the boys. I usually end up butchering it and usually get laughed at, but occasionally I do a decent job and they applaud! I admit that the first week was planned, and Zuzka chose the word ahead of time and told me so I could practice, because “you deserve a bit of an advantage, because it’s only you against all those silly boys!” But that was only the first week. Then in turn, I get to choose difficult English words and phrases for them to try and spit out on the spot. Last week, one of the words was inconspicuous (which I knew they would butcher, because the “c” in Slovak is pronounced “ts” and it was all downhill from there). Hee hee. A bit evil, but all in good fun. :-) They give me some rough ones too. A few weeks ago I broke out "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." That was a good time, let me tell you! I also gave them “rubber baby buggy bumpers” to practice. Pretty funny!

In the past month or so, the boys have been preparing for the Maturita exam, which is the school-leaving exam every graduating senior must take to finish secondary school. The test has two parts: a written part, which takes place in mid-March, and an oral part that takes place in the beginning of May. In these past oral exam prep weeks, I’ve been going to school twice a week to give the boys extra conversation practice. During each class period, Zuzka gives the guys an assignment to work on, and she chooses two lucky boys every class period to come and have a one-on-one conversation. While I ask them practice discussion questions, she evaluates them and gives them marks. I have to say, these one-on-one sessions with the boys are the most entertaining parts of my week, hands down. I’ve met many different personalities and ran into a lot of reactions through this process. Some of them are bored with the whole situation, some are excited to speak to me, some ask me if I have a boyfriend or am married, some are nervous, and some are downright terrified to even sit near me. I keep thinking, what if my high school Spanish teacher would’ve said, “Ok Ashley, you have to take an oral quiz today, only in Spanish. And oh yeah, it’ll be with a native speaker of the opposite sex, around your age. And did I mention I’ll be watching and grading you as you speak?” Well, I probably would’ve wanted to crawl in a hole too, so I understand why some of them are so nervous. And some of them are SO nervous, like a tripping over words, shifting eyes to avoid eye contact with me, and noticeable perspiration on the forehead kind of nervous. Zuzka says that a few of them have pleaded desperately to try and get out of the situation, making excuses, or waving their arms in the air while mouthing “NO! PLEASE!”

I told Zuzka I felt bad that some of them were so nervous, and maybe it would be easier for them to have group conversation practice. But she always insists, “No, it’s great practice for them. And they NEED the practice, because they will have to speak on their own about these topics for 15 continuous minutes in front of judges.” One of the first boys I had a conversation with, Vlado, was quite nervous. I think he’s probably able to speak and understand a lot more than he showed me, but he couldn’t focus very well, when put on the spot. I will always remember his face (pink and pinched, like he was in severe pain) and the way he could barely lift his head to look me in the eyes. After class finished, I told Zuzka about how uncomfortable he was, and she gave me a smile and a sly little thumbs up! Haha! I was a bit surprised, but then she later explained why she was so amused by his squirminess. “Oh tough boy now, he thinks he’s so clever, always teasing and trying to point out other students’ mistakes. He needs to know that he has work to do.” I taught Zuzka the expression, “put him in his place” that day, and we had a quiet laugh together.