Happy 50th Birthday to Peace Corps!

I don't think that word means what you think it means

Because both English and Romanian are Latin based languages, they have some words in common. For instance "responsabilitate" is Romanian for "responsibility," "creativitate" is "creativity". There are also words that are similar, but a little different. The word "loc" in Romanian means seat or place rather than location and a library is actually what we would call a bookstore.
Then there are some words in Romanian that are obviously taken from English because they are modern and there was no term for them in Romanian. For example: seminar, laptop, and weekend. So when I find myself stuck not knowing a word, I use a trick that was taught to me by my mentor. Say the English word with a Romanian accent and ending, and it just might work. So that's what I've been doing for the last few months when I come up not knowing a word in class. And it was only a matter of time before this strategy came back to bite me on the ass.


Yesterday in class we were discussing cancer and its various causes. I was trying to explain how chemical pollution, like mercury in the water or an incident like Chernobyl, can cause some forms of cancer. I described this as "polutia chemice." Unfortunately for me the correct term was "polluare chemice." Today, while we were writing lesson plans, my partner explained to me that "polutia" is actually the Romanian term for ejaculation.



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Damnit.

English Club

Three weeks ago I started teaching English Club one a week for an hour. I only have eight students, which is great because things stay under control and we can get a lot done. I have two students in attendance who already stood out to me in other classes as very dedicated to their studies and who want to learn English for advancement in life (Verionica told me she wants to be a lawyer), some who are normal students who just want to learn English because they feel like it, and one kid who is a bit of a pain in other classes who showed up for the first time this week. Actually, he really isn't that bad. I have the feeling that he acts out to get attention and if he were a student in the States he would have been placed on a school sports team by now to give him some direction.


Today we were finishing up and I gave homework since I have a training next week and there won't be club. The assignment is to write a short introduction about yourself. What's your name, where are you from, how old are you, and what you like. As soon as I wrote "I like" on the board the one boy who can be a pain starts singing "I like to move it, move it". It made my day. Best lesson ever in the past six months. I laughed so hard I started snorting. So in honor of that student, I am posting this video.

Children in Moldova

Some days here are really difficult. Especially when the kids are acting up. I have to remind myself that some of these kids are acting up because they have no parental supervision and no one at home to teach them better. I've posted a news article before about the "lost generation" in Moldova; here's a video about the situation.