Tatiana is from Brazil and is meeting twice a week with me to practice basic English. She is a twenty-six-year-old biologist by trade who is a housekeeper here saving up money to return to Brazil and buy some property. According to Tatiana, it is way easier to find a job and save money in Queenstown than in Brazil. It is worth it to her to stay here for a year or two even if she doesn't want to be away from her family simply because of how much she will be able to save and bring back. Considering that I think the wages here are horrible and competition for jobs very steep, I find this news about Brazil slightly alarming.
Jan is a twenty-eight-year-old Czech who is studying for the IELTS exam in preparation to move to Canada. His dream is to live and work in a hotel in Vancouver but needs a good score on the IELTS in order to get the right visa and a good job. It's been fun working with him because his level of English is already so advanced and because he has a specific goal in mind and test to study for.
Things are still going well with my other students. I am reading "Matilda" with the other Czech couple and we are having a good time discussing the book along with learning a lot of new vocabulary. Dan, my British student studying Spanish, has made it to about the equivalent of Chapter 3 of any introductory Spanish book and is conjugating verbs and speaking in sentences. It's actually really exciting and cool to watch him catch on to new things every week.
I am really enjoying teaching and it makes me miss school. With working for NZSki, we are required to do a course on our own which earns us a certificate in New Zealand tourism. It's actually quite a lot of busywork and writing and has consumed most of my mornings when I am not selling the occasional bus ticket.
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