Interlocutor Day

Last week I was asked to help out the Basic School as an interlocutor at the English Olympics area competition.  First, I had to ask the definition of interlocutor - HA!!!  According to Webster:  "one who takes part in dialogue or conversation."  (They needed a native speaker for parts of the competition.)   So this Thursday, the elementary principal drove our two school winners, plus Radka (another teacher), and me to a school near the gym where we play volleyball on Friday nights, at 7:15 in the morning.  There were students there from all over the area, as well as other teachers to serve as judges.  What a fascinating day!  And it was really a joy getting to know Radka too - her English is super, and she's such a sweetie!!  

The testing/competition has six graded parts - written tests in grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension  - a listening comprehension test (it was my first job to read the listening examples out loud to each of the two levels of students competing, in my best and clearest English!) - and two spoken tests.  One is a picture description/story where they have to look at a photo then just make something up about it.  And the second oral task is a role-play, where they are given a "role" and have a conversation with the interlocutor -- me!  I didn't have to do any scoring, just keep the conversation going --- no problem for me - HA!  

After this group was done, I had a student take this photo for me - and I told this competitor that he would be seen all over America on our blog.   :-)   It was fun being the Mom or Dad in the dialogue with my "daughter" or "son" who wanted to forgo the traditional Easter family activities in favor of some new idea they had to come up with.  

The principal of the school handing out the awards to the top 3 winners.  In the role-play for this level, we were two friends planning a camping trip and discussing whether we should take along a third friend of ours, who I liked and the student didn't.  Some of the conversations were really funny.  

The winners for the "B" level --- these two girls and I had a long and interesting conversation out in the hall when I was between duties, and they were waiting to go in for their picture-story activity, one by one.  I even tried to do a little "recruiting" for our school, telling them how good it is, so when they decide on a secondary school, maybe they'll consider coming to EGJT.   :-)    

This gigantic banner was in one of the testing rooms - I'm sure it was on site at this event in 2010.  I took the picture especially for Lute, since he competed in cross country and now coaches the J.H. team at Wapsie Valley!!   :-)  
I wonder if the world championship will be back in Liptovsky Mikuláš again this year???   

This is a trophy case - also in the testing room - with their St. Mikuláš logo.  I asked, and they are sports trophies.  

When I got back to school afterwards, there was an email from the camera shop - our camera was repaired!!  So while Tim gave his extra English lessons, I took the bus over to Ružomberok and back to pick it up.  I haven't taken any photos yet, but the lens mechanism opens and closes smoothly again, so we should be good to go now!!  :-) 

Thursday night we both had students again, then we set the alarm extra early for our 7:00 a.m. extra class with the oktavas (they're the ones who don't have a native speaker for conversation, so they want extra coaching before the Maturita examinations.)  We played volleyball with the after-school student-teacher group again, but it may be a little much to play twice in one day on a regular basis.  We'll see.  Friday night was volleyball and basketball at the gym across town, and it was snowing as I walked to the grocery store afterwards and then back to our flat.  So peaceful and pretty!!  This has been a "lay-low" Saturday.  I have some goulash stewing, with deer meat from Katarina's family - it smells wonderful!  (It's Carol's recipe which she learned from her Slovak friends, so hopefully it's as authentic as it gets without making it outside over an open fire in a giant black kettle!!)