5. I.G.
I started learning English in a language school quite late compared to how soon people usually start off their EFL studies these days. I was fifteen back then; however, right after I entered Yázigi I found out how pleasant it is to learn express myself in languages other than my own.
Because of this, I would read books, listen to music and chat on-line using everything that I was learning in class. This attitude brought relevance and meaningfulness to the whole process.
Two years later, I started my advanced course and also got a job as a monitor at Yázigi. For eight months I worked in our Resouce Center, helping students get their homework done and monitoring the use of books, computers and other materials.
After that, I had the chance of applying for a teacher opening at our school; after a test, an interview and a fifty-hour eliminatory pre-service program, I managed to join the teachers staff. By this time I had already entered university as well, and my course is pretty much related to my work, which is something really positive to me.
I have learned a huge number of things since I started teaching, ranging from techniques in the classroom to better ways of dealing with others everywhere I go.
Besides my classes themselves, something that has made a significant difference in my career is a meeting we have every Friday from 2 to 5 p.m. In it, we are shown and taught many different theories and also had, in 2005/2006 a one-year course on Bioenergetics, a field of Psychoanalysis that shed some bright light on my understanding of myself and of the others as well. It was really impacting and marked a milestone in my life, in a very positive way.
Now, I am looking forward to traveling to Canada through PIANI, and taking a few disciplines there that will enhance my curriculum and allow me to teach in a wider range of places around the world. I just hope the experience I’ve gathered here in terms of theory and practice proves to be really useful during my studies there.