Translating Dad's Books

I've been working on another of my Dad's books.

In case you don't know, my dad is a struggling author. He works as a truck-driver to pay the bills, but his dream is to be a full-time author. In faith, he has already written over 40 books; he just needs to get them presentable for the readers.

He writes in Spanish, so by default, I'm the one who translates them to English. I've translated about 5 of his books so far (yeap, I have a LONG way to go), but only 1 is really up for sale in English. There is the original Spanish version of said book (images below) and another book that's only in Spanish--for now. There are 2 other books in English, but the publishing companies that printed them turned out to be scams, so those books don't really count, sales-wise).

The one we've got up so far is called "Achor" in English and "Acor" in Spanish. We published them ourselves and you can find them on all the Amazons (Australia, France, UK, Mexico, India, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan, Brazil, China, and the US).

Feel free to take a look at this book. You will get a closer glimpse into my family (yes, blackmail on my family and I are made public and open for the world to read!).

It's about one man's journey and discovery through an archaeological dig site, but it was so unusual--yet very real.

For more info about the books, click on your country of choice. The link will lead you straight to these books (and others, which you should ignore please) in the country's respective Amazon page.

I'm currently working on another--actually, updating one I translated before. It's part of a series (I think dad changed the number of books in said series) all about one boy with supernatural abilities and how he becomes the most important, powerful ruler in the world. To some, he is like a savior, messiah, what have you; but to others . . . well, if you said "the Son of the Devil", you're actually right. What's scarier, you haven't exaggerated at all . . .

Seriously, there are parts in that book that scare me--and this is the first book, that is; the nice, tame, "not scary" one!

So here it is; my first self-published book as a translator--and for my father. What a father-daughter moment, right?

For those of you who know me, I want to go overseas again. I have no idea when or where I could go. Who knows? Maybe I won't go as an English teacher, but as my dad's assistant on his international book tours . . .

Teaching English on SkimaTalk

After returning to the States, I looked for teaching positions abroad. Either there wasn't any that I wanted, or there was one that I wanted but it was either too late to go (think visa requirements) or I didn't have an EU passport. I still hope to teach abroad again, but for now, it's ok. I already have an English-teaching job where I choose exactly how much/little I want to teach and I never leave my home--possibly my room, but not my home!

I started teaching English online through SkimaTalk. It's a platform / "marketplace" where English teachers and students of English can meet and arrange to take classes via Skype. Here are a few things about SkimaTalk:

1. All English teachers are native speakers and citizens from one of there 7 countries: South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, UK, Australia, & USA.

2. The students are generally from Japan, Korea, and China. So far, all the students I've taught were Japanese--and they are all adults. I think you can offer to teach children if you want, but that's completely up to you. I prefer adults over children any day, personally.

3. Native English speakers DO NOT have to have teaching experience to sign up--but of course, it helps.

4. YOU pick as many/few sessions as you want to teach (1 session = 25 min). This is the most flexible scheduling I have ever seen--and yes, it's by half-hour.

You set your time zone when you make your profile, and no worries: the system does the conversion for you and your booked sessions are shown according to the time zone you chose, on your profile.

5. To be accepted, you have to set up your profile--include a professional-ish looking picture of you (must see your entire face and you must be alone in the picture--think passport picture or professional portrait) AND a short video (30 - 90 sec.) where you introduce yourself to your potential students and the SkimaTalk powers-that-be. You also need to take a test which is ridiculously easy. You submit everything to the SkimaTalk team and they will decide if you make the cut or not.

It doesn't say on their website, but when you're going through the process, you'll be directed to another site, where it states that they accept about 10% of the applicant requests they receive. Don't let that stop you! Just show them how interesting you are (be enthusiastic, speak Japanese, etc.) in your profile and especially in your video intro. and you'll most likely be accepted.

6. One thing you might not like, is that you will not get paid for your first 3 classes. This is like an orientation to the system by testing the waters with actual students (all students will know whether you're a new teacher in the system or not. Your profile keeps a public record of how many sessions you've taught in the system). But once you've taught your first 3 classes, you'll automatically start getting paid the average $8 USD per session (yeap, session = half hr., so you can potentially make $16 USD /hr!).

7. As far as pay, there are different types of classes and the pay ranges from $8 - $14 USD per session. In order to get paid, you need to set up a PayPal account. Around the 10th of the following month is when they pay you (i.e. I got paid Sept. 9 for the classes I taught in Aug.). SkimaTalk will take a cut (you'll get $6.40 from $8) and PayPal will take another short cut.

For example, I got about $40.80 from SkimaTalk, and by the time it arrived to my PayPal account, it was $39.28 (or something--after SkimaTalk & PayPal deductions). I don't think it's that bad, but of course, that's just me.

