It is cold and-and overcast and still somewhat dark outside as I look out over the streets and square below my balcony. As it is still early in the morning, only a few cars go by on the streets which will be so busy later this morning as to make it prudent to cross only by using the pedestrian underpass.
Very little of the time I've been in Lviv has the sun shown its face. And yet the city does not lose its charm, in fact, the charm is enhanced as it shows another dimension described perfectly by the hotel manager yesterday as being like London.
Then she adds it turned into Venice as indeed it did as a torrential downpour brought people off the street to huddle in the coffee house where I was writing and the pedestrian underpass was a bit flooded causing the young people to leap the puddles through which the elderly decided it was more prudent to wade.
I still have not heard from the university where I am to teach English this fall, if I still am, and as I find I increasingly hope I will, as it will give me a serious "excuse" to return for an extended period.
Once again, climbing the stairs I take note, of how the stone steps have been worn down by students who've preceded me over the centuries in this ancient institution.
On the fourth floor of the University, I open a couple of doors and they are classrooms in session and then I open one which opens into an administration office.
There a nice lady, who turns out to be the vice dean of the foreign studies department hears the purpose of my visit and then calls the English department chairman's office, his cell and home numbers and finally talks to his wife who says he's in his car on the way to the university. Getting the message he finally calls in, he will be here in 20 minutes and I am to wait in the very nice faculty conference room with a great view where I meet a very nice lady who turns out to be a professor of English studies and with whom I have a great conversation in which we begin to work out how and what I will teach.
Telling her my latest thinking on learning a language based on a Ted talk where the speaker who now speaks 5 languages. or so, told of his frustration to get anywhere with all the programs and courses he took and the only way to do it is to wade in and start talking to people which is essentially what I have been doing here.The professor seizes on the Ted talk aspect suggesting that introducing a Ted talk to each class and then having a discussion with the students about it. is a great way to go. That's not what I had in mind but her enthusiasm for this approach, my lack of expertise (to say the least) in what I was undertaking, and my desire to have some more definite plan to pursue than existed to date (really none) leads me to accede to her far greater knowledge of what might work. We had plenty of time for this discussion as the chairman's 20 minutes-to-arrive turned into 40 minutes the type of thing I was to learn was not unusual.
When the chairman finally arrived the professor and I learned he had indeed called me but I had missed the call and that I was to be working with 5th year students, the ones for which she is responsible. I am glad to hear this as I believe with her I can come up with a solid plan on how and what to teach.
Later I was to meet a very nice teacher and I got the chance to see further how those whom I met interacted with each other as well as with me.
As I reflect back on my interactions with these academics the dean appeared to be an exception to the Mukachevo sport coach's comments that Ukrainians are not political, no surprise here but in the chairman-translated conversation I had with him he spent more time on the political situation than I would have expected and of course I was glad to listen. The dean's focus and challenge is on having his area function with far less funding than it needs thanks to the financial crisis due to the political situation with Russia.
The vice dean went out of her way to track down the chairman and was most gracious in her dealing and interest in me.
The professor was most encouraging and supportive. In our meeting with the chairman, I see they like each other and yet are quite determined and strong willed individuals discussing (in Ukrainian) what appeared to me to be some difference of opinion.
The chairman who I am told is a great teacher has great energy. Perhaps not the world's greatest administrator, he is a force of nature. Impatient with bureaucracy. He appears liked by all and, as I was told, is a "very nice guy".
Upon reflection, I am impressed how he read me so well and so quickly. Yesterday after meeting with them as I was having dinner I began to question my loss of freedom in taking on this task of teaching. I would be accountable to others. I would have to "fit in". A schedule of classes would interrupt my freedom to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
But then I thought how he made very clear I could do whatever I wanted to do. Like I could take time off to travel and they would substitute for me. And what I taught and my methods are pretty much up to me.
Unlike how others may view him, as not demanding enough, is he, in fact, a tough and wily negotiator? Indeed, he gave me no wiggle room to justify backing out of this ever-growing commitment.
No comments:
Post a Comment