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A Short Review of The Language House and its TEFL Training Program

Published on October 12, 2014March 3, 2024 by An Accidental Vagabond1 Comment

After leaving China, I decided to get certified. You don’t have to have your TEFL cert to teach in China; I’m evidence of that, but I thought it would broaden my opportunities. It is a good idea if you want to teach overseas. You can get your TEFL pretty much anywhere, but there are a few things you want to keep in mind when deciding where to go. One is that you want to make certain that the TEFL school is accredited. This is really important. Your certificate must be internationally recognized. You’ll also want a program that offers over 100 hours of TEFL training and teaching. You want real teaching hours with real students. You want your teachers to be trained and certified, and you want some help with job placement assistance. If you want to read more in-depth information on hunting for the right TEFL Program you can link here and here.

Now, let me tell you why I chose The Language House in Prague. I’ll start with the completely impractical reason first, and then follow the more researched reason.

I chose Prague because I love Prague. I lived here in 2000, and I had always wanted to return. As some of you who have followed this blog know, I wrote my first (and so far only) novel about living in Prague. The city had haunted my memories for the past 14 years. Since, my mom had died in February, and I was heartbroken and completely lost without having any feeling of home, I thought why not continue to move on to the next place? And, why not have that place be Prague a city that had been on my mind?

There are plenty of places in Prague where you can get your TEFL cert, but I chose the Language House. Their certificate is recognized, fully accredited and externally Monitored by IATQuO. They offer 130 hours of teacher training including the actual teaching of real life students. The main reason I chose them was because they have an extensive social network that allowed me to get in contact with previous students. This network offered me real feedback about the program, and I felt I could trust them once I was able to read reviews, and contact a few folks. I could see that people were actually teaching and that they felt the program was a good program, and one that they were willing to recommend.

Now that I have completed the program I can throw in my two cents. I think The Language House is an excellent program. I can’t say it is the best in Prague because I didn’t go to any of the other schools, but I had met students from other schools who felt their program had lacked the teaching time and the teacher support that we received at the Language House. The teachers are excellent, but using the word excellent is empty without adding a few examples. So here they are:

Anthony, gave us an introduction to Phonetics. He was well versed in the subject and was enthusiastic in his teaching of the classes. He was funny, helpful, and I heard from other students that he was a wonderful observer. (I’ll explain observer in a bit.)

Andrea, is pretty much everything a person would want in a teacher. Hilarious, intelligent, informative, had an incredible command of the class, and during our lesson planning she was there to give us helpful advice. She gave us grammar lessons-focused on conditionals, and CV versus resume information. She is also the jobs go-to person and she is always quick to respond to questions.

Chris Foxwell had the reputation of being the hard-ass out of the teachers. You know that teacher that really pushes you, and you think that he/she may be some kind of a sadists, (but remember you’re the masochist for signing up for the class) till you realize you learned so much from that teacher? That’s Chris. He’s a no excuses type of instructor, and you are going to learn from him. He went over grammar and methodology. You could tell he loved what he was teaching and wanted teachers coming out of The Language House to be the best.

Chris Westergaard, is the program director and owner of The Language House. He is a natural in front of the class. He is engaging and insightful. He offers an enormous breadth of information and TEFL teaching knowledge from ten years of experience. And, he has many funny tales of TEFL teaching life.

There are more people to mention at The Language House, but these were my core instructors. There was also Jitka our Czech language teacher, and Kirrily who taught Young Learners, both great teachers. I had mentioned in a paragraph above about observers. We began teaching real students in the second week of this four week program. We were observed every time, and at the end of classes we were given in-depth feedback on our teaching. You’ll have three different observers and teach three different levels during your course. Expect to feel tired.

Here’s more of what you’ll experience: You will learn your grammar. You will take a grammar test that you need to pass with at least an 80% in order to get your certificate. You will go to class everyday and teach everyday (except on Friday- no teaching). You will freak out about not having a lesson plan. You will freak out when you realize you don’t know your own language’s grammar, but your Czech students do. You will think that you were crazy for signing up for this program. You will get tired of your feedback, until one day someone say’s “that’s an almost a perfect grammar lesson,” then you’ll feel amazing. You’ll learn new teaching methodologies, but you will focus on the ESA method of teaching. You’ll meet really wonderful people. You’ll let loose like crazy on the weekends. Then it will be over.

