Herzlichen Glückwunsch aus Österreich (or Austria)! I am writing you from what I’ve dubbed the Beverly Hills of Austria– a community far too wealthy for me to be living in, as evidenced by students riding to school in BMWs and Hummers. I am still effectively an ALT, just entirely self-sufficient this time as…
In German, it’s called “Fernwehâ€Â (lit: far away pain). It’s the sense of wanting to be anywhere but where you actually are. Think of it as inverted homesickness. Though the ragged poverty of the English language prevents us from expressing this emotion, we have all certainly experienced it. That slight sinking feeling; knots in the stomach…
Oygevalt! Feckless TukTuk drivers, much like people who invite you to play Candy Crush, are out of control and must be stopped. Oh, if only these ancient cultures and civilizations could just crumble already and adopt the metered taxi. I mean, 200 baht to take three people across town? Dream on, my dude! Unless…
I am behind the times, my friends! When it comes to entertainment, I haven’t the foggiest notion what the young h!psters are into these days. Just look at my Netflix queue; It’s a miscellany of partially watched sitcoms and documentaries about North Korea. You’d think I’d have gotten onboard with the latest “hip†shows,…
My first day of German II, my teacher announced that each time we asked, “How do you say ___?†we would lose one percent of our final grade. Gulp and heavy sighs. As a panic-stricken wave washed over us she pointed to a giant poster at the front of the room. It read “Circumlocution. 
  As ALTs, we are regularly tasked with bringing native English and “fun†activities into the classroom. But how does one necessarily combine solid language teaching in a spirited environment that engages even your most apathetic students? Granted, there is no silver bullet, but I’ve found Total Physical Response (TPR) to be very effective…