CELTA in New York - a trainer’s account
Thursday, 23rd April 2009
CELTA trainer Bill Harris gives us the second report on his experiences training around the world.
So here I am in the Big Apple, just about winding up my last week working another CELTA for Teaching House. It’s been the usual mix of hard graft and lots of laughs – one of the reasons why the CELTA is such a great course to work on.
My last stint here was in August 2007 when I was housed in a sticky apartment mid town and I spent a lot of time dripping sweat in Central Park or hanging out in the bars of Greenwich Village. This time it was cold but not so cold you couldn’t wander round the park and we even had a nice snowstorm last week when the university was closed for the day. I’m staying in a beautiful apartment in the northern tip of Manhattan which is just under an hour’s commute to where Teaching House is based in the financial district. St John’s University, which leases rooms to the school, is a block away from the World Trade centre site and apparently served as a rest and recovery area for exhausted 9 / 11 rescue workers back in those dark months. Great place to study though, with its light, airy rooms and comfy chill out zones.
One of the joys of being a freelance CELTA tutor is the variety of living and commuting arrangements. These days I take the A train downtown, cocooned in my headphones along with the rest of the half-awake commuters but my last overseas CELTA involved staying in a four star hotel and walking to the British Council along the banks of the Nile … albeit fighting totally chaotic traffic and pretty dreadful air pollution.
The school here is growing fast and there are two parallel full time CELTAs as well as a semi-intensive part time one. The seventeen participants on my course are all US native speakers with plans to work in New York or elsewhere in the US as well as the usual destinations of Asia and South America. Some came with a teaching background and even other TEFL experience but it’s been great to see them all bond together and make so much progress in four short weeks. It’s been ‘ fun’ to tease them about our cultural and linguistic differences but I do affirm that I love their new president. The sights, sounds and smells of the big city are always a buzz but it was lovely the other weekend to walk along 125th street in Harlem and catch the street vendors selling their Obama memorabilia and sharing their sense of pride in electing the first black president.
Everybody knows New York from a thousand TV and movie images but aside from this weird familiarity, there is something about the place which creates a special bond between city and visitors – and it’s not just down to the message in the ubiquitous T shirts proclaiming I NY. It’s certainly not the rather undersized representatives of the NYPD nonchalantly ignoring everybody on the street corner or stressed out Manhattanites bustling down the street. For me it’s many faceted: the mix of people in what is the city of immigrants; the great range of food and bars from Mexican street food to the high class sushi I enjoyed tonight; the still, jaw dropping vistas of gleaming skyscrapers against clear blue skies; and music - whether it’s the percussion driven latino beats in my barrio, the funky folk picker in the West Village bar, the classical piano player making his late night living busking on the subway platform on 4th street or the cool jazz guys playing tunes for fun and a few tourist dollars in Central Park. And of course Central Park is the best free entertainment in town where you can watch a pick up soccer game, groove along with the roller skating dance queens, marvel at the middle-aged Frisbee stars or just space out and people watch.
One of my ipod favourites this month is Washington Square Serenade by Steve Earle who recently relocated to and fell in love with New York City. I was enjoying the sunshine in the park on my first day when I saw the red tailed hawks he sings about on the album soaring above the trees. Makes you feel part of a great but unpretentious metropolis which, unlike other cities, seems to reach out and embrace the visitor rather than reduce them to a gawking tourist.
So … my next CELTA gig is Riga in Latvia in June which should make for a nice contrast, mid-summer festival and all. See you then!
Click here to read about Bill’s training experience in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Tags: america, celta, efl, new york, course, tefl, english
Posted by Laura Harrison 2009-04 under Experience Cultures, Teaching Languages,
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Posted by Muhammad Abdul-Saboor on 08/08 at 09:24 AM
Thanks for sharing Bill. I am strongly considering taking the CELTA at St. John's. I found your perspective somewhat consoling. Although my mom relocated to New York 15 years ago, I still have the typical big city fears of a small town boy that prevent me from getting over there as often as I should. Perhaps I will meet you there as my trainer in 2010!
M