This week the topic in my conversation groups was tv. I thought it would be a straightforward topic; something that everyone knows and has opinions about.
I was right. It was exciting to hear how people use tv, and what kind of programmes they usually like to watch on tv. Some people watch tv only a little (just certain programmes and not much else), whereas others have loads of different programmes they are more or less addicted to.
People in my starter courses are also starting to have grammar in their lessons, and during these past few weeks we have been practicing questions like 'where is'.. and 'what is'.. It seems to me that people in these groups are enjoying themselves and are not afraid to try. I think it's great! They bravely use new grammatical features I try to teach them, and also good pronunciation appears to be important for them. It is true that the English pronunciation is a tricky thing for a Finn because of the differences in the sound systems in these two languages. But quite honestly, pronunciation is not always easy for a native speaker either; just thing of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady when she tries to say the sentences like "In Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever happen" or "the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain"...
Next week we will be continuing with the same topic (tv) in the discussion groups, but the exercises will be quite different from those we did this week...