During my first week of class, as Chris W. taught us about the ESA method (Engage, Study, Activate), right away my mind flashed back to my literature classes in China. It was obvious to me how much this type of training would have assisted me in my classes. I thought about how I could have done things differently and how much it would have improved my lessons.

No, you don’t need your TEFL to teach in China, but I think it can not only increase your pay and your opportunities, but it will help make your classroom experience better for you and your students. If you want to teach overseas I highly recommend you take a course, and if you decide to come to Prague for your training- I sincerely and emphatically recommend The Language House in Prague.

Hearing From Former Students in China

Published on July 19, 2014March 3, 2024 by An Accidental VagabondLeave a comment

China can be a challenging and difficult place to be a young student. This massive population and its limited high quality Universities makes the Gaokao, China’s college entrance exam, not only one of the toughest tests in the world it is also the test that determines a student’s academic future- therefore future. This test is taken by every Chinese student (except those who opt out by choosing to study abroad) and it is a test that they spend their entire middle school and high school lives preparing to take.

Universities are known more for having a good time in China than for studying, but there are a few top collages that many students in China dream of attending for academic purposes and those are universities in Beijing and Shanghai, and only the top Gaokao scores can attend these schools. Too add to the stress the desired score to attend college in these cities is different from province to province- for example if you are a student from the Province where I am currently living ,Henan, then you have to score higher on the Goakao than a student from Beijing or Shanghai or even a student from a Province with a lower population. The idea of this different scores plan is that it allows some balance. Henan is the most populated province in China and the thought is that if everyone was to need to the same score to get into a top University then there would be too many kids from Henan at all the top Universities. Honestly, I’m not certain how they came to this conclusion but if I were a student from Henan dreaming of going to a top University many of which are in not Henan I would feel that the scoring isn’t very fair, but I don’t make the rules.

During the school year at #47 I met a few students through our English corner- students who were not a part of my program, a Sino-U.S. program. One of these students, a young girl whose english blew away all of my students bound for the states, was a particular favorite of mine. She’s bright, ambitious, and a free-thinker. She’s fortunate enough to have parents that are pretty progressive so progressive in fact that they are not pressing marriage or even having a child (not yet anyway). She has some lofty goals. She wants to change the way China views mental health. This is a lofty goal. Currently, China’s view on mental health is fairly archaic, and those suffering from depression or bi-polar or even worse schizophrenia to name a few are left to the responsibility of the family who are unable to cope with these illnesses and of course those families and individuals suffer the stigmas that come along with backward thinking toward mental health issues. You can read about it here: http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/07/unable-to-cope-chinas-inadequate-care-of-the-mentally-ill/278170/

and here: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=1682419

and here: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/26/the_madness_of_china_s_mental_health_system

To make an incredibly long story short- this student sent me a text message today: “Hello how are you? I wanted to share my news, I am going to Shanghai University!”

I was so excited to read this news because I know how hard the Gaokoa is and how many students that I ask about their dreams don’t emphasize those dreams much because they worry about the competition of this test. I texted her back expressing my joy to her and letting her know how proud I am to know her. She responded with the best text one can ever get from a teenager.

“We are closer to our dream now! Don’t forget that I will be your first student!”

She was never my student but I’m really honored that she considers me to be one of her teachers because all we ever did was talk about life and dreams.

How to have a Successful Fundraiser for a Future Writer

Published on June 27, 2010March 4, 2024 by An Accidental Vagabond1 Comment

“Don’t Short Change The Muse” really happened.

Days later, and I still can’t believe that three weeks ago this fundraiser for me and created by me with the support of a friend (the amazing Alisa Peck), was just some random thought. I have random thoughts all the time. I am a talker, not often a doer. I’m an optimistic pessimist, do you know how hard that is? I’m still not sure this really happened, but there are pictures and I have a program that I created to prove it.

A woman in a black dress is adjusting a music stand while speaking with someone out of frame. — Setting up the music rack to hold my speech.

A woman in a black dress is standing behind a music stand. She is reciting a poem. — Setting up the music rack to hold my speech.

I emceed, and opened the show with my poem, “I am not your Sylvia.”

