I have been asked many a time,
“So…where are you, what do you do, do you like it? Do you STILL like it?” And I
have only three answers, “Anadolu University, I teach English, and Yes I do.”
Now, if
you have done your homework and googled Anadolu University, you will have
discovered that it is the largest university in Turkey and the fourth largest
in the world, or so Wikipedia says. As you can assume, the English language
department is similar. It’s HUGE! Most Fulbrighters are in the midst of 7-10
other English teachers, well hold on to your socks, because I am one of about
200! We have over 3,000 students in our hazırlık (prep) school alone! That’s
twice the size of Simpson College!! Wowza!
The department is so large, they
have their own gigantic building. (I am standing in the foyer below.
Now, I live on the main campus, which holds all of the
student-y things: dorm, cafeteria, library, regular Turkish departments,
student center, cinema, coffee shops, etc. The hazırlık “department,” English only
speaking departments (aviation, engineering, etc.) plus the other foreign
languages are on this other campus. (about 15 minutes away).
While
the teaching load varies from Fulbrighter to Fulbrighter, with 21 being our
max, I am hovering somewhere around the edge of 21. Here every weekday, I work
about 4-5 hours Monday, Wed, and Friday, with a side dish of 8 hour tutorials.
I work with one wonderful pre-intermediate class for the bulk of my load out of
this horrendous book called Speak Out. (good for speaking, as the name implies,
yet extremely bad for writing. The numerous grammar mistakes in reading
passages serve as evidence. The students
seem to like it, though, I think…
The
tutorials are on me! And oh the fun we have J.
We learned about the farms in Iowa, they made up stories about some of my
friends from home, and now we’ll learn about Halloween! Bring on the pumpkins
and nightmares!
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