Although the summer vacation started in late June officially, I couldn't feel its vibe and relaxation until this week after I finished my enterprise English class last Wednesday and journal translation this Monday. What a relief! I am off the hook. Finally, I can kick back for a while and get ready for the group tour to Boracay in the Philippines in late August.
On the last day of the enterprise English class in a famous hotel in Taichung, the students spent their quality time with me and invited me to dinner together in the hotel they work for. As always, I had a great time hanging out with them. Some of them are chefs and servers, and others are in manegerial positions. Regardless of their positions, they all showed their interest and determination in English and studied hard over the past 18 weeks. They have been always highly-motivated. They never hesitated to contribute their expertise, and pragmatic experience to the class dicussions. As a teacher, what more can I ask for?
In class, they are eager to learn and generous to share. It's more like brainstorming and life experience exchanges at a workshop. I really enjoy teaching a class like that. As a teacher, I could teach them something and guide them in the right direction. And as students, they asked questions and integrated what they learned at work. To be honest, I also learned a lot from them on the following themes covered in class.
1. Greeting guests
2. Taking orders & Explaining menus
3. Dealing with coustomer complaints about food
3. Serving meals & billing
4. Dealing with reservations on the phone
5. Room Service
6. Customer Complaints by staying guests
Besides the themes related to their profession, we also watched a movie called "Outsourced" in class to broaden our vision and expand our horizons on cultural differences. To my surprise, this movie elicited a lot of discussions from them. They even asked me to explain the whole English synopsis in the handout in more detail for them. After all, for the hospitality industry, their guests are from all over the world. Understanding cultural differences can be a key to professional services and success. To conclude this course, I shared what I knew about the rules of English puns and jokes with them (See 英文雙關語#1 and 英文雙關語#2). Some of the hardworking students also shared the jokes or puns they hunted from the Internet with the entire class. This brought the class a happy ending.
In class, they are focused and energetic. At work they are professional and passionate. Once two good friends of mine, Rita and Emily, and I had dinner in the buffet of the hotel in celebration of Rita's birthday. Right after we sat down and got ready to stuff our faces, I was taken by surprise by Jimmy, the chef, when he saw me and came to greet us. At that time, I didn't know some students in my class worked at the restaurant and I didn't expect to see any one of them there, either. However, he was kind and professional and asked me "what's the occasion?" I told him this little get-together was for my friend's birthday. He nodded and smiled. That's also the time when I recognized some of the servers on duty there were also my students. After a few minutes, almost all the servers gathered around we three with a cake and serenaded "Happy Birthday" to Rita. That totally blew Rita away and I believe that would be one of her unforgettable birthday because we didn't see it coming. Ever since then, Rita still talked about this from time to time. Can you imagine a small cake could bring the birthday girl so much joy and happiness? Jimmy and his coworkers made this happen with their profession and consideration.
This class is expected to be held in mid-September. I believe there will be more chemistry going on in class this time. I really look forward to it. Until then, I think I have to put my feet up for a while and enjoy the remaining moments of the summer vacation.
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