Gothenburg, Sweden, 2021
Lessons from Laryngitis By Martin Richards Teacher, Coach, Author 2
The Author Martin Richards has taught Mathematics to teenagers and English to adults for thirty years. He is now a Certified Life Coach and has recently completed an assignment from the Swedish Education Authority where he coached Primary and Secondary teachers and headteachers. Martin’s Life Mission is to develop the potential of the Education System to its fullest. Martin Richards short works, written in Malmö, in 2020, include: ● ● ● ● ● Listening from the Heart in Education Five Ways to Kill a Teacher Ten Tips from the Retired Entrepreneur Five Tips from a Retired Educator Short Stories (illustrating coaching in education) A full list of the author’s work is available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/author/coach-martin-richards 3
Welcome to Sweden I moved to Sweden in 1987. I didn’t have a job, and I was living with my girlfriend. Since I was unemployed and generally left to myself all day, I made the most of the time and studied the Swedish language, at an Adult Education Centre. I also looked for work and was offered the chance to teach English to adults in what was called a Study Circle. Although I had no idea what a Study Circle was, I imagined that as a Native Speaker of English, I would be able to handle it. After all, I was a qualified Teacher of Mathematics and knew how to handle a class of students. I reasoned that Maths and English were both languages, so I anticipated no problems that I could not overcome. Most importantly, I was deeply grateful for the chance to earn some money, stay in Sweden and live with my girlfriend. I mean, it was a win-win situation. Wasn’t it? 4
Course One, Week One, Day One It’s September. Time for the Study Circles to start spinning. On the first day of the first week of the course, I arrive at the classroom with a textbook under my arm. I have been reading up on English grammar all weekend and am ready to give a lesson on the Present Tenses. There are two. Who knew? I had been using English all my life and had never needed to explain the difference between “I write” and “I am writing”. This evening, I will share my newfound wisdom with the adult students. They will surely be as impressed as I was. The classroom is laid out as a rectangle of tables and chairs. Not a circle, but as circular as the walls of the room can allow. There is a whiteboard at one end of the room, so I make my way there, dump my grammar book on the desk and address the audience. That’s how I saw the adults in the room, an audience for my upcoming performance. I tell them my name and turn to write it on the whiteboard. Behind me, two ladies confer, “Snygg häck” they agree. Blushing slightly, I face the room again and say, “Jag kan 5
faktiskt svenska, ifall ni behöver veta det.” For readers who happen to not speak Swedish, I must explain (oh how I love doing that). The ladies had cheekily commented on my backside as it was turned in their direction. In Swedish they had said, “Nice bum.” And my reply, in case you haven't guessed it, was “Actually, I can speak Swedish, in case you need to know that.” It was thus that my role as class leader and comedian was formed. And I loved the laughter. It made me feel important. 6
The Benevolent Dictator Since I was a stay-at-home dad with our first child, it worked out perfectly to get courses at the Adult Education Center for three or four evenings a week at least during September to May (excluding December). English lessons were popular. I was not earning enough money to make a living, but this work was keeping me alive, so I continued. I was a budding English Teacher and I was learning to be a Study Circle Leader; and a Dad. During the early part of the term, I spent the night before each lesson reading the teacher’s grammar reference so I could give the lesson. I chose the exercises from the students’ grammar practice book. I take up my position at the front of the room, by the whiteboard, and hem-hem loudly to make sure that most of the audience is paying attention, I carefully explain the grammar point that I had memorised. It’s not hard to explain Prepositions, Gerunds or Past Participles when you have the grammar book to hand. At the end of the explanation, I tell them to have a go at the exercise I have chosen from the book. It’s a gap fill exercise like: 7
Present Tenses (rain) Today _________ a lot. (walk) John ________ down the street in a hurry. I give them a certain amount of time to work through it on their own. I am beginning to notice that some people are quick to get through the exercises and I don’t want to leave them with nothing to do, so I make sure there are more questions than most people will have time to answer. I keep myself busy too. I want to be useful and helpful so whilst they are answering the questions, I walk around the room. As best I can. The chairs are pressed against the walls and I have to squeeze past people to get to the other end of the room. There is a clue here, but I don’t take note at this time. And then it’s time to check their answers (which I can read in the back of the teacher’s book.) In order to be fair, I try to make sure that everyone answers at least one question out loud, but it always works out that only one or two people have answers to the last questions in the exercise. I was getting away with teaching English. In the same way, we worked with vocabulary. Initially, I used a bi-lingual Dictionary so that I could look up the English translation of the Swedish words they were asking for. 8
Later, I added a Thesaurus. It’s a book of words organised by meaning. Each entry has words that mean about the same as the entry word. It’s a dictionary on steroids. Holding the grammar books, dictionary and thesaurus, it feels like I have the keys to the English Kingdom. I feel like I’m the King of English. What about Teacher Talking Time you ask? It is almost 100%. I enjoy telling stories, showing off how good I am at English. Who wouldn’t? And I am getting paid for it and can pay for rent and food. Win-win! And yet, there are fewer and fewer people in my classes, and some classes have to be merged to keep the numbers up. I begin to realise that I need to do some research into modern English teaching methods, and the Swedish concept of Study Circles. 9
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