TEFL

From Tim Parks’ “Europa“:

The context is that a group of English teachers working in Italy are on their way to the European Parliament in Strasbourg to speak in front of the Petitions Committee about how they’re discriminated against by being offered more restrictive contracts than their native Italian colleagues. More info on this real-life case here. One of the teachers in the novel rouses the troops on the trans-Europe bus with a speech outlining their complaints.

“What he does not say is how little work we foreign lectors do for our living, how long and lazy our summer holidays are, how little some of us are qualified, how many of us got our jobs because we just happened to know the professor with the gift in his hand, and one of us is having a lesbian relationship with her professor and another is taking money together with his professor to fix exams on behalf of rich and incompetent students, and many of us worked for our professors privately in language schools and translation agencies before we got our jobs, so that getting them was just an extension of an already established collaborazione, as the Italians like to put it, and he doesn’t say that many of us have been deeply corrupted by receiving an easy and not ungenerous salary for work that nobody checks or even remotely cares about, and that most of us are terrified by the idea of having to go out and find other work and actually make our money in some way that corresponds, however remotely, to the amount of effort we put in.”

This did make me smile because, although there are plenty of experienced, inspiring, hard-working English language teachers abroad, it’ can also be notoriously easy to get this kind of job with little other qualification than being a native speaker (although sometimes this isn’t quite enough. My students were often keen to establish that I was really English and not, say, Irish or Australian).

I worked as a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language for a couple of years in Italy and Belgium. Depending on the students it could be fun and stimulating or a repetitive slog. I taught vocabulary to distracted teenagers, grammar to businessmen and chaired conversation classes for retired ladies. I spent more time than I thought possible trying to clarify the rules of use of the present perfect tense. I even gave a poetry lecture. But I also learnt a lot about my adopted cultures in conversation with my students, and saw my own culture through their eyes, responding to questions like “Is it true that the British eat jam with their meat?” (well, I guess so, if you consider cranberry or apple sauce to be like jam) and “Is it true that you have a party when someone dies?” (ok, if some ham sandwiches and awkward conversation at the bereaved’s house after the funeral can be considered a “party”, yes).

Sometimes I even miss it.

Halfatar

Last night I saw half of Avatar. I don’t mean that I turned up late, or walked out halfway through, I mean that I saw it in 2D. Not that I didn’t try to see it in 3D. I bought a ticket online for a showing before Christmas but snow and ice made it too dangerous to drive to the only cinema showing it in 3D, out on the edge of town. Last night a friend and I arranged to go see it but when we came to book tickets it was sold out. Rather than postpone yet again we said “Sod it, let’s just see it in 2d”.

 

So, impressive? Oh yes. Some of the best CGI ever, amazingly expressive and realistic characters, an involving (if fairly simple) story, and some thrilling action scenes, my favourites being anything involving the banshees. A couple of grumbles:

1) What’s the big deal about Sam Worthington? I mean, he’s perfectly adequate here in a fairly undemanding role, but he’s hardly an exciting actor. He’s being hyped as the next big thing but I really can’t imagine anyone saying “Hey, let’s go see the new Sam Worthington movie!” Zoe Saldana, on the other hand, gives an excellent performance as Neytiri, full of passion, energy and charm.

2) Michelle Rodriguez’s character (such as it is) is very obviously there just to fill a plot hole, and Quaritch is an excessively cartoonish villain.

Did I miss out by not seeing it in 3D? Possibly. I’m not entirely convinced about 3D on the whole, and I certainly don’t buy any of this “One day all movies will be 3D” nonsense. On the other hand I appreciate that, like any technique, it can add to the experience when done well. I haven’t entirely ruled out going back to see Avatar in 3D at some point. Considering that, at the time of writing, it’s the second highest grossing film ever (after less than a month on release!), I’m sure it’ll be in cinemas for a while yet. One thing I’m still not sure about: which half of Avatar did I see? Right eye or left eye? When converting a 3D film to 2D do they just pick one side, or do they go through shot by shot to decide which of the two images is better? I haven’t found the answer by googling, so please tell me if you know.

Eating Turin

We spent Christmas in Italy this year. Needless to say we stuffed our faces, from my mother-in-law’s scrummy fritto misto (fried thin slices of beef, chicken, aubergine, artichoke, mushroom and courgette) on the first day,

to the Christmas day spread including insalata russa, prawns in pastry and stuffed ham rolls,

to vitello tonnato (thin slices of veal in a creamy tuna sauce) on January 1st (sorry, no photo).

But we also drove a couple of hours north to Turin for two days (with baby but without kids, who stayed with their grandparents). I’d heard that Turin was an elegant, pleasant city to walk around, kind of like Vienna with its smart boulevards and wide squares, but I was also attracted by the idea of visiting Eataly. If I was disappointed when I finally got there, it was only because I’d got slightly the wrong idea about what kind of place it was. For some reason I was expecting something more along the lines of a permanent exhibition with stands, demonstrations, tastings and so forth. What it actually is is a large, very classy and well stocked supermarket with the best produce from all over the peninsula, both fresh

and tinned

Each different section (meat, fish, cheese, pasta, fruit and veg) also has a ristorantino where you can order from a small selection of featured products to eat then and there.

I ordered a fiorentina steak which was tender and juicy and enormous.

I also had probably the best hot chocolate of my life. It was dark and thick and velvety and I wanted to marry it.

Eataly is also home to a Michelin-starred restaurant which we were keen to visit. What the website had failed to tell us was that it was closed until mid-January. We bought several books for ourselves, friends and children, plus a handy guide to seasonal eating.

Another of Turin’s claims to gastro-fame is its café culture. Many of the central squares are home to palatial coffee houses serving coffee, hot chocolate and bicerin (a local recipe mixing coffee, cream and chocolate) to the beautiful people (and me).

The place where bicerin was invented, Al Bicerin, was a little hard to get into

so we opted for the larger and more central Baratti e Milano.

I also bought some of their chocolate liqueurs

and we were honoured to sit at a table near famous Italian politician Piero Fassino (at far right).

One final culinary curiosity: Genoa is full of bakeries selling its famous focaccia. So what did we find when we went north to Turin? Almost every street had a bakery selling “Genoese focaccia”, as if it were some exotic foreign delicacy.