8. Don't get into it thinking you can work there full-time and earn full-time-worth money (unless you have some magical secret weapon up your sleeve) because I'm basically free all day, and I had 9 (3 were unpaid, because they were my very first 3) sessions in 1 month. Hey, I'm not complaining (better than nothing), just keep in mind that this is better as an "on-the-side" kind of gig to get some pocket money.

9. Now the schedule is an interesting element. SkimaTalk has a feature in which the sessions you schedule will disappear after a certain amount of time, if students haven't booked any of said sessions.

I'll try to explain it and provide examples. Bear with me. Here we go. . .

* If you open your teaching session between 30 min. -3 hours before your first planned session, they will disappear 30 min. before the schedule start time IF no one books it. You will need to be by your computer at this time, since you never know when someone might book a session.

Example: It's noon. I opened a session from 14:00 - 15:00 (1 hour = 2 sessions).

No one signs up for my 14:00 class by 13:30, so the 14:00 slot disappears, but the 14:30 is still open.

14:00 comes, no one signed up, the 14:30 slot disappears, my schedule is free.

** If you open your session between 3 - 12 hours before, your sessions will disappear 3 hours before they are scheduled to begin. Again, this is only if no one signs up for a class with you during your open sessions.

Example: It's 9:00. I opened my sessions from 15:00 - 17:00 (2 hrs, 4 sessions), and 19:00 - 20:00 (1 hr, 2 sessions).

It's noon. No one signed up for 15:00, but someone has booked the 15:30 & 16:30 sessions. The 15:00 slot disappears, but the booked sessions stay there until after you teach and submit your evaluation (a MUST; Skip the evaluation, skip the pay. It's that simple.). 16:00 slot remains open (it's noon, 4 hours before, not 3. It'll disappear if no one books by 13:00).

*** If you open your sessions at least 12 hours before, but less than 8 days before, they will disappear if no on signs up by 12 hours before your class begins.

Example: It's 20:00 on Sunday. I booked 3 sessions starting at 20:00 on Monday (24 hours before class starts). If no one books your slot for 20:00 on Monday by noon of the same day, the 20:00 slot will disappear.

Did that make sense?

10. There is a wide variety of classes you can teach. Best part? They are all set up and prepared for you! All you have to do is look at the material to familiarize yourself for a few minutes. Only in "Free Conversation" lessons, are you free to do whatever you want. You can experiment and try something new with the student (oh yeah, all these classes are 1-on-1). You can just have a conversation, but make sure that the student is doing most of the talking and that you are correcting them as much (and as gentle) as possible.

SkimaTalk is perfect for me right now. It gives one of the most flexible scheduling options (you can teach all-day everyday, or 1 session once a week. Completely up to you) I've ever seen. So far, all of my students have been Japanese (I believe it's an American company with 80%+ Japanese clientele--but don't quote me on that, 'cause I honestly don't know).

Of course, there is so much more, but it's best if you check it out for yourself by clicking: SkimaTalk.
I hope this has been helpful to anyone interested. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to comment! If you have a question, chances are that a hundred others have the same question: let's save & help each other, ok? That sounds fair?

Death of an Acer, beginning of a Dell

Shew, after changing internet providers--twice (long story) and being internet-less for several days in between each change, then add my computer refusing to transfer pictures and being unable to edit or do anything with my pictures, and you've got what I had to deal with for about 3 weeks. Then my laptop died--as in, died for good. Considering it was a 6+ year old Acer, it was bound to happen at any moment. All things considered, it served me well. 

So my laptop died last week. I contacted a very good friend of mine who's quite computer-savvy for suggestions. Narrowing down to 6, I chose the one I'm using right now: a Dell Latitude. I won't go into the details (if you want to know, leave a comment), but I will say this: newegg.com is awesome! Whatever you need, you can/will find it there. Not to mention I ordered my computer on Tues. night and got it Thurs. afternoon. They said 5-7 business days. I was very impressed!

CELTA Course, Day 20 (16. June) The Final Day

After 4 weeks, the day has finally arrived: the final day.

Last night, I slept the least amount I had ever slept during this course (4.5 hours). It took me so long to prepare for this lesson.

Then, it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped:

I had to skip a kinesthetic activity I spent a lot of time preparing.

I got lost part-way through the lesson (i.e., Where am I? What's next?).

I made-up one stage of the lesson. I thought I had prepared something for it, but I didn't. So I just winged-it.

At least I was able to get through the lesson. The students got the target language (words to express comparisons and contrasts) and were able to use it well--even correcting each other.

That was my final observed teaching practice lesson. Whoa.

After 4 weeks, the day had finally arrived.

One of the teachers who works at the British Council told us that the time would go by quickly. Before we knew it, the course would be over. We laughed at him. He was right. It feels as though we were here for years, but we had learned so much in 4 weeks, that it does feel like 4 years...

...and it is over.

I'm going to miss my CELTA course-mates. We have made lots of fun memories and friendships I hope to maintain and continue.

Good luck and GOD's blessings on your future English-teaching careers!

