English lessons in Nadleśnictwo

Volunteers in Pułtusk have more and more things to do! To prove this, today I am telling you about English lessons in Nadleśnictwo for its workers. Cooperation with this forest inspection office is not new, we have already had a mikroworkcamp in autumn where we planted about 1,200 trees.

This time, our cooperation does not require much physical work, we are rather concentrating on mental processes. After a technical meeting and some discussion, we set up two groups; a beginner and an intermediate one. Later on, the intermediate was divided into two smaller groups to give more time to everybody to speak during lessons. 

Sometimes, individual explanation is needed
 but we always have fun

The beginner group started with the alphabet and practicing pronouciation of different letter combinations. By now, they are also familiar with basic greetings and with the conjugation of the verb ‘to be’. Most of them did not have any English studies or just very basic so our common language is rather Polish. The level of communication then depends on how much I understand. Luckily,  the daughter of Nadleśnictwo’s boss is coming every week to assist me at these lessons with translation to make my work easier.

Lessons with the intermediate group are mostly about practicing and improving their existing knowledge. They are usually given a text to read and then they have to answer questions and we also have a discussion about it. We also started to revise the tenses and their homework is usually to write a short essay about a given topic.

I really enjoy teaching there, as the people are extremely nice and they seem to be truly interested about learning English. Also, the building of Nadleśnictwo is really beautiful, surrounded by nature, so the 10-minute-bus ride plus 10-15 minutes of walk is absolutely worth it.

That’s all folks,

Zsófi

Jak było luty?

As all of the months lately, February has also been active in the life of our organisation. Let’s see what happened with us in the past month.

 

Spoktanie z Węgier, 20 February

There are some activities that are becoming regular, like ‘Spotkanie z Węgier’ every second Thursday. At these meetings people have the chance to get to know the culture of Hungary through its cinematography. The films are provided for us by the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Warsaw. We start the meeting with a bit of introduction to the film, a couple of minutes dedicated to get to know the background and characters of the story. Then, after watching a film, there is discussion about the film and usually the conversation continues for hours.

The other two Thursdays of the month is always dedicated to something fun and interesting. The most popular is ‘Czwartek z planszówkami’, a meeting where we play board games together while practicing languages. In our game collection we have: Settlers of Catan, Dixit, Jungle Speed, Wieża (Polish Jenga)

Patience and stady hands are the key
to be a Jenga master

and a Hungarian version of Monopoly with bankcards (with translated instructions, of course) just to mention some. Participants are also welcome to bring their own games for these events. This is how we had the chance to get to know ‘Ryzyko’. My personal favourite is of course, Jenga. It is always funny to play this game while solving impossible situations.

The last two weeks of the month, we were spending with children at Świetlica during winter holidays. We supported the teachers there with their activities and we got some time every day to carry out our own ideas. Just like during the workcamp in July, we created a two-week-competition for them and each day we gave them different tasks where they had the chance to  get points. For a couple of days, two of our fellow volunteers joined us to help with activities and bringing their own ideas. Pia and Tom both spent a really nice time with the kids, while introducing them Germany. Pia gave them some general information about the country and Tom taught them some songs with the help of his trumpet.

The kids really enjoyed trying to play the trumpet
after learning German songs

Russian and Hungarian day also did not miss from the programme. After a general presentation, the kids were given flags and traditional symbols to colour. This was followed by a little quiz to test their memory. We also tried to organize a sport day for them but we never managed to find a perfect time for it. Once the weather was not so nice, then the other day it was impossible to discipline and organize the children into their groups so it only had a shorter version. As we are teaching the children English, a quiz about their knowledge and memory about words was also part of the activities. As Zimowiska took place during carnival season, it was obvious that we are going to finish it with a little party. The days before we were creating masks for ourselves and on the last day, we celebrated with balloons and dancing. We also had a closing and award ceremony to end the competiton. All participants were given cute certificates and the first three got bronze, silver and gold medals just like at the Olympics.

On the 27th of February, we organized a tandem meeting. As this day was Tłusty Czwartek, we were welcoming our guests with delicious pączki. Those who came had the chance to practice their Russian, German and English knowledge. We prepared different topics but in some places, the conversation was not dedicated to a specific topic.

That’s all folks for now. Thank you for everybody’s help and participating during this month, it really has been a pleasure to spend it with you.

If you want to know more about our activities, follow our blog and facebook page, more information and updates are coming soon!

Na razie,

Zsófi