Cardiff and Vale College in Dumballs Road, Cardiff Bay
I think I had better explain why I haven’t published a blog post for over a week! Last Monday I started an intensive four-week course at Cardiff and Vale College (CAVC) and have had even less spare time than I expected. I will still be publishing the tree-following link box on July 7 and I hope to share some monthly tree news from all over the world, but if there is not much else you will know why.
Having been made redundant from newspapers twice in the last two years, I am now embarking on a new career, even though I am past what used to be a woman’s retirement age.
Approaching the college
I am studying a CELTA course, which should give me a start in teaching English to speakers of other languages (ESOL). With luck I may be able to help Cardiff’s immigrant, refugee and asylum-seeker community, as well as students from abroad.
For the last month or so I had been invigilating GCSE exams off and on at a rather impoverished high school with poor facilities. There is a good reason for the state of the school – the pupils will all transfer to a different, newly-built school next year so there is no point in lavishing improvements on the old place, which I guess was built in the 1960s. While the buildings were run-down, all the staff and pupils were lovely people and trying so hard, so I would wish them every success in the future.
A Subway cafe within the mini-supermarket at CAVC – I haven’t been there yet as there’s always a queue!
Facilities are NOT an issue at CAVC. To me it feels a bit like a cruise liner with various places to eat and, while it hasn’t got a duty-free, it does have a handy little “Simply Fresh” shop for food, household essentials and stationery. There’s a Subway cafe inside the shop, also accessible from the main road outside.
There’s also a top restaurant run by catering students – it’s called The Classroom but I haven’t had time to take my husband there yet.
At the top of the post you can see the coffee bar alongside the main entrance of the college. It’s great for snacks and a big coffee or tea costs students just £1 (instead of £2.40). The staff are very friendly here, as they are all over the building.
But why wouldn’t they be? The place is so clean and shiny and lively – and there are good lifts and toilets at every turn. There are well-equipped classrooms and laboratories, plus an advice centre and learning centre (library).
View from our teaching room – excuse any reflections on the window
There are 12 of us on the CELTA course and we have split into two groups, one teaching pre-intermediate English and the other a slightly more advanced level. After two weeks we will swap classes. The local people who come along benefit from FREE English lessons and we trainee teachers practise on them! There are usually just under 20 in a class.
The timetable means we teach in the mornings, each of us “performing” every other day while the others “observe”. In the afternoon we have “inputs”, learning from our brilliant tutors about lesson planning, grammar and phonetics etc. There is a lot of homework as we have to prepare, as well as doing a written assignment each week.
In one direction we can see the Victorian Church of St Mary the Virgin and St Stephen the Martyr on Bute Street
I feel I must thank my husband for taking over all the household shopping duties, as the college is not near Marks & Spencer or Tesco!
I must also thank the Welsh Government, whose ReAct scheme for those made redundant is funding this course for me.
Anyway, I am loving the learning and we even have moments of fun. One afternoon a Russian teacher came in to let us experience what it is like being a learner, starting from scratch with a language, and she cheered up our day with this wonderful little video teaching the Russian alphabet, with cute animals…
Click on the image to cheer yourself up with this super little video about the Russian alphabet…
Have a wonderful summer!
The Squirrelbasket 
There’s no such thing as a “retirement age”, merely one where you can claim the state pension! Keep on going is my motto, be it paid work or whatever. You’re as young as the person you feel (give a teenager a hug)!
Thanks for the pep talk!
When I said retirement age I did mean the time I expected to receive my pension – until the Government moved the goalposts by six years!
All the best 🙂
I didn’t realise it had started Pat. Wishing you so much success with your new venture. I’m quite excited for you!
I think all teachers should experience what it is like for a learner whose first language is not English. It can be hard to understand that extra processing time is needed (thinking in their own language first and having to translate to English) and although I’m an advocate of children being bilingual, in my experience the hardest is for EAL children whose mum is in a second marriage so that English is spoken by the step-parent but mum speaks in their native language. We have a few children who sometimes think in their own language and sometimes English. Portuguese is an interesting language but seems to give our children the most problems for this mix of parenting (vowels, word endings etc).
I hope you continue to let us know how you get on (when you have time!).
x
Interesting insights – thanks!
Of course here in Wales many children are brought up bilingually Welsh/English and nowadays sometimes they are even educated in Welsh when their own parents don’t speak it…
All the best 🙂
I’ve been through what you’re doing, Pat. I did a 4-week intensive TESOL course at a uni in New Zealand a few years ago, and was completely shattered by the end of it. But it was worth it as I loved teaching once I got started.
I’ve hardly seen any openings for English teaching in Cardiff though (except for the uni, where they want a higher level of qualification), so I hope you manage to find work when you finish. I haven’t. 🙂
Oh dear! I wasn’t really hoping for a full-time job doing it, but maybe something small will come up, or I can work in something more mundane and use my new skills voluntarily in the community.
And as you say – it IS definitely shattering!
Best wishes 🙂
After I’d made my comment I felt really bad about dampening your enthusiasm in the middle of course – I’m truly sorry!
I’m sure you’ll have better luck getting work than me and, as you say, at the very least it would be an extremely satisfying way to volunteer.
And I should add that my teaching experience led me to spend 18 months in Peru and 8 months in Cambodia, working in international development with impoverished children so who knows where your course may lead you! 🙂
No worries! I am a realist.
Maybe I should have added a smiley face so you realised I haven’t been depressed by the thought of not finding anything!
I don’t think I plan to travel, though!
Best wishes 🙂
Sounds exciting and rewarding.
I have huge repect for (English speaking) people who learn Russian, or Arabic or Japanese … I am daunted by the foreign alphabets.
Indeed.
I once had a go at learning Russian, when it was the MUST language for the future when I was a teenager, but I think Arabic or Chinese/Japanese are a completely different challenge.
Best wishes 🙂
Great – good luck with your new career, Pat. I am kept very busy with various voluntary activities, mostly in the nature conservation area, and campaigning on various issues.
Thanks very much, Paul.
I’m afraid I still need some sort of income, but I always admire your voluntary work – I guess such altruism probably runs in your family!
All the very best 🙂
It all sounds good to me.
Indeed!
Thanks 🙂
That’s so neat, Pat, great choice! And if you can volunteer that’s wonderful. Several retired friends in my home town in California volunteer with ESL (English as a Second Language) students, mainly with people from Mexico and Central America. I’d give it a try too if I still lived there (not much opportunity here). I really admire those immigrants. They work all day, many of them in the ag fields, and then go to class at night. So motivated!
Thanks for the encouragement. I have just finished the third week of the course and we are all absolutely exhausted (from the late nights doing teaching preparation and assignments), but it has been great. I’m starting to get my “second wind” now.
I agree, you have to admire the immigrants. I have got to know quite a few of our learners during this course and love and admire them all.
Best wishes 🙂
Hi! CELTA is such a useful qualification to have. I’m a qualified teacher but still keep getting asked if I have CELTA (which I will get when I have time).Teaching immigrants is very rewarding. I hope you enjoy it 🙂 Oh, and that Russian alphabet video is really cute!
Thank you for your encouraging comments! And I am now following your blog – those free materials look useful 🙂