What I learned today
McGuffin - A plot device that holds no meaning or purpose of its own except to motivate the characters and advance the story. -
This would be yet another word I learned from the TWOP forums. In case you haven't been following it, on 24 this season Jack & Cie. spent the first several hours searching for this override thingy that the baddies were using to try and melt down a bunch of nuclear reactors. In the recaps the device was nicknamed the McGuffin. I didn't think much about it since the thing had the initials MF on the side. I guess I assumed McGuffin was just the recapper's snarky nickname for it. Well, it was in fact, but it also happens to be a real thing, or I mean, an un-real thing.
Yeah yeah, say what you want about me only seeming to learn new stuff from a particular website, but honestly, where else am I gonna learn new words and stuff? My students? I think not.
What I did today
Lazed around a good part of the day. See I'm off the sugar (mostly) and I'm having some pretty freaky withdrawls. Headache, lethargy, moodiness. I decided to treat today as a sick day a la Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting. No babies crawling on the ceilling thanfully. Work was fine, though I wasn't nearly prepared enough for my teenaged group. The adults were better. When I told them my proposal for the end of the course I was afraid they would throw rocks at me. It's like this: They are unhappy they won't be able to finish the course with me. They want me to work all kinds of extra classes to spare them the untold horror of finishing the book with a Russian teacher. I considered it (I really honestly did), but finally decided it wasn't going to happen, mainly because finishing is a practical impossibility, and if they can do one unit with a Russian teacher, they can golly well do two. As a sort of compromise, I will work this Friday and next, and then on June 1st, one day after the technical end of my contract.
Bright ideas I've had
How much does it cost to fly to Helsinki from Moscow?
McGuffin - A plot device that holds no meaning or purpose of its own except to motivate the characters and advance the story. -
This would be yet another word I learned from the TWOP forums. In case you haven't been following it, on 24 this season Jack & Cie. spent the first several hours searching for this override thingy that the baddies were using to try and melt down a bunch of nuclear reactors. In the recaps the device was nicknamed the McGuffin. I didn't think much about it since the thing had the initials MF on the side. I guess I assumed McGuffin was just the recapper's snarky nickname for it. Well, it was in fact, but it also happens to be a real thing, or I mean, an un-real thing.
Yeah yeah, say what you want about me only seeming to learn new stuff from a particular website, but honestly, where else am I gonna learn new words and stuff? My students? I think not.
What I did today
Lazed around a good part of the day. See I'm off the sugar (mostly) and I'm having some pretty freaky withdrawls. Headache, lethargy, moodiness. I decided to treat today as a sick day a la Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting. No babies crawling on the ceilling thanfully. Work was fine, though I wasn't nearly prepared enough for my teenaged group. The adults were better. When I told them my proposal for the end of the course I was afraid they would throw rocks at me. It's like this: They are unhappy they won't be able to finish the course with me. They want me to work all kinds of extra classes to spare them the untold horror of finishing the book with a Russian teacher. I considered it (I really honestly did), but finally decided it wasn't going to happen, mainly because finishing is a practical impossibility, and if they can do one unit with a Russian teacher, they can golly well do two. As a sort of compromise, I will work this Friday and next, and then on June 1st, one day after the technical end of my contract.
Bright ideas I've had
How much does it cost to fly to Helsinki from Moscow?
Labels: EFL teaching, Life in Moscow

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