Kraków May-June 2016 CELTA at British Council

Trainees in the back, Tutors in the front.

CELTA Course, Day 18 & 19 (14-15. June)

Ugh, I actually couldn't post anything Monday night because I lost internet connection from about 21:30 and didn't get it back til 7:45 the following morning.


Anyway, 14. June

I taught my 2nd-to-last lesson on Tuesday. It was ok--it came out better than it could have, but I saw from the students' questions that there were lots of holes I hadn't sealed in my lesson. At least I got immediate feedback.

For the input sessions, we were told about further training and things to keep in mind when looking for a job. Sure, I've already had a couple of jobs, but it was good to be reminded of a few pointers and learn about a couple other things I didn't know.


15. June

Two guys who started their teaching practice 1st, had their last classes today. I watched the one guy's lesson ('cause he was in my group, the other wasn't). I'd say he finished off on a high note: it was his best class. If only I could do the same . . .

The other girl and I in my group were going to teach the following day. We had questions about our lessons. This was our last tutor help.

For our final input sessions, we had a review of everything we were taught, as well as students' questions on grammar. Both showed us that we still have a lot to learn and review.

Now, to prepare for my final lesson . . .

CELTA Course, Day 17 (13. June)

It's the final week.

We're still busy, but things are winding down.

We turned in our final assignments (Lessons from the Classroom). I can say this was our easiest task--it was basically a self-reflection. We had to point out 3 strengths, 3 "areas of development" and 3 ways to improve each of the said "areas of development." We also had to reference what we've seen in our peers' teaching practices, DVDs of experienced teachers, experienced teachers live, feedback from our tutors, and our students' reactions.

Not bad at all.

To think, we've all done, turned in, and got our assignments back. All 4. I have 2 more teaching practice classes to teach--and that's it!

I've got my lesson prepared for tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

CELTA Course, Day 14 - 16 (8-10. June)

Yeap, this is how you know you're busy: you were going to keep a daily diary of what's going on in the CELTA course, only to find out that you haven't posted anything in 3 (now 4) days.

Really sorry, everyone. Let me try to remember what I did . . .

8. June (Wednesday)

This was the day we had our private 1-to-1 in-depth feedback from our tutors. This was when our tutor would tell us how we were doing, what we needed to do to improve, point out anything we needed to have pointed out to us, the works.

Basically, I'm going to pass; the question is which "pass" will I get? 

Job-wise, it doesn't matter which pass you get, as long as you pass--and it's backed by Cambridge University. But one finds it difficult to subdue the privilege of having bragging rights.

If I can improve my set-ups, monitoring, and the like, then I can get a Pass B (just below Pass A--reserved for the elite. Most trainees get a Pass). I have 1 more week--2 more lessons--to rise to the occasion and prove myself.

That was it! The rest of the day was free to work on/plan our next lessons or whatever.

9. June (Thursday)

The 1st class I monitored (as usual). The 2nd class I taught unobserved. Since we just had an input session on how to teach writing--and I don't have any writing classes--I decided to plan my unobserved as a simple writing class. It worked, but there were definitely areas for improvement. Since this was my 1st time teaching writing through the CELTA method, I think it went well.

Thanks to the extra time on Wednesday, I had a nice head-start on planning my lesson for Friday. I had to tweak quite a few things, but I was able to finish preparing everything. Only 1 minor setback. I finished typing out my procedure, and I was going to save it on top of my older file of the same document (which I've done all the other times before). What happened? I saved the older version on top of the newer. 

Oh man, . . . So I had to do most of it all over again. At least I knew what I was going to do.

10. June (Friday)

We taught our lessons (and they went pretty well). The only difference was that we had an assessor coming from International House Prague to assess how the course is going (if it's upholding the Cambridge CELTA standards or not and such). Basically, the assessor was there to assess our tutors. It was a little unusual having the assessor observe my class and another fellow trainee's class. I kinda knew my class was going to have this guest, but that was by some kind of intuition.

After lunch, we had a private meeting with the assessor, where she asked us what we thought of the course; if there was anything that was going well, anything that could be changed, if we had any other questions, etc. It was short and painless.

After the last input session, we 5 went out to celebrate a fellow trainee's birthday: dinner at a Mexican restaurant (I wouldn't really recommend it unless you were desperate for a Mexican food fix), and another escape room. This time, we were not in a freak-show, but in a murder scene. We actually managed to escape in 45 minutes (we had 60 min.)! Go, team! To celebrate, they had ice cream, and I just had tea (wasn't personally in the mood for ice cream).

Yay! All caught up! Just need to work on the final assignment, due Monday morning. It would be wise if I could get a good head-start with Tuesday's lesson. If I get that far, maybe take a look at my final lesson on Thursday.

Just 1 more week to go! Monday - Thursday, Thursday being the last day of the course.

Shew, the last day of the course already?!