Interview with a teacher: Alice Chinn

Our energetic Scottish teacher Alice left us last week to take on new challenges but, before leaving, she has answered a few questions about her teaching experience.

Hi Alice how’s everything? How are you feeling now that you are leaving the academy?

AC: Well, I feel excited and sad at the same time. It’s been especially hard telling students I’m leaving and seeing their reaction – that was totally heartbreaking! I’m really happy I’ve met these people and about the whole experience of working at What’s Up! I’ll miss you guys!

Oooh, we’ll miss you too, Alice! Can you describe a typical day at What’s Up! for you?

AC: A typical day for me would be coming in the morning and teaching classes like ‘Living in English’ and ‘Have Fun’ and doing a bit of planning for the ‘Living in English’ class. I teach a lot of levels from 3 to 12 and I also do a ‘Chat with a teacher’ in the Social Club. I used to work Monday to Friday and the 3rd Saturday of the month.

What are the most common errors Spanish speakers make?

AC: Errors with MAKE and DO, like ‘make your homework’, problems with irregular plurals like childrens, persons, womans, mans, it’s very common to hear mistakes with articles or prepositions as well, and ‘angry’ and ‘hungry’.

What are the highlights of teaching for you?

AC: The highlights of teaching for me are learning from my students. I’m in Spain, this is not my country, so I am learning a lot of things about the culture and the people, I’m very inspired by them in general and I’m humbled by how hard people try. I’m learning Spanish right now and it makes me appreciate how difficult learning a language is and it makes me really happy when I see people trying in class and then getting more confidence, it’s a really satisfying job. Before I used to work mostly behind a computer but I prefer interacting with people, helping them and hopefully making a little difference and inspiring them.

What’s the funniest thing a student said to you ever?

AC: Haha! Well…there are a few, but the funniest of all always involve something related with sex, a wrong pronunciation or misspelling that creates a funny situation like that time when somebody said ‘penis’ instead of ‘peanuts’, ‘cock’ for ‘clock’, ‘fanny’ for ‘funny’, ‘bitch’ for ‘beach’ or when a student asked me “Can I come (-pause-) in the class?” … so ARE YOU ASKING ME IF YOU CAN HAVE AN ORGASM RIGHT HERE?!!!! LOL

That’s pretty funny! Thank you Miss Chinn, and the best of luck to you!