Bar Carlo: Location of the Fundraiser

Bar Carlo was a fairly new establishment in SE Portland. My friend and current employer, recently opened a bar across the street, and she had become friends with the owners of Bar Carlo. It was due to the proximity to my friend’s bar and her relationship with the owners that I was able to have the fundraiser in their restaurant. This is the beauty of networking. Actually, I’d say deeper than networking, because networking is more about opportunistic pursuits. The word I’m thinking of is community. There is of course a reciprocal relationship between the fundraiser and the restaurant. I will bring people into their establishment and those people will order drinks, and maybe they’ll come back. However, the restaurant loses an immediate profit by hosting my fundraiser. They let me have it as a private party during a night that they are normally closed, but they did not charge me for the space. They donated their space to help a fundraiser for me to raise money for a writing program. They don’t know me personally, but they knew my friend, and that’s why they agreed. Community.

We didn’t have to pay for anything but the drinks. A friend brought the spread of awesome food, and another friend brought a red velvet cake (that her ten-year old son picked out). It was all a community event to help me pursue my dreams.

The front of a restaurant called Bar Carlo. — Bar Carlo, a great place for cocktails, brunch, and dinner.

Don’t Short Change the Muse

Act I

I opened with a speech that I wrote. I went right into my first piece, a spoken word poem titled, “I Am Not Your Syliva“. A poem referencing the great Sylvia Plath, but also a poem about women taking back and holding their place in the poetry world.

Poetry Reading

Arias and an Accordion

Sarah of Carpe Vocum Singing, sang Ach Ich Fuhl’s, from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

A woman singing and playing the accordion.

Burlesque

Miss Fannie Fuller danced an amazing burlesque piece to Le Hot Jazz

Classic Sketch Comedy

A tribute Monty Python comedy troupe: Cirque De-cision, performed the sketch, “Army Protection Racket.“

A young woman in a 1940's military uniform looks shocked as she speaks with a male officer whose face is turned away from the camera.

ACT II

In the second act I opened with a monologue I wrote titled, “The Tragedy of Abigail Lockhart”.

Monologue and a Concertina

The lights flashed and then in character, as Abagail, I waltzed onto the stage (the floor space). This drew people to their seats, and then in an exaggerated southern drawl, I began to speak. It is a comedic piece with a farcical performance. It was very fun to perform.

An Operatic Duet

Sarah and Meghan sang an operatic duet, “The Flower,” ( Lakme), written by Leo Delibes. It was absolutely stunning. Jaw dropping. (I wish I could have recorded their voices, it was unforgettably beautiful.)

Sketch Comedy

Cirque De-Cision performed “Children’s Stories.”

A white man in his mid twenties, sits on a chair looking at a program.

A Novel Reading

I read a piece from my novel Zizkov

More “Salacious” Burlesque

And we ended with more Burlesque from Miss Fannie Fuller, who was also my friend, the wonderful Alisa Peck who inspired me to do this fundraiser in the first place. She guided me and held my hand through the entire process. I am forever grateful.

A close up of a woman's hand holding a large white feathered fan.

The Silent Auction

Aside from all the performers who volunteered their time and talent to my personal cause, I also had friends who donated their crafts, art and services for a silent auction.

As soon as people arrived we encouraged them to look over the gift cards, crafts, foods, and art, and starting bidding on what they wanted to take home with them. Quiet bidding went on during the duration of the performance. Another reminder of the silent auction was given during the intermission, and after the performance I gave patrons and guests five minutes to make their final bids. I announced the winners as a closing part of the night.

A group of people stand around a woman who is reading a paper.

A photo of a woman's legs from the bottom of her black dress to her bright red high heel shoes.

Artists and businesses had donated around $500.00 dollars worth of items and services to the auction including art, jewelry, a facial, acupuncture, hair cut, a dinner and journals.

Drawings of various art up for auction. — Donations from Friends and Friends of Friends

A Successful Fundraising Event

This felt like it was all done on the fly, but it wasn’t. It was just done in a very minute time frame. Three weeks to get it all organized and executed. I wasn’t able to do it alone. I pulled this together because so many people wanted to help and wanted to be involved, which was amazing. Honestly, I didn’t think it was possible to pull together an anachronistic variety show in a matter of two and a half weeks. Obviously you can, with the help of loving friends and community, anything is possible. And the level of performance was stunning, so surprising. I had never seen any of the performers perform before so it was all new to me, too. I really enjoyed emceeing, hosting and performing. The programing worked great, and that was amazing.

