Teaching, Santa Catarina

I finally received my carteira de trabalho. It's kind of like a life passport? It's a small card that gets stamped with your personal information about work. 

The next step is the medical exam. Yes, I need to do one in order to be employed. This is still rather awkward. It's pretty personal.

Up to now I've collected about 20 hours of teaching, from substituting other teachers. It's the end of the year and in August I'll get my own groups. 

I've taught different age groups. People ask which I would like to teach and I've realized it's not really about age...

It's about the group's desire to learn. 

I have taught kids who want to learn and doing the exercises is fun because they follow. 

Then there's the teenagers, who are only there because their parents pay for them to be there. They don't put in the effort and expect the language to just be acquired through their physical presence. 

Essentially, the quest becomes finding a way to create a comfortable environment. Not only for the image of the school, but for the student to learn. 

My personal technique has been being myself- haha. 

Majority of students just want to interact with me in order to ameliorate their pronunciation. I love this, because I can see them improve as I correct them. Being able to help them and see the results is the rewarding part about teaching. 

I've very happy teaching here in Santa Catarina. 

I'm giving this place a decent chance. 

The two places I have my eye on are Florianopolis and Balneario Camburiu.

Very briefly.....

Florianopolis is awesome because it's an island and it has 42 beaches, sand dunes and a lake. 

BC has a few beaches, but it's smaller and easier to navigate.

Speaking of navigation: my biggest regret in life is not knowing how to drive manual. 

I hate that I didn't learn. I feel crippled and dependent on the city's transport or worse, on lifts from people.