Today I was waiting for my mum to pick me up from the French lesson (yeah, I'm learning French too, actually, I'm taking the DELF B2 exam and I don't know just how the hell I'm gonna cope with everyting), when the secretary told me she wanted to ask me about something.
Now, let me explain some thigns beforehand, because you won't understand much if I don't...
Thare's a language school I'm going to. Usually, I would go to the branch nearest my house (well, that's fairly far too, but anyway). But this summer, as a Proficiency student, I had to go to the central school, which is in the centre of the city.
Now, although Katerini is a small town, getting to the center of the city on foot from my house takes half an hour. Which is too much to walk, believe me!
So, I put up with it for the summer, since I had nothing else to do (I did have better things to do, but as I said, I wanna nail the Proficiency exam, so I said "what the hell? let's just get it over and done with")
But it wasn't just the distance. I didn't like the teachers much, too. I'm not some drama queen, mind you, but when it comes to teachers I pay, I want the best! There were two. One was male, one female.
The male teacher was quite fun, the lesson was definitely not boring, but I didn't get the feeling that I was preparing for a goddamn exam.
And now let's get to the female one. Actually, I had lessons with her the previous year as well, and I found the lesson linear, and her as a tracher utterly boring (nothing personal, miss, but I didn't like you. I just didn't), especially when compared to the other one who was teaching me at the time (for the Cambridge FCE exam, that is) which was one hell of a teacher!
So, we had a twice-a-week, two-hour lesson with that lovely little teacher of mine. She would give us 250 words to learn (and that's per lesson, ladies and gentlemen), of which around 100 I had to look up in a dictionary. One of the most tedious and time-consuming things I have ever done, I assure you.
Well, it was summer. And the grumpy me is dormant in summer, so to speak. So I didn't complain to her in person (although me and the other two students bashed her quite a bit. Don't look at me like that, I'm not even sorry). But then winter came. Time for the grumpy me to come out of hibernation.
Returning now to what I was saying, we had the first lesson after summer. With her again. Lucky me.
At the beginning of the lesson, we had to talk about the time schedule. Now, the time schedule is arranged by the central school secretary.
She said "You'll have three lessons here, each of a 1 hour and a half duration, twice with ... (the female teacher)"
And I said in a neutral and polite way, although I felt like Batou going berserk, "Well, if we have lessons twice a week with you, miss, we 'll have to adjust the amount of homework. Because it's not possible to study so much, vocabulary-wise".
The teacher said "There's not much I can do. The amount of Preliminary Tests is going to be the same".
I said "It's not the tests, it's the vocabulary that worries us".
I wonder why I used "us". My two male classmates just stood there, mouths firmly shut. Like it wasn't their problem too. (OK, that's irrelevant, but I just have to say it. Why do boys want us to consider them the leaders while they do nothing but shut the
f*ck up?)
The conversation didn't last long. And we didn't reach a solution. Nevertheless, the show went on. The lesson finished, and there I was again, with 250
f*$%&*^' words to learn. With school homework and all, I would never pull it off (oh, who am I kidding? I could hardly pull it off in summer, anyway)
But with the schedule having me go downtown, my mother had a major problem. She couldn't drive me, and there was just no way I would walk three times a week all the way to the center. What is more, I was still dissatisfied with that infamous teacher and I still wanted to pass the Proficiency exam. So we started considering private lessons (I'm not going to divulge any information about the teacher tutoring me now, she would be in a real bind if I did and it reached the people at central. I know, it's not like they're going to find out about that form my blog, but still, it would be wise to not say anything)
So my mother went to press the secretary (at the branch, that is) for the schedule to change and me to go to the branch. That was impossible since they didn't have enough classrooms (they still don't)
It was decided, then. I would work with a teacher at home. Fine by me, considering the teacher.
But the school wouldn't let go so easily. In fact, thw owner herself called me at home and said that I should at least make sure I would take the preliminary test for Michigan ECPE (I admit, it was so nice of her). She doesn't know, but I had already talked that out with my teacher and I had that settled already. That was some weight off my shoulders.
And just when I thought I had put the whole matter behind me, the branch secretary asked me about an incident.
"... (the central school secretary) told me you spoke to ... (the female teacher I love so dearly) with a certain attitude. Said you told her to change some things in her lesson"
(I wish I had told her that, but I'm too tactful a person to tell that in her face, I thought-I'm kidding of course) "What? What attitide?"
"And I told her I have known you for years and never would you do something like that"
"Who are we talking about right now?"
"..., the secretary at the central"
(*Brenda Strong's voice* And it was at that time when it occurred to me that the one we were talking about was the older secretary-there are two secretaries, so I was kinda confused)
"Oh, yes. What I said to miss ... was that we wouldn't cope with the homework she was giving us if we had two lessons per week with her"
To make a long story short, I explained to her. She seemed to be on my side. Not that I care. All this gossip makes me sick.
I knew me and the central staff wouldn't hit it off... Now I'll be damned if I ever step foot on it again.
Oh well, so much for a stupid piece of paper.
Gotta go to sleep now. School tomorrow. Later!
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