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Friendliness

Friendliness

I have been blown away from the friendliness I have received here in Mexico. From being invited to a local wedding to sharing a meal with a complete stranger, hospitality and friendliness is a gift that is so precious, and something that usually can only be paid forward. Friendliness no matter how small can turn a bad day into a good day, and a good day into a great day. Some of the friendliness I have received here have been.

1. Numerous shared meals with others with some of the most delicious food you can imagine
2. Plenty of shared beers and the great times that accompany them
3. Gifts of candy and honey(The yucatan produces the world's best honey)
4. A free zipline experience
5. So much more

With all this friendliness I have so much to pay forward. I will have to keep my eyes open for those times when I can make someone else's life a little bit better.  

What I have learned from teaching English

1. If you are bored or overwhelmed you won't learn a language
   1. Learning conjugation tables or getting grammatical concepts crammed into your head is a sure fire way to lose interest in learning a new language, and once that interest is lost you can't learn a new language.
   2. When you give students too much information at once, they will feel overwhelmed and won't know where to start with the language, and will become frustrated and possibly give up.
   3. To prevent boredom, I have my students play a lot of games, and never lecture for a very long time without going onto an activity. To prevent overwhelming the students, my lessons are short and cover at most 3 different but related topics.
2. Most students will rise to your expectations
   1. In my class I have all different levels of English, from very beginner to intermediate.
   2. I teach to the intermediate students, and have high expectations for everyone.
   3. When teaching to the intermediate students to prevent losing the students at lower levels, offer plenty of group exercises where the intermediate students can help the students with a more basic level of English.
3. Use anything other than Spanish to communicate your idea.
   1. I truly believe the reason I didn't learn anything from my 4 years of Spanish in School was because the teacher spoke English during the majority of the class.
   2. It can be hard to communicate ideas, grammar, directions, vocab, etc. Without Spanish, especially to beginning students, this is where you use body language, examples, and anything at your disposal to convey the idea.

Hello Everybody I am Mark Asmussen and am from Omaha, Nebraska in the  USA. I recently finished a 6 month trip through Colombia, Ecuador, and Perú; where I fell in love the local culture, the local people, the wonders of being in a new land, and also the Spanish Language. Before my trip to South America, I worked for Union Pacific Railroad as a Buyer and went to school for a finance degree at Loyola University New Orleans. I am looking forward to teaching English in Calakmul for 2 months, and can't wait to learn from everyone I meet, and get to share the love of learning another language with others. Looking forward to keeping everyone posted on this journey.