Thanks to my seasonal cold my voice has taken to changing pitch at random points in my conversations. It is kind of like going back to puberty again. Before each class I give the students an explanation of how I am fighting a cold and I apologize in advance, but I can’t help but giggle when it happens. The students are thinking, “Oh great, my English teacher is Squeaky the Giggling Clown.”
Hopefully time will heal all wounds and my voice will be back to normal soon. I never think about how often I use my voice at work, but teaching eight classes a day doesn’t leave a lot of quiet time, does it?
Wednesday is turning out to be my busiest day of the week, with three different kinds of English courses to teach, so switching between them is a challenge both logistic and mental. Today I did the switch successfully with a few minutes to spare, but I imagine that the law of averages will kick in and one of these days I’ll still be setting up when students walk in. Maybe it is good to be able to respond on the fly without a lot of prep time. Or maybe I have too tight a schedule on Wednesday.
The silver lining is that Thursday and Friday are by comparison almost easy days, with plenty of time for preparation in the morning, and even an empty planning class on Friday to celebrate the end of the week. Hoo-rah.
One of my students in a one-on-one class asked me today why there are no classes scheduled on November 20th. I explained that I took the day off to spend my 10th wedding anniversary in Singapore with my wife, and the student had an unusual reaction. The tone of his voice and his way of speaking made it seem like he had caught me out at doing something bad, and he said that he wouldn’t tell anyone. I wasn’t sure why as I haven’t made it a secret, but there may be some cultural difference at work here. My guess is that taking time off of work to celebrate an anniversary with one’s spouse is not usual. Who knows? I’m really looking forward to it, though.
