Ellie, the english teacher

Interview with the foreigner

Írta: Gábori Dani
Műfaj: interjú

The kind, always-smiling English teacher who came to you in order to pass her knowledge on. Feel honored, kids! It was  indeed a great pleasure to interview her.

KecskeNEWSás: Hi, So where do you actually come from?
Ellie: I come from London, England. North London, to be exact.
KN: And how come you came to Hungary?
E: I studied here for a year, with the “ERASMUS” program, and switched from my university to Budapest, and someone from Budapest switched back to England.
KN: I see, so it’s like an exchange student program. What made you come to the camp? Did you know anyone here? 
E: No, I didn’t know anybody, I just got an e-mail, to my university, in Budapest, that they are looking for native english teachers for a camp, and I thought I’d try it.
KN: And did you make good friends, or close bonds here?
E: Not really close bonds, because of the English barrier, but yes, I made some good friends.
KN: Did you teach english before, or is this your first time?
E: This is my first time teaching English, I taught dancing before, a ballet teacher for very small children. This is my first time teaching english.
KN: Is it hard to teach kids english?
E: No, not its not. Because most of them really want to learn, and enjoy learning, and they all think it will give them more opportunities when they get older. It’s easy as long as you are creative. It’s difficult if it’s boring, because then students don’t want to learn.
KN: Do you teach the advanced group or the beginner?
E: Oh, the advanced group. I have to because I don’t speak hungarian
KN: So you go to university, do you do any jobs besides that?
E: When I was in Hungary, I worked in a law office, as a junior lawyer, working on the english cases, and in england I had hundreds of horrible jobs, working in a bar... and working as a dancer, but that was quite fun, I used to work in a garden center, as a plant seller, but I mainly do studying now.
KN: What do you study to be?
E: Studying to be a lawyer.
KN: Oh, working as a junior lawyer, should’ve known. So how do you like Hungary, or the camp, what do you think about it
E: Well, first of all, Hungary, I absolutely love, especially Budapest, so much to do, and so much to see, I found Hungarian people very friendly (she is the only one – editor). And I like the camp too, I enjoy teaching, but its kind of weird, because I never understand what’s happening, and this is the first time when
I have been in a place where I can’t communicate so well.
KN: Are there many people speaking english in the camp?
E: Yes, there are some, and a lot of the teachers can speak english quite well...
KN: With the genuine Hungarian huh?
E:  Yeah, the hungarian accent (laughing). And some of the kids, really suprisingly
have a really good english,
I’m  so impressed.
KN: If you had to compare London with Budapest which one is better.
E: Oh, well they are really different, I really like London in some way, because I really like the multi-culturism, I love that lots of different nationalities, different colors, different languages, while in Budapest everyone is white and hungarian (laughing) Like, there is not enough diversity, but I love being on the bridges looking at the danube, it’s much more spectacular than the river Thames, they are both so good, it’s very hard.