Somehow I managed to save this but not post it. Thanks again for all your good thoughts.
Today was the big day, and it started beautifully. The nice English speaking taxi dispatcher called me at 6:50 to say the cab was on the way, and it showed up at our front door at 6:59. It was misting outside, so I was pleased to be riding instead of walking to the bus stop. He dropped me off in front of the communications building at 7:15 for about $3.30 plus tip, which is not really expected here. I had plenty of time to get my breath and get set up for the 8:00 - 9:30 class. There were 9 women from early 20's to my age, all of whom believed they did not speak English. Clearly they don't mean the same thing when they say that as when I say that I do not speak a language. What they meant was they know quite a bit of English but are not confident in speaking. My lesson plan was somewhat elementary for them, so I had to improvise. The teacher learned more than the students did today, I'm afraid. They were very gracious, however, and perhaps a little surprised to find that learning English included acting out action verbs and a reading activity from Bruce Lansky's Girls to the Rescue Book # 1. This is a modern version of fairy tales in which girls are the problem solvers, not just pitiful little things. Free from Kindle - you'll love it. We took turns passing around EHJ and my little laptop, but the journalism professor introduced me to some projection equipment after class that I can use next week.
The 10-11:30 class had 10 members, 9 women from early 20's to 50's and one man, probably in his late 50's, the dean. He won my heart because he introduced himself using his first name, but I called him by his real first name - Dean. He was a wonderful sport and did not seem to mind that some of my activities were sort of silly. This group benefited from the things I learned from the first class, so things seemed better from my point of view, anyhow. It turns out that when I asked the participants what they most wanted to practice, what they all mentioned first was essentially accent modification/reduction and then listening skills, so the course I took and my language and articulation background will be very helpful. I am so relieved.
So, to make a long story short - as though it weren't already too late for that - as Del always says when I ask him how a speech went --"Nobody threw nothin or nothin." Afer all that moaning everyone, especially Del, has had to put up with. Shame on me for not having confidence that people would understand I was doing the best I knew how.
Having been too worked up to sleep much last night, I dragged myself in from the bus stop, threw myself down on our wonderful big sofa and was asleep in about a minute and a half. Del got to work on his lecture to the tune of snoring from this delicate creature, or so he says. If I were a normal napper, I would go to bed, but, for some reason, it is hard for me to take premeditated naps. They have to just sneak up on me while I'm reading or resting my eyes. Two and a half hours later, I woke up, and we went out to dinner at a little place around the corner. Squid rosotto with Baileys for dessert for me. Yum. Now I'm going to have a some wine, from a glass, in case you are wondering and get ready for bed.
Thanks so much for thinking of me today. Hopefully the angst queen is off duty, at least for a while.
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