Life and Times of an English Language Doctor

This morning, I took my bi-weekly trek to the goverment office to check the status of my application for health insurance. Last week, they said one or two weeks by post. This week, the official assigned to my task could not speak English. She said that it would be in the post, but that is what they said four weeks ago. She also said that she couldn't find me in the system; two weeks ago, I was in the system. While the official was trying to get an English word from her co-worker, I called the secretary and told her my plight. I handed the phone to the official and listened to a five-minute conversation in Hungarian without recognizing a single word. The secretary told me that there was a step that the school needed to take. The official asked me to sign for a paper on which she wrote the case number that the school would need  to complete that step. Thankfully, the application process is back on track. My vocabulary quizzes in Hungarian have taken a backslide. The teacher started t...

Nov 2 On Tuesdays, I have mornings off, but then have a Hungarian class,  a English grammar class, and a writing class. I generally eat a late breakfast and squeeze my lunch into the break from 4 to 6. I was a little late last week, catching up with other ideas for lesson plans, and decided to try an Indian fast food restaurant even though I have little affinity for Indian food. The place with the ready made Indian food menu on the door turned out to be a store rather than a restaurant.  I found some lentils. Nov 3 I experimented with a lentil recipe I found online, with a few substitutions of my own. I did not rinse the lentils enough, so they foamed over. The soup was very good. I shared some with my culture coach on Monday. She liked it.  I made another batch with yet another modified recipe on Wednesday, November 10, which I shared with my English teacher friend from church.  Nov 5 I shirked all day. I should have marked papers and polished my slide presentations...

It has been nearly three months since I started this blog. This post, in addition to reviewing the events of October, groups and summarizes some of the less frequently viewed posts.  Permission Settling in another country requires getting permission from government authorities. Click on  Paperwork ,  Documents , and  Follow up for detailed saga. Here are the highlights: October 2- went to immigration to follow up on status of residence permit October 15- discovered immigration is closed on Friday, but document was delivered to my door. October 20- returned to immigration to clarify next step (found that the process wasn't complete) October 26- went to immigration and picked up residence card October 27-went to health office to apply for social security number. Afterwards, went to bank and registered by official residence, which removed the $2 fee for withdrawing cash. Language Acquisition When I first came, a teacher from the school showed me around the city, acquai...

Yesterday, most of the congregation's college-age crowd had gone home for the long weekend to celebrate All Saints Day with their families. The pastor declared it family day, which meant that the children were to remain in the sanctuary for the entire service.  Before the sermon, the preschoolers gathered at the front to recite their Bible verse, then returned to their seats, most of them at the back. Since I sit with an interpreter in the back, I had a good view of the children.  The text for the sermon was taken from Isaiah 44. As is his usual custom, the pastor worked his way through the chapter verse by verse, commenting on each one. About ten minutes into the sermon, when he got to the verses about fashioning idols from wood, he pulled out a jackolantern. A neutral face was carved on one side; a scared face on the other.  The children stepped out into the aisle so they could see what was happening. The pastor turned the neutral face to the congregation. He pretended ...