The Goal

My hope, and my goal was to make at least enough to make my first payment. All I needed was $400.00 since I had already saved up $250.00 (The Attic has been kind enough to break my payments into four installments of $650.00) my first payment is due July 15th. I made $797.00 dollars that night. Beyond my expectations and hopes! I have already made my first payment and almost my second payment.

I’m still pinching myself that all this came together. But it did. It really did.

How to Fundraise Using Performance and Art

Published on June 12, 2010March 4, 2024 by An Accidental Vagabond2 Comments

Why am I Raising Funds?

I was accepted into The Attic’s Antheneum program, but I don’t have the money to pay for it. It is an alternative to a MFA. It is still not an easy program to get accepted into, but it is a lot more affordable than a MFA program. However, I still don’t have the money to pay for it. After speaking with a friend, she suggested that I have a fundraiser. I felt a little uncomfortable at first asking people to give me money for a program that would only benefit me. It seemed too selfish a request, but my friend convinced me that I could do a fundraiser for myself. That it wasn’t an extraordinary thing to do. She also offered to help.

What Kind of Fundraiser

I am producing a variety show. A real vaudevillian callback. I have an opera singer, a burlesque dancer, some music, a comedian, and I will be performing three readings. I will be reading one spoken word, one monologue and a bit from my novel. I put together the program, the schedule, and found people to donate their talent and time. I also found a place that was willing to offer up their space.

Promoting When You Feel You are an Imposter

Promoting is a huge part of the process and I am not the best at self promoting. Yet, I have to promote in order to get people to come to my fundraiser. How else do people know what you are doing ,and what it is they have the opportunity to see.

I have terrible imposter syndrome, so having this fundraiser and promoting it is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. If I wasn’t the main star and the subject and the needy, I could do it no problem. Since I am the star and it is about me, its more difficult for me to promote, because, and I’m sorry to admit this because it reveals the depths of my vulnerability, I just don’t think I’m worth much. I know, terrible to say, but I have a near zero level of self-esteem when it comes to my writing, art, photography– anything I create. Which I suppose is the definition of imposter syndrome. I’m trying though. I’m posting it all right here.

This is the first time I have ever done anything like this. A show about me for me. However, I have a lot of talented friends who will also be performing. Through all my insecurities, I believe the audiences is going to get a good show. For the promotion, I did a bunch of tongue in cheek promo pictures for my invite.

A woman in her early 30's with blonde shoulder length hair is sitting on a chair in the middle of a road. She wears glasses and is dressed in a bright red sweater, a brown knee length skirt, and brown leggings. Her small heel shoes are black and white houndstooth. She is laughing as she holds a notebook, a pen and an umbrella over her shoulder. — The writer

A woman in her early 30's with blonde shoulder length hair is sitting on a chair in next to a garden. She wears glasses and is dressed in a bright red sweater, a brown knee length skirt, and brown leggings. Her small heel shoes are black and white houndstooth. She looks away from the camera smiling at someone out of the frame. She holds a notebook and a pen. — The writer

Don’t Short Change the Muse

The name of the show is, Don’t Short Change the Muse. It comes from something William Burroughs once said. It is on the 22nd of June and will be happening here in Portland. I’m not sure how many Portland people read this post, but if you want to come you are invited. The info is at the bottom of this post.

The Final Invitation

In the end we decided to scrap the profile pictures and go with something else.

Don’t Short Change the Muse

Come join me and guests for one night at Bar Carlo for a variety show of readings, poetry, music, vaudeville, a couple loose cannons, opera and burlesque.
Help Adrienna raise tuition money for the Attic’s The Atheneum.
There will be a silent auction with donations from the following artists: and businesses:

Lucy’s Table, Presents of Mind, Tasi, Seasons K. Designs, From the Reliquary, SmashCuts, Artist Jen Smith, Jesse Jacob Young Photographer, Silk Rose Acupuncture, Technology is Real, Luscious Jewelry and more…

All funds go to Adrienna’s tuition.

A Sliding Scale Entrance fee of $5 to $15 dollars (no one will be turned away).

Doors open at 7:00p.m. show starts at 8:00 p.m.

A special thank you to Bar Carlo for the space.

Help make a great writer and help support a craftsperson. Writing like all other arts is a craft to be cultivated and nurtured. Writing done well is about community, it